Head of Product Development

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 bulk bags of highly-processed mystery pellets with a personalized subscription service that sends healthy, 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 300 million 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

What We Stand For and Where You’ll Come In

We have big ambitions, our mission requires us to completely reimagine how we care for our dogs and drive meaningful shifts in an industry that is desperate for change. We don’t believe this is possible by implementing “best practices” or operating how the rest of the industry operates. 

That’s why we’re looking for a strategic, customer-centric and highly collaborative Head of Product Development, known for their drive in bringing innovative and effective products to life. This person will lead the development of new product lines, provide and interpret scientific guidance, and continuously improve and evolve our existing products – collaborating closely with our veterinarian, nutrition research, supply chain, growth teams and more. 

You will successfully attract, retain and develop a small team of best-in-class, high performance talent across nutrition, food science and hard goods and be opinionated on organizational structure and process to accomplish objectives. 

How You’ll Make An Impact

• Drive the identification, evaluation and validation of formulations from benchtop through commercialization that meet our extremely high standards in nutrition, palatability, and ease of use
• Create and execute project plans to ensure successful product development on budget and on timelines
• Design a best in class process that sets new standards for product development and commercialization – including bench, pilot plant, plant and consumer trials
• Intentional decision making around when to apply existing processes and technologies and when to create unique approaches in order to achieve short and long-term business goals
• Understand how ingredients work together and what different manufacturing techniques will do to flavor, texture and nutrition expressions in food
• Continually introduce strategic ideas and product concepts for new products, quality improvements, and productivity
• Oversee the entire product development lifecycle with speed and urgency while being uncompromising on safety and quality – from concept to market launch, ensuring that products exceed quality standards, regulatory requirements, and surprise and delight our customers and their dogs.

We’re Excited About You Because

• Deep knowledge of food science and technology
• You have proven expertise in developing excellent formulations
• Resourceful, adaptive and proactive approach – addressing challenges and anticipating risks
• You assume best intentions and never let feedback fester.
• You’re a direct and caring communicator who believes in unlocking colleagues’ impact with the right context.
• You foster an environment for technical excellence, first principles thinking and intentional risk taking
• You love fixing broken things and industries.
• You love change and are comfortable in ambiguity.

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.

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.

A Few of Our Best Benefits

• Dog-friendly office in Greenwich Village
• Market-competitive compensation and equity packages
• Comprehensive Healthcare, Dental, and Vision
• Company sponsored mental health benefit and coaching through Modern Health
• 12 week paid parental leave
• Competitive 401k plan with company match
• Flexible PTO
• 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 $250,000 – $270,000 USD Annual and the compensation offered will include a robust market competitive package of base, bonus 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.

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