Innovation Operations Manager

Accountabilities: Identify, research, and investigate new product and business opportunities, particularly concepts beyond existing supplement formats and categories. Collaborate with R&D teams and formulators to understand scientific foundations, technical requirements, manufacturing constraints, and potential development pathways. Design and conduct structured feasibility assessments covering technical viability, manufacturability, costs, regulatory considerations, timelines, and commercial potential. Identify, evaluate, and manage external partners, including suppliers, contract manufacturers, laboratories, consultants, and technical specialists. Prepare requests for quotation (RFQs), coordinate supplier evaluations, and manage the quotation and award process with contract manufacturers. Translate research and technical findings into clear business cases and evidence-based go/no-go recommendations for leadership. Independently manage multiple innovation initiatives from concept through commercialization, taking responsibility for project plans, budgets, timelines, milestones, and stakeholder communication. Establish and manage a centralized innovation intake process, recording ideas from leadership, founders, R&D, and other stakeholders, conducting initial assessments, and maintaining a prioritized project queue. Implement a structured stage-gate evaluation framework with defined time and spending limits, decision criteria, and formal reviews. Escalate projects that exceed agreed budgets rather than allowing them to remain indefinitely under investigation. Build detailed financial models, including cost of goods sold (COGS), minimum order quantities (MOQs), landed costs, pricing, margins, break-even volumes, and required capital investment. Conduct regulatory, intellectual property, and product claims due diligence, including patent landscape and freedom-to-operate assessments, ingredient regulatory status, and applicable labeling and substantiation requirements. Evaluate opportunities outside traditional dietary supplements, including devices, equipment, and non-ingestible products, with attention to relevant regulatory frameworks. Coordinate product validation activities such as bench samples, pilot runs, scale-up trials, stability and shelf-life testing, sensory evaluations, analytical method development, and draft specifications. Lead approved concepts through their first successful commercial production run and complete a structured handoff to the ongoing product and operations teams. Maintain a comprehensive innovation knowledge base documenting evaluated concepts, research findings, costs, decisions, and the conditions that could justify revisiting shelved opportunities. Set realistic expectations around project timelines, budgets, and resource requirements, while protecting the capacity of core teams through formal resource planning and stakeholder alignment. Present project progress, risks, findings, and recommendations clearly to senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders. Requirements: At least 7 years of demonstrated success in project management, ideally involving product development, innovation, or exploration of new product categories. Professional experience in the dietary supplement, nutraceutical, food and beverage, consumer packaged goods (CPG), or pharmaceutical industries. Extensive knowledge of R&D and formulation processes, manufacturing capabilities, and relevant regulatory frameworks, including FDA requirements, DSHEA, and cGMP. Strong understanding of ingredients and their technical applications in dietary supplements. Hands-on experience with innovative product delivery formats, such as liposomal or encapsulation technologies, softgels, gummies, jellies, sprays, sachets, or functional beverages. Proven ability to manage several complex projects and competing priorities with excellent organizational skills. Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical information for different audiences and influence senior stakeholders. Excellent analytical capabilities, with experience structuring feasibility assessments, interpreting data, and developing well-supported business cases. Proficiency with project management tools such as Asana, Monday.com, Smartsheet, MS Project, Jira, or similar platforms. Comfort working in ambiguous, early-stage environments and creating structure where processes and requirements are not yet defined. A proven track record of delivering outcomes, including personally taking at least one novel or first-of-its-kind product, format, or process from initial concept through commercial launch. Strong commercial judgment and the confidence to recommend discontinuing an initiative when the evidence does not support further investment, including when communicating with founders and senior executives. Practical financial modeling skills, including the ability to independently build COGS calculations, margin analyses, break-even models, and business cases using Excel or Google Sheets. Ability to critically assess scientific literature, supplier technical documentation, product specifications, and certificates of analysis, and to engage confidently with formulators and manufacturers. Availability to work remotely from within the United States, with required overlap with Eastern Time (EST) business hours. A bachelor's degree in business, science, engineering, or a related discipline is preferred; PMP or equivalent project management certification is an advantage. Experience commercializing ingredients or raw materials in B2B markets, including specification development, GRAS or NDI dossiers, toxicology and safety documentation, and ingredient customer support, is a plus. Experience with consumer hardware, devices, or wellness equipment, including sourcing, certification, and safety testing, is desirable. Previous experience implementing or managing formal stage-gate or phase-gate innovation processes is an advantage. Benefits: Annual compensation range of $100,000–$150,000 . Fully remote working arrangement for candidates based in the United States. Flexible working hours within a globally distributed team. Shared collaboration window from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time , intended for meetings and team coordination rather than a fixed daily schedule. Flexibility to organize working hours around personal preferences while attending required meetings, communicating effectively across time zones, and meeting agreed deadlines. Opportunity to take ownership of a growing innovation function and influence strategic product development decisions. Exposure to cross-functional work spanning science, product development, manufacturing, regulatory considerations, and commercial strategy.