Product Development & Sourcing Manager - Confectionery

• Type: Full Time
• Location: Onsite in Santa Ana, CA
• Salary: $110,000 - $140,000

About Us

Shameless Snacks makes low-sugar gummy candy that tastes like the real thing. Every bag has 3g of sugar, is packed with fiber, and is vegan and gluten-free. Our sour and fruit gummies are sold on Amazon, DTC, TikTok, and at major retailers across the country.

We’re not a startup hoping something works. We’ve taken better-for-you candy from an idea to retail shelves nationwide and built a brand that consumers love. We move with the speed of a startup: small teams with real ownership and accountability.

This is the place where you’ll see the entire machine: flavor development, formulation, packaging, co-manufacturing, compliance, marketing, marketplace strategy, retail, all in one team. If you want to build and ship a food brand at scale, there is no better place than this.

The Role

We’re looking for a Product Development & Sourcing Manager – Confectionery to lead the creation and production of our next generation of guilt-free candy. If you’ve developed gummy, chewy, or sugar-free candy products before — and you love the challenge of making them taste incredible while keeping them compliant and scalable — this is the role for you.

This position is remote and can be based anywhere in the United States. However, it requires regular travel to manufacturing facilities and flavor houses for development trials, scale-ups, and production validation.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the development, formulation, and production of better-for-you candy products (gummies, chews, etc.).
• Collaborate with flavor houses, ingredient suppliers, and contract manufacturers to bring products from concept to launch.
• Translate brand product briefs into commercially viable formulations that meet nutritional and sensory standards.
• Conduct factory visits, pilot trials, and first production runs to ensure formulation and scale-up success.
• Manage vendor relationships, ensuring quality, compliance, and cost efficiency.
• Partner with internal teams (packaging, marketing, compliance) to prepare each product for launch.
• Stay informed on ingredient innovations, flavor systems, and new technologies in confectionery.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in non-chocolate confectionery development, ideally gummies, chews, or sugar-free candy.
• Proven experience formulating and manufacturing products in the better-for-you or functional food category.
• Deep technical knowledge of gelatin, pectin, starch systems, sugar alcohols, and alternative sweeteners.
• Hands-on experience managing flavor development, sensory testing, and factory-scale production.
• Familiarity with FDA and international food labeling and safety standards.
• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science or related field (or equivalent experience).
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally (estimated 20–30% of time).
• Excellent communication, organization, and follow-through in high-growth environments.