Manager, Product Development, GDI

Job Description Summary:

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.

What You’ll Do

• Product Design - Work as part of functional team to align on objective (new product launch, superiority, tax and regulation, productivity) and success criteria.

• Create Prototypes & Formulations – Develop lab-scale recipes driven by consumer insights and technical/supply chain requirements, following GMP and company protocols. Incorporate local insights, new ingredients, and regulatory needs into final product design.

• Test, Learn, Improve – Conduct sensory, analytical, and shelf-life testing together with the Micro and stability teams; use data and basic statistics to guide optimization.

• Scale Up for Market – Lead support from GDI for pilot and commercial production trials, ensuring processes and packaging compatibility.

• Collaborate Broadly - Partner with Marketing, SRA, Supply Chain, Packaging, and Quality for seamless delivery; connect with global technical experts to import best practices.

• Maintain Excellence – Over the full process, keep lab equipment in top condition; follow safety, compliance, and documentation standards.

What You’ll Need

• Bachelor’s/Master’s in Food Science, Chemistry, Nutrition, Chemical Engineering, or similar.

• 4–6 years in product development for beverages/food

• Strong technical understanding of ingredient functionality within beverage systems.

• Experience managing multiple projects from ideation to launch in fast-paced environments.

• Familiarity with sensory evaluation, consumer testing, and data interpretation for decision-making.

• Ability to

  • Think end-to-end across initiatives and influences priorities aligned with strategy.

  • Apply and influence with insights from consumer and competitor.      

  • Drive original thinking and develops novel concepts with clear business value.  

  • Apply solid technical expertise to deliver high-quality work independently.

  • Solve complex, ambiguous problems and anticipates downstream impacts. 

  • Coach and support others, sharing expertise and constructive feedback.

  • Make timely decisions within scope, balancing speed, and quality, and in consideration of interdependence of other priorities.

• Fluent in English; regional languages a plus.

• Regional travel up to 10–15%.

What We Can Do For You 

• Purpose Driven: Purpose driven approach that empowers our people to protect the environment and communities we serve while delivering safe & quality products. 

• Global Connections: Allows you to develop, enhance and maintain global connections that allow us to move faster and learn from others. 

• Community of Belonging: We’re an organization that believes our ability to continually grow and build the right atmosphere where people feel safe and empowered, lets you bring your best self to work.  

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.