Senior Product Developer – Candy & Confectionery

About the role

The Senior Product Developer will own the technical development of the candy and confectionery portfolio from initial brief through formulation, sensory validation, scale-up, and launch. This role focuses on creating reduced-sugar and no-added-sugar products that maintain high standards for taste, texture, and stability. The developer will work cross-functionally to ensure products are compliant, cost-effective, and ready for production.

Responsibilities

• Own candy and confectionery projects from brief to launch, including technical targets and formulation optimization.
• Develop reduced-sugar and no-added-sugar products while balancing taste, texture, and shelf-life requirements.
• Plan and coordinate sensory, shelf-life, and stability testing for new products.
• Manage technical documentation, specifications, and ingredient compliance in collaboration with the Quality team.
• Oversee pilot and industrial trials and troubleshoot production issues with co-manufacturers.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Operations, Procurement, and Marketing to ensure project timelines and quality standards are met.

Required skills

• Food product development
• R&D
• NPD
• Sugar reduction
• Sensory validation
• Scale-up
• Food law
• Technical documentation
• German
• English

Nice to have

• Gummies
• Chocolate
• Confectionery
• Shelf-life studies
• Stability testing
• Functional food

Qualifications

• Degree in food science, food technology, chemistry, nutrition science, ecotrophology, or a comparable field
• Equivalent practical experience

Benefits

• 28 vacation days
• Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off
• €50 monthly allowance
• Snacks and drinks
• Company merchandise
• Pet-friendly office

About the Company

Ahead is a 130-person team based in Hamburg on a mission to clean up the world's candy drawers by creating snacks with up to 90% less sugar. The company manages a portfolio of over 170 SKUs and operates across D2C, retail, and Amazon channels in Europe.