Director, Product Development - VMS

Job Summary: 

The Director, Product Development - VMS, is responsible for directing product roadmap and strategy in the Nutritional Supplement and Sports vertical.   This individual will be responsible for end to end negotiating within the Product Development life-cycle including but not limited to: manufacturing costs, raw material sourcing, product components and labels.  This position identifies vendors to work with in creating new products, product lines, and brands. Responsible for ensuring product design is consistent with market trends, business objectives, and ensures product quality and efficacy.  This person will also set the net payment terms for all vendors associated with Product Development. This position will manage multiple, complex projects and drive outcomes and optimal results.

Job Expectations:

• Excellent negotiation skills
• Lead all aspects of the technical product formulation and process development from ideation through commercialization.
• Drive product innovation, ensure the development and utilization of best practices in product and process development of new, improved, and cost-optimized formulations. 
• Execute the formulation of efficacious products with strategic vision, including desired benefits, COG targets, formula validation, and sustainable sourcing.
• Manage staff workload, give clear direction, and evaluate and develop performance.
• Foster new and existing relationships with suppliers and contract manufacturers to develop and commercialize products to meet all product critical attributes and timelines.
• Evaluate and negotiate product/ ingredient cost, build awareness, and communicate emerging trends in the global marketplace to manage potential supply issues, and market price fluctuations.
• Collaborate with strategic partners to identify novel ingredients, products, and formats for various categories and propose new ideas for innovation. 
• Evaluate vendor core competencies and competitive positioning to drive strategic sourcing goals.
• Execute initiatives with suppliers and contract manufacturers to ensure product quality and safety.
• Provide technical leadership on the scale-up, technical transfer, process development of new and existing products and oversee the seamless commercialization of new products with our co-manufacturing partners.
• Identify risks and create opportunities for product optimization to improve consumer experience while delivering on cost savings. 
• Establish regular communications stream and follow-up with all team/ project members.
• Effectively troubleshoot and solve complex formulation & technical challenges in collaboration with contract manufacturers with speed and robustness.
• Understanding of industry domestic regulators (FDA 21 CFR, FTC, OTC) and other global regulations that impact iHerb product development. 
• Ensure supply chain continuity by effectively managing raw material substitutions and quality issues and/or product disruptions.
• Partner with Marketing and iHerb (Marketing & Purchasing) to develop new products to evaluate. 
• Prepare product formula documentation to send out for quotation and drive communication with co-manufacturers during the quotation and development process.
• Champion new strategies for the product development team for future platform growth in key consumer need areas. 
• Manage and oversee prototype organoleptic evaluations for new product concepts.
• Manage the approval process (including timelines) for product design/development submissions and ensure vendors, the creative team and management are current on all steps of the process
• Ensure well-organized documentation of all product development related activities.
• Communicate goals and objectives and cascade to others, ensuring the workload is distributed appropriately to achieve goals and objectives
• Cultivate an energizing work environment that supports high-performance while ensuring efficiency.
• Stay current with the dietary supplement category, competition, formulation/processing technologies and nutritional ingredient trends and bring unique and relevant insights into the organization.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Excellent negotiation skills
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Effectively work in cross functional team environment
• Solutions-oriented and is comfortable working with ambiguity
• Ability to work in a constant changing environment
• Strong ability to think critically to overcome potential business hurdles to complete tasks
• Coach and develop direct reports

Equipment Knowledge: 

• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Experience with Google Business Suite (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Forms) preferred

Experience Requirements:

• Generally requires a minimum of ten (10) plus years of direct management experience and ten (10) plus years of consumer product management experience.
• Product Development Experience a must.

Education Requirements:

Bachelor’s Degree in Science, Pharmaceutical Science or related field preferred, or a combination of education and equivalent work experience.

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