Director of Research & Development

The Brand

Sundays for Dogs is a venture backed direct-to-consumer brand with the goal to make life easier on the modern dog parent so that they may spend more quality time with their dog.

We enable dog parents to not have to choose between quality and convenience when seeking the world’s best dog food. We are a team dedicated to the mission and consider ourselves skydivers, not plane passengers. We decide fast, fail fast and learn fast. 

As we expand our operations, we are investing in R&D to drive cost-efficient formulations, enhance product performance, and develop future-forward innovations.

The Team & Role

As we expand our operations, we are investing in R&D to drive cost-efficient formulations, enhance product performance, and develop future-forward innovations.

The Director of R&D will be responsible for leading research, formulation, and product development, with a strong focus on cost efficiency, AAFCO compliance, and product innovation. This role is critical to optimizing our pre-blends for cost reduction, improving taste and stool quality, and bringing new products to market efficiently.

The ideal candidate is a food scientist with deep experience in pet food (preferably with a challenger brand), has worked on air-dried, freeze-dried, raw, or alternative formats, and understands how to scale from lab to commercial production while optimizing costs.

This role will report to our Head of Supply Chain. This role will begin as an individual contributor, but the goal is to grow the team with 1-2 more individuals reporting to the Director. This role must be based in Cleveland, Ohio.

• Cost Efficiency & Reformulation: Redesign pre-blends to reduce COGS while maintaining or improving nutritional quality and palatability.
• Product Development & Innovation: Lead new product development (NPD) initiatives, balancing white-space innovation with optimizing existing formulations.
• Regulatory & Compliance: Ensure all products comply with AAFCO, NRC, FDA, and USDA guidelines for pet food.
• Manufacturing Optimization: Work closely with co-mans and support the launch of our own test facility in Cleveland to enhance internal capabilities.
• Testing & Validation: Select the right labs and third-party partners for ingredient testing, palatability trials, and digestibility studies.
• Speed to Market: Develop a framework for launching new products within 12 weeks, with a budget range from $50K to $1M, ensuring a balance of agility and quality.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with procurement, operations, quality, and marketing to align R&D efforts with broader company goals.

• COGS Reduction: Reformulated pre-blends that lower costs while maintaining quality.
• Taste & Stool Quality Improvement: Measurable improvements in palatability and digestibility.
• Speed & Efficiency: Ability to launch new products within 12 weeks and scale efficiently.

• Pet food R&D experience (required) – ideally trained at a large pet brand and now working in a smaller, innovative brand.
• Food science background with expertise in meat science, drying processes, and formulation.
• Experience launching multiple pet food products (beyond kibble/canned – e.g., treats, raw, freeze-dried, air-dried).
• Strong technical expertise in AAFCO compliance, ingredient selection, and formulation.
• Hands-on approach – comfortable rolling up their sleeves in a test kitchen while providing strategic direction.
• Understands commercial scale-up – experience working with co-mans and transitioning lab-scale formulations to full production.
• Knows where to go for testing – experience selecting labs and third-party research partners.
• Pet nutrition expertise to support product claims and formulation decisions - this is not required, but a plus
• Experience with both large-scale and startup/challenger pet food brands - this is not required, but a plus

• Be part of a company that is investing in R&D for the first time and has the resources to build something from the ground up.
• Opportunity to launch a test facility in Cleveland and drive true product innovation.
• Work in a high-growth, mission-driven company that prioritizes quality over quantity in product development.
• Unlimited PTO – we trust you to take the time you need.
• Equity program – a chance to own part of the company!
• 401k plan with employer match – invest in your future.
• Annual work-from-home stipend – set up your workspace for success.
• Competitive Medical, Dental, Vision plans – company covers 80%.
• Sundays subscription for your pup! – because we care about your furry friends.
• Parental leave & PAWrental leave – support for growing families, both human and pet.
• Discounted pet insurance – keep your pets happy and healthy.

If you're an R&D leader with pet food expertise and a passion for developing innovative, high-quality, cost-efficient pet food, we'd love to hear from you!

Salary : $150,000 - $200,000