Director of Commercialization

Who we are

The Farmer’s Dog was born from a mission to change the landscape of pet health, providing dogs and their humans with honest, smart, and simple care. We’re starting by radically improving the $90 billion pet food industry, replacing bags of highly-processed pellets with a personalized subscription service that sends complete and balanced, freshly-made dog food directly to customers’ doors. Our ultimate goal is to create innovative, delightful and personalized experiences across all aspects of pet care, and we believe our direct-to-consumer business model, holistic approach to growth, and dynamic culture uniquely position us to shepherd this backwards industry into the future.

To date, The Farmer’s Dog has delivered over 1 billion meals nationwide and raised over $150M in funding to help us build a company as healthy as the dogs who are eating those meals. Join us as we continue to develop ways of bringing peace of mind to customers, health to their companions, and much-needed change to the way people feed and care for their pets.

#LongLiveDogs

Where You'll Come In

As the Commercialization Director, you’ll bring products from concept to scale. Your experience in food production will continue The Farmer’s Dog growth initiatives by shaping & driving the commercialization of formulations and products with our co-packers, help expand our network footprint and be ahead of the curve for new product lines that the business seeks to launch. This role will continuously focus on process, quality, growth, and communication. 

How You'll Make An Impact

• Own the commercialization process, from concept to launch, ensuring adherence to timelines, budgets, and quality standards. Take recipes or products developed on-paper by our R&D team, and translate them at manufacturing sites into a scalable, consistent product that improves efficiency while meeting the customer promise and product quality intended initially.
• Work closely with the R&D function to ensure product development aligns with market needs, regulatory requirements, and manufacturing capabilities.
• Collaborate with the manufacturing team to ensure efficient and effective production of high-quality products and to troubleshoot any production-related issues.
• Strong understanding and experience in optimizing products through various production processes and equipment as a key skill.
• Analyze current manufacturing processes to identify areas for improvement.
• Develop and implement strategies to improve productivity, quality, and cost-efficiency.
• Apply Lean, Six Sigma, and other process improvement methodologies.
• Partner with internal Growth Expansion, implementing product improvements and line extensions driven by market trends, competitor activity, and consumer feedback as flagged by Growth Expansion, Retention, or R&D.
• As new products are identified within the portfolio, act as a collaborator in the co-manufacturer selection process, and ensure that all new products are positioned to scale efficiently.
• Identify optimization levers to reduce production costs and implement approved changes with co-manufacturer partners.
• Provide technical guidance in the design, development, and optimization of manufacturing processes.
• Conduct process simulations and engineering calculations to support process design and improvement initiatives.
• Stay updated with the latest industry trends, technologies, and best practices.
• Develop practical solutions to complex technical problems
• Make quantitative, fact-based decisions
•  
• You will spend 30-50% of your time traveling to our co-manufacturing and pilot plants throughout the Midwest to ensure our production and packaging processes are running smoothly. 

We're Excited About You Because

• You have a  Bachelor’s degree in Food Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related field. Master’s degree is a plus.
• You have 7+ years of previous experience with the operations and manufacturing space, including working with 3rd party partners and cross-functional team experience.
• You have the above experience, at least partially within the meat industry and related raw material commodities, including understanding USDA rules. Strong understanding of how to work with and optimize proteins, with working knowledge of various commodity types, will be key.
• Deep understanding of food manufacturing levers that unlock margins, and the ability to drive manufacturing process improvements
• You thrive on working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, being creative and innovative, and thinking outside of the box.
• You represent the company in a professional manner and possess a strong work ethic.
• You are a self-starter who takes initiative, is results-oriented, and develops solutions.

Our DEI Philosophy:

Our company’s mission is rooted in deep, genuine care for dogs – and for the people who love them. As an organization we are full of individuals who are unique in many ways, but all united in a mission of providing true peace of mind to dog lovers everywhere. Fixing this industry and improving the lives of pets and their people will be a difficult, decades-long endeavor. We believe the best use of our time, energy, and resources as a collective team is to focus on this mission, and on supporting our team to do their best work and be their best selves. In support of this we’re committed to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce, and investing in internal structures, opportunities, hiring/promotions processes, and training that create and sustain an inclusive team. We strive to provide an experience at TFD that will be invested, meaningful and memorable as we progress on the journey to reimagine how we feed and care for our pets.

Office Guidelines

The office is open and available for all Monday through Friday. We ask all team members to be in office a minimum of 2-3 days a week to build a collaborative and invested environment to foster our unique in-person culture we are proud to have.  This office policy is subject to change at company discretion.

A Few of Our Best Benefits

• Dog-friendly office in Greenwich Village
• Market-competitive compensation and equity packages
• Comprehensive Healthcare, Dental, and Vision
• 12 week paid parental leave
• Competitive 401k plan with company match
• Flexible PTO and WFH policy
• Discounted fresh food for your pup
• Your pet interrupting video calls (and in-person meetings) is now a feature, not a bug

We commit to building a competitive compensation package and company environment for all individuals to thrive. We believe in competitive base compensation rooted in location specific market data and performance along with equity ownership in the company that allows every team member to build their personal wealth as the company grows, just as much as we believe in fostering a culture that supports our team members personally, professionally, and holistically. For this role the anticipated hiring base compensation range is $170,000 - $185,000 USD Annual and the compensation offered will include a robust market competitive package of base and equity. In addition to your base compensation offer you will also receive equity ownership in the company. More information about the value of this equity will be shared at the time of offer. This range is representative of NYC Market Data if you are applying to this role outside of the NYC area the range may change.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The Farmer's Dog, Inc. is an equal employment opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic or status. For more information, please visit Know Your Rights.