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Job Description Summary:
Our GCM 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%.
Skills:
Chemistry, Communication, Continual Improvement Process, Data Compilation, Environmental Science, Food Safety Management, Food Sciences, Food Technology, Green Solutions, Laboratory Testing, Leadership, Microbiology Laboratory, Product Development, Quality Control (QC), Researching, Sensory Processing, Waterfall ModelLocation(s):
ChinaCity/Cities:
ShanghaiTravel Required:
00% - 25%Relocation Provided:
NoJob Posting End Date:
October 30, 2026Our 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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's or master's degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Nutrition, Chemical Engineering, or a related field
- 4-6 years of product development experience in beverages or food
- Technical understanding of ingredient functionality in beverage systems
- Experience managing multiple projects from ideation through launch
- Experience with sensory evaluation, consumer testing, and data interpretation
- Ability to apply consumer and competitor insights
- Ability to develop original concepts with clear business value
- Ability to solve complex, ambiguous problems and anticipate downstream impacts
- Ability to work independently using solid technical expertise
- Ability to coach and support others
- Fluent English
- Regional language proficiency
The Coca-Cola Company Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about The Coca-Cola Company and has not been reviewed or approved by The Coca-Cola Company.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are positioned as a standout, combining a 401(k) match with a company-funded cash-balance pension and an employee stock purchase plan match that together materially increase long-term package value.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as broad and feature-rich, including national medical coverage plus specialized add-ons like virtual care, second opinions, oncology navigation, fertility support, and chronic-condition programs.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off benefits are outlined with structured vacation accrual that increases with tenure and a holiday program that includes both set and floating days.
The Coca-Cola Company Insights
What We Do
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company, offering over 500 brands in more than 200 countries and territories. In addition to the company’s Coca-Cola brands, our portfolio includes some of the world’s most valuable beverage brands, such as AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, innocent smoothies and juices, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater and ZICO coconut water.
