Manager, Product Development

Job Description Summary:

Position Overview:
Our North America Innovation Center sits at the heart of The Coca-Cola Company’s next chapter of growth. We are committed to transforming and evolving our organization and ambitions — bringing our people closer to the consumer, continuously raising the bar, and embracing digitalization to enable sustainable growth. We are looking for a highly driven individual contributor who thrives on ownership and impact, and who fuels the innovation pipeline with bold ideas that translate into real-world results. This role is not about maintaining the status quo; it is about challenging assumptions, unlocking opportunity, and personally driving valuable breakthrough innovation. You will apply deep product development expertise to lead ideas from concept to execution, contributing to a strong and diverse portfolio of meaningful innovation — accelerating growth and helping shape the future of the organization.

Job Purpose Summary

As a Manager, Product Development, you will lead the execution of complex and diverse product development initiatives to accelerate bottom- and top-line growth, bringing concepts to life through advanced formulation, testing, and commercialization. You will drive local and regional projects in close partnership with cross functional teams, applying deep technical expertise, market insights, and digital tools to ensure products meet consumer expectations, quality standards, regulatory requirements, and manufacturing realities. This is a hands on, individual contributor role for a seasoned problem-solver who thrives on technical ownership, cross functional collaboration, and delivering high-impact beverage innovations.

Function Related Activities/Key Responsibilities:

• Apply Food Science Knowledge - Apply expertise in ingredients, formulations, and processing to develop safe, high-quality beverages and ensure compliance with technical and regulatory requirements.

• Create Prototypes & Formulations – Develop lab-scale recipes from ideation through commercialization, incorporating consumer insights, technical and supply chain requirements, and regulatory standards while leveraging system processes and tools.

• Evaluate New and Existing Ingredient Sources – Assess ingredients against sensory, analytical, safety, and efficacy standards, and determine their impact on new and existing beverage formulations.

• Collaborate Broadly – Partner with Marketing, Procurement, Supply Chain, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Packaging, and Quality teams to deliver successful launches and business continuity initiatives while leveraging global technical expertise and best practices.

• Participate / Lead Cross-Functional Project Meetings to align stakeholders, resolve issues, and execute projects.

• Support Business Continuity – Provide technical leadership to advance and sustain products that are critical to the beverage portfolio, ensuring continuity of supply and cost effectiveness while maintaining the highest of quality standards.   

• Write Detailed & Accurate Reports – Prepare technical reports documenting analyses, experiments, and project outcomes. Gather and organize information under tight timelines to support informed business and technical decision-making.

• Develop Subject Matter Expertise across internal ingredient, formula, inventory, and blends management tools. 

• Maintain Excellence – Maintain laboratory equipment and work environments in accordance with safety, quality, compliance, and documentation standards to support product development initiatives.

Educational & Work Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Nutrition, or related field is required, Master’s degree is preferred.

• Must possess 4-6 years of successful beverage industry experience, specific to product development.  Juice experience preferred.

Functional Skills & Additional Requirements

• General knowledge of beverage ingredients including juices, flavors, and dry ingredients is helpful, but not required. 

• Must possess the ability to recognize and protect proprietary information as it relates to formulas and ingredients. 

• Must be willing to share ideas and differences of opinion with other scientists regarding project work.

• Familiarity with existing Coca-Cola systems, processes, and tools is preferred.

• Ability to learn and apply project management principles in your everyday work.   

• Must have sound knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), and must quickly adapt to communication tools used within your department/function

• Leverage prior education, literature, and experiences to execute scientific research projects within scope of briefs provided by other technical experts or supervisor. 

• Ability to apply technical knowledge and establish credibility through written reports and verbal presentations with highly technical audiences in order to build technical relationships that will benefit customers, or the Company is needed.  

• Fluent in English; regional languages a plus

• Regional travel up to 20%.

Skills:

Pay Range:

Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.

Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage:

Annual Incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.

Location(s):

City/Cities:

Travel Required:

Relocation Provided:

Job Posting End Date:

Our Purpose and Growth Culture:

We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola.