Director, Innovation & Commercialization Operations

Accountabilities: Stage Gate Governance & Decision Discipline Design, operate, and continuously improve the enterprise Stage Gate governance framework in partnership with the executive owner. Establish gate criteria, required evidence, decision rights, and escalation pathways. Lead effective gate reviews focused on readiness and decisions rather than routine status reporting. Document approvals, conditions, accountable owners, and formal gate closure. Maintain concise decision records covering supporting evidence, approvals, open and resolved decisions, exceptions, and ownership; ensure conditional approvals are followed through to completion. Define which decisions become locked at each gate and establish controls for material changes after approval. Apply proportionate gate requirements to product variants, new flavors, packaging sizes, and claims changes according to risk and complexity. Identify decisions requiring executive intervention, present options and trade-offs, and recommend appropriate next steps. Cross-Functional Planning & Execution Integrate new product development plans across Product Development, Packaging, Procurement, Supply Chain, Quality, Regulatory, Finance, Marketing, Retail, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC), and International teams. Establish critical-path plans, realistic functional lead times, dependencies, and clear handoffs. Ensure relevant functions are engaged early, before downstream commitments are made. Maintain integrated launch baselines and forecasts, making the timing, scope, resource, and risk implications of upstream delays clear to decision-makers. Provide visibility into project status, timelines, risks, competing resource requirements, and launch-readiness decisions. Partner with product and functional owners to resolve gaps while preserving their technical and commercial decision-making authority. Commercialization Readiness Coordinate requirements across formulation and claims decisions, packaging specifications and qualification, artwork and labeling, sourcing, master data, production, and channel launch activities. Define readiness expectations for manufacturing, inventory, retailer execution, and DTC launches. Ensure deviations from established readiness requirements are evaluated, documented, and explicitly approved. Identify and communicate the schedule, cost, and execution implications of proposed late-stage changes. Process Excellence & Adoption Build on existing Stage Gate redesign work, including streamlined tasks, improved sequencing, and redesigned gate meetings, and operationalize improvements across active launches. Simplify or eliminate duplicative and legacy requirements while preserving essential controls and decision quality. Review briefs, approval points, and handoff documents to ensure each has a clear purpose, owner, and downstream user; retire redundant documentation. Establish a reliable system of record for decisions, approved versions, deliverables, owners, milestones, and changes. Develop a practical exception-management framework for retailer-specific requests and other deviations, including their incremental cost, capacity, and schedule implications. Define and monitor process-effectiveness measures, such as on-time gate closure, changes to locked decisions, rework, and launch readiness. Train teams, communicate process expectations, and drive consistent adoption across the organization. Requirements At least 10 years of experience in consumer packaged goods (CPG) new product development, innovation operations, commercialization, or related cross-functional leadership. Experience in food, beverage, or nutritional products is strongly relevant. Demonstrated ownership or substantial redesign of a formal Stage Gate or comparable new product development governance framework; participation in gate meetings alone is not sufficient. Proven experience launching physical consumer products and understanding the interdependencies among formulation, regulatory and quality requirements, packaging, supply chain, manufacturing, and commercial execution. Strong judgment in establishing governance standards while avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy. Experience leading decision-making forums and navigating complex cross-functional trade-offs. Ability to influence senior stakeholders without direct reporting authority and successfully implement organizational change. Proven ability to translate complex workflows into practical, repeatable operating processes. Excellent integrated planning, risk management, facilitation, and executive communication skills. Experience facilitating executive gate decisions, defining and tracking approval conditions, and managing pragmatic change-control processes. Preferred Qualifications Experience working across both established CPG operating environments and high-growth, entrepreneurial organizations. Experience in beverage or supplement categories. Familiarity with retail, DTC, Amazon, and international product launches. Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent formal training in project or program management. Familiarity with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems, new product development portfolio tools, and process excellence methodologies. Benefits Base salary range of $145,000–$180,000, with the final offer based on skills, experience, and role requirements. Performance-based incentive plan. Stock option allocation for eligible roles. Fully remote work environment within the United States. Unlimited paid time off, based on country of residence. Paid holidays and company-wide reset and reflection days. In-person team meetups to support collaboration, team building, and productivity. Monthly telecommunications stipend to help offset home internet and Wi-Fi costs for eligible employees. Access to company products and branded merchandise. Benefits and insurance provided in accordance with applicable laws and the employee's country of residence. Opportunity to make a direct impact in a high-growth, mission-driven consumer health business. Collaborative, high-performance culture focused on ownership, continuous improvement, and professional excellence.