Senior Product Development Manager – Specialty Paper and Functional Coatings

BiOrigin Specialty Products produces sustainable specialty paper and tissue products and develops high-performance solutions such as antimicrobial coatings and water-based food service barriers. The Senior Product Development Manager will lead the technical and commercial development of new machine-glazed paper products through a five-step stage-gate process, including market evaluation, product requirements, business cases, scale-up, and launch. The role will coordinate cross-functional teams and support profitable growth across specialty paper, coatings, packaging, and related applications.

Responsibilities:

• Shepherd all new MG paper product development initiatives through a disciplined five-step stage-gate process from concept and scoping through business case development, product development, validation, scale-up, launch, and post-launch performance review
• Lead cross-functional alignment across commercial, operations, mill technical teams, finance, sourcing, quality, and supply chain to evaluate, prioritize, and execute new MG paper product opportunities
• Develop and maintain market analysis for new MG paper product concepts, including customer needs, competitive landscape, addressable market, pricing assumptions, channel fit, and strategic alignment with BiOrigin’s mill capabilities
• Build and manage development cost budgets for trials, raw materials, coatings, waxing, converting, testing, packaging, qualification, customer validation, and commercialization activities
• Partner with finance and commercial leadership to prepare business cases, including Net Present Value (NPV), revenue, margin, capital requirements, working capital, risk assumptions, and expected profit contribution following scale-up and launch
• Define technical product requirements and translate customer critical-to-quality (CTQ) needs into MG paper specifications, functional coating formulations, application methods and operating parameters, performance targets, trial plans, quality standards, and manufacturing readiness criteria
• Clearly define customer critical-to-quality specifications for each new MG paper product and validate that product performance, process capability, and quality requirements are met during customer scale-up trials
• Coordinate mill trials, laboratory testing, customer qualification, product validation, and corrective actions to ensure new MG paper products meet appearance, barrier, containment, printability, converting, cost, quality, regulatory, and customer requirements
• Provide senior technical guidance during product scale-up, commercialization, and early production to reduce execution risk, improve manufacturability, and accelerate time to market
• Track post-launch performance against approved business case assumptions, including revenue, margin, cost, quality, customer acceptance, and operational performance, and recommend actions to improve value realization
• Create clear gate review documentation, decision criteria, risk assessments, timelines, project charters, and executive summaries to support leadership approval and resource allocation

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in paper science, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry, business, or a related technical field
• 10+ years of experience in MG paper, specialty paper, food service packaging, flexible packaging, coatings, waxing, converting, or related paper manufacturing environments, with demonstrated new product development leadership
• Strong understanding of MG paper attributes, fiber furnish, wet-end chemistry, surface properties, machine glazing, basis weight, caliper, strength, printability, converting, packaging, quality systems, and customer qualification requirements is also required
• Proven ability to lead stage-gate or phase-gate new product development processes with disciplined project governance, technical validation, and executive decision support
• Experience developing business cases that include market sizing, pricing, cost modeling, capital assumptions, NPV, revenue forecasts, margin expectations, and post-launch profitability tracking
• Strong financial acumen with the ability to translate technical product decisions into commercial impact, manufacturing cost, customer value, and long-term profitability
• Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority and communicate effectively with executives, mill leadership, commercial teams, customers, suppliers, and technical personnel
• Highly organized, analytical, and results oriented, with strong project management, problem-solving, risk management, and continuous improvement skills
• advanced degree preferred
• Preference for hands-on experience with functional coating technologies, including barrier and oil- and grease-resistant (OGR) coatings, with demonstrated capability in coating formulation, raw-material selection, application methods, process optimization, performance testing, and translating customer critical-to-quality (CTQ) requirements into scalable product and manufacturing specifications