Manager, R&D Snacks

About the role

Santan Food Services Sdn. Bhd. is looking for a Manager, R&D Snacks in Kuala Lumpur. The role leads the development of new snack products from concept through formulation, testing, commercialization and post-launch evaluation, working with operations, QA, procurement, supply chain, marketing and commercial teams.

Key responsibilities

• Develop new snack products, including ready-to-eat, packaged, ambient, frozen and local-inspired categories, and run benchmarking, sensory evaluations and reformulation.
• Ensure products are scalable and meet food safety, quality, shelf-life and regulatory standards; write product specifications, SOPs and technical documentation.
• Work with suppliers and manufacturers on ingredients, packaging and production, and support promotional campaigns and seasonal launches.
• Monitor market trends, competitor activity and consumer preferences, using customer feedback and sales data to improve products.
• Manage several product development projects at once, track milestones and support costing and margin optimization.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, Culinary Arts or a related field.
• 5-7 years of experience in food/snack R&D, product development or innovation in FMCG, retail or food manufacturing.
• Proven experience managing end-to-end product development and commercialization.
• Experience with packaged snacks, frozen foods, bakery, convenience foods or local snacks is an added advantage.

Required skills

• Food formulation, ingredients, shelf-life and food safety standards.
• Project management and stakeholder management.
• Commercial awareness, analytical and problem-solving ability.
• Communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.