Senior Product Development Manager REMOTE

Senior Product Development Manager - Specialty Paper & Functional Coatings

Location: Remote (Extensive Travel Required)

Overview

A growing manufacturer of specialty paper and packaging solutions is seeking a Senior Product Development Manager to lead the development and commercialization of innovative paper-based products and functional coating technologies. This highly visible role will be responsible for identifying new market opportunities, leading new product development initiatives, and driving projects from initial concept through commercialization and post-launch evaluation.

The successful candidate will serve as both a technical and strategic leader, partnering closely with commercial, operations, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, sourcing, and finance teams to deliver profitable growth through innovation. This individual will play a critical role in expanding product offerings across a range of specialty paper and packaging applications, including food service, flexible packaging, barrier technologies, coated papers, laminating substrates, and converted paper products.

This position is ideal for a candidate who combines deep technical expertise in paper and coating technologies with strong business acumen and proven experience bringing new products to market.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead new product development initiatives through a structured stage-gate process, overseeing projects from concept development and feasibility assessment through validation, scale-up, commercialization, and launch.
• Evaluate market opportunities and identify areas for growth by assessing customer needs, competitive activity, market trends, pricing strategies, and operational capabilities.
• Collaborate with commercial teams to prioritize opportunities that align with business objectives and manufacturing capabilities.
• Define product specifications and technical requirements based on customer expectations, performance objectives, manufacturing constraints, and quality standards.
• Translate customer requirements into scalable product and process solutions that can be successfully commercialized across multiple manufacturing locations.
• Develop and manage project budgets related to product development activities, including testing, trials, raw materials, coatings, converting, customer qualifications, and commercialization efforts.
• Partner with finance and business leaders to build detailed business cases, including revenue projections, profitability models, capital investment assumptions, pricing strategies, and return-on-investment analyses.
• Coordinate laboratory testing, pilot trials, production trials, customer evaluations, and product validation activities.
• Support scale-up efforts and commercialization activities by providing technical leadership during manufacturing implementation and customer adoption.
• Monitor product performance after launch, evaluating financial results, operational performance, quality metrics, customer acceptance, and overall value realization.
• Prepare and present project updates, executive summaries, risk assessments, development plans, and commercialization recommendations to senior leadership.
• Serve as a technical resource for internal teams, customers, and suppliers while helping drive continuous improvement and innovation initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Paper Science, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Packaging, or a related technical discipline. Advanced degrees are highly desirable.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience within specialty paper, paper manufacturing, packaging, converting, coatings, food service packaging, or related industrial manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated success leading new product development and commercialization efforts from concept through market launch.
• Strong understanding of paper manufacturing processes, fiber-based products, converting operations, coating technologies, and packaging applications.
• Experience working with functional coatings, barrier technologies, oil and grease resistant coatings, water-based coatings, laminations, or specialty surface treatments.
• Knowledge of paper performance characteristics, including basis weight, caliper, strength properties, printability, convertibility, surface characteristics, and quality systems.
• Experience developing and executing plant trials, pilot trials, product validations, and customer qualification programs.
• Proven ability to manage multiple technical projects simultaneously while balancing timelines, resources, budgets, and business objectives.
• Strong understanding of stage-gate product development processes, project governance, and commercialization best practices.
• Experience developing business cases that incorporate market analysis, pricing models, cost structures, profitability forecasts, and investment assumptions.
• Ability to translate technical concepts into clear business recommendations for executive leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills with a demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders across operations, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, commercial, and executive functions.

What Success Looks Like

The ideal candidate will be a strategic innovator who can successfully bridge the gap between technical development and commercial execution. This person will have the ability to identify market opportunities, develop differentiated products, lead cross-functional teams, and guide projects through commercialization while delivering measurable business results. Success in this role will be defined by the ability to accelerate innovation, improve speed to market, enhance customer value, and generate profitable growth through the development of new specialty paper and coating solutions.

Travel: Significant travel is expected to support manufacturing sites, customer visits, supplier interactions, development trials, product launches, and commercialization activities. Approximately 50-70% travel may be required depending on project needs.