Product Development, R&D & Quality Recruiters
Product development, R&D and quality leaders who take consumer products from concept and formulation through testing to a safe, compliant launch.
A delayed product launch rarely fails because of one big decision. It slips because the person who should own formulation, packaging, supplier signoff, and regulatory compliance is not in seat, or because the role was scoped so broadly that no credible candidate can see how to succeed in it.
SundryHall is a specialist recruitment agency for consumer goods and retail businesses. Our product development recruiters help brands, manufacturers, and retailers hire managerial and executive-level leaders across product design, research and development, quality assurance, and commercialization.
Those hires sit at the point where commercial strategy meets technical delivery. A product development director has to hold a margin target, a launch window, and a specification sheet in mind at the same time, then translate between marketing, operations, and the factory floor. We search for people who have already carried that load in a comparable category, rather than people who have only managed one slice of it.
We work across food and beverage, household and personal care, apparel and footwear, beauty, and durable goods, supporting roles such as heads of product development, R&D managers, technical managers, quality assurance managers, packaging development managers, and directors of innovation. Whether the brief is a private-label program for a grocery retailer or a new category launch for a challenger brand, the starting point is the same: agreeing what the role genuinely owns before we approach anyone.
If you are scoping a product development hire, or struggling to fill one that has been open for too long, we can talk through what the market looks like for that brief and what it will realistically take to close it.
A product development recruitment agency for consumer brands
We work with hiring managers, HR and talent acquisition leaders, founders, and executives who need a product development recruitment agency that understands consumer timelines, seasonality, and margin pressure. That context shapes which candidates will actually succeed: a leader who thrives in a business with long development cycles may struggle in one where retailer windows and seasonal resets set the pace.
We are not the right partner for medical devices or the wider life sciences sector, where clinical and regulatory hiring follows a different recruitment model. Our lane is consumer product innovation, quality leadership, and the management talent that keeps product launches on schedule.
The hiring problems we solve
Product development vacancies often sit where brand ambition meets operational constraint. A founder may need a first product design leader. A manufacturer may need an R&D director who can manage reformulation without disrupting throughput. A retailer may need a quality assurance leader who understands supplier audits, private-label standards, and customer complaint trends.
These searches are hard to fill through general advertising because the right talent is usually employed, selective, and cautious about moving. Strong candidates want specifics on decision rights, laboratory or pilot plant resources, packaging capability, and how quality is weighted against speed and cost before they will engage seriously.
Our role is to define the position properly, reach people who are not actively applying, and assess both leadership and technical judgment. We then manage the recruitment process so confidentiality is protected on both sides, a real concern when a sitting director is being replaced or candidates are approached at a competitor.
Roles we recruit
We recruit senior, managerial, and executive-level roles connected to product creation and product integrity. Each search is scoped around the technical depth, category experience, and leadership scale the role genuinely requires. The examples below are a selection.
Product development leadership
We source leaders who own product pipelines, stage-gate decisions, and cross-functional delivery from concept through launch. These searches cover directors and vice presidents of product development and heads of new product development, where the mandate spans roadmap ownership, portfolio prioritization, and alignment between marketing, operations, and finance.
R&D and innovation management
We map R&D candidates across formulation, packaging, process development, and applied science for consumer categories. Typical appointments include R&D director, innovation manager, and technical director roles that require a balance of scientific credibility and commercial judgment: leaders who can run a pipeline of concepts while keeping scale-up realities in view.
Quality assurance and compliance
We recruit quality leaders who manage standards, supplier performance, audits, and regulatory documentation. Searches in this area range from QA managers and quality directors to heads of regulatory affairs, with emphasis on candidates who have held accountability during customer audits, supplier corrective actions, and product recalls or withdrawals.
Engineering and technical managers
We recruit engineering managers who lead mechanical, electrical, and project engineering teams, while individual staff-level engineering placements sit outside this service. Typical appointments include engineering manager, technical services manager, and head of process engineering roles, where people leadership, capital project delivery, and manufacturing performance sit together.
Commercialization and launch leaders
We find leaders who connect consumer insight, sourcing, manufacturing readiness, and launch execution. These are commercialization managers, launch directors, and program managers who take a validated concept and make it manufacturable, costed, and ready for retail or channel rollout on time.
Who this service is for
This service fits consumer-facing businesses that need managerial or executive-level hiring support. That includes CPG manufacturers, food and beverage brands, beauty and personal care companies, and household goods makers. We also support grocery and specialty retailers, ecommerce and D2C brands, and the wholesalers and distributors behind them.
It is built for employers that want a focused agency partner and a considered shortlist, not a high-volume résumé flow. We work best where the hire affects innovation speed, product safety, brand trust, or operational continuity, because those are the briefs where sector knowledge changes the outcome.
How an engagement runs
Most searches follow five stages, with the depth of market mapping adjusted to the seniority and confidentiality of the brief. The sequence below is deliberate: each stage produces a decision point, so clients always know what has been learned, what remains open, and what happens next.
Intake and brief
We hold a structured intake call with the hiring manager and any other decision makers, then produce a written brief that separates essential requirements from preferences. Agreeing that distinction early prevents a long wish list from narrowing the market unnecessarily, and it gives everyone a shared reference point when candidates are later compared. The brief also captures the realities a candidate will ask about: reporting lines, team size, budget ownership, location expectations, and the first twelve months of priorities.
Market mapping
We map relevant consumer categories, adjacent sectors with transferable expertise, and competitor organizations before approaching candidates discreetly. Mapping is documented rather than improvised, so the client can see the size and shape of the available talent pool and understand where the strongest profiles actually sit. Where a brief is confidential, approaches are made without naming the client until a candidate has been qualified and has agreed to proceed.
Screening and assessment
We assess technical depth and management capability, probing how candidates handle tradeoffs among cost, speed, compliance, and brand standards. Interviews test evidence rather than claims: what the candidate owned, what changed as a result, and how they worked with the functions around them. We also test motivation and timing honestly, because a candidate who is not genuinely movable wastes the client's time and their own.
Shortlist presentation
We present a concise shortlist that explains why each candidate fits, where the risks sit, and what interviewers should test next. Each profile sets out relevant experience, compensation expectations, notice period, and any reservations we hold, so the client is making a decision with the full picture rather than a polished summary. A shorter, better-argued shortlist usually produces faster hiring decisions than a long list of loosely matched résumés.
Offer and onboarding
We coordinate feedback, manage offer negotiation, and stay close through resignation and onboarding to prevent late-stage dropouts. Counter-offers and competing processes are most likely to surface in the final two weeks, so we keep in regular contact with the candidate from acceptance through to start date and flag any wavering to the client early enough to act on it.
What makes our executive search approach different
Our advantage is sector concentration. Because our executive search work covers only consumer goods and retail, we understand the details that decide whether a product or quality hire succeeds: pack size and supplier lead times, retailer audits, and launch windows that cannot move. That focus means we start a search already fluent in the commercial pressures a hiring manager is describing, rather than learning them on the brief.
We prioritize shortlist quality over volume. A smaller set of credible, genuinely interested candidates is more useful than a large pile of partial matches, especially when the role touches quality, brand reputation, or executive visibility. Every name we present has been spoken to, assessed against the brief, and tested for real motivation to move.
Communication stays direct on both sides. Clients receive clear market feedback, realistic compensation guidance, and candid candidate signals, including when the brief as written is unlikely to attract the caliber of person it describes. Candidates receive timely updates and straightforward information about scope and constraints.
Senior searches demand discretion. We manage confidential replacements, succession-sensitive briefs, and competitive approaches with restricted outreach and agreed disclosure rules, so a search can run without unsettling an incumbent team or signaling intent to the wider market.
Outcomes clients should expect
A successful engagement should produce a sharper role definition, a realistic view of the talent market, and a shortlist of candidates who can genuinely lead within your operating model. Clarity comes first: before a single approach is made, the brief should reflect what the role actually requires, how it sits alongside existing leadership, and what trade-offs you are prepared to make on experience, sector background and location.
You should expect fewer wasted interviews, better alignment between technical and commercial stakeholders, and an offer process with fewer surprises. Calibration happens early, so the first shortlist tells you something useful about the market rather than simply filling a calendar. Where the market is tighter than expected, you should hear that candidly, with evidence on compensation, availability and competing employers, rather than being presented with a longer list of weaker profiles.
Success is measured by a hire who can own the brief, build trust across functions, and improve how product and quality decisions get made. That means assessing not only technical depth but judgment under pressure, the ability to challenge constructively, and the credibility to carry colleagues in operations, engineering and commercial teams. A good appointment should still look like the right one twelve months later.
For candidates, the outcome should be an excellent experience even when the answer is no. Honest briefing, timely feedback and a clear sense of where they stand cost little and matter a great deal. That protects your employer brand in a senior specialist community where people talk to each other, and keeps the door open to strong candidates who may be the right fit for a future role.
Product, quality, and engineering expertise
Product development and quality hiring sits close to engineering in many consumer businesses. Packaging changes can affect line efficiency. Formula changes can affect claims, cost, testing, and sourcing. A supplier issue can become a customer issue if quality escalation is weak.
We look for leaders who understand industry standards and can work across product design, operations, procurement, and brand teams. The right hire brings technical expertise and the judgment to know when a launch should move, pause, or change direction, turning scientific advancement into products that survive contact with manufacturing reality.
Engagement models and conditions
Depending on the brief, work may be delivered on contingent, retained, or exclusive terms. Contingent search suits roles with an active, accessible talent pool and a straightforward hiring process. Senior, confidential, or multi-stakeholder searches usually benefit from retained executive search or exclusive arrangements, because thorough market mapping and discreet candidate approach need consistent time and control.
We recommend a model after intake, based on role seniority, talent scarcity, confidentiality, and the timeline involved. Intake covers the scope of the role, the decision-makers involved, the interview process, the compensation range, and how success will be measured in the first year. If the brief is too broad, too junior, or misaligned with compensation, we explain what needs to change before the market is approached, because launching a flawed search costs more time than correcting it.
Fees, terms and the reporting cadence are agreed in writing before the search starts. Where a search is retained or exclusive, we agree a timeline and regular progress updates covering market feedback, pipeline status, and any adjustments the brief may need.
Our coverage spans the United States, from offices in Atlanta, Georgia; Marlborough, Massachusetts; Parsippany, New Jersey; and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Service FAQs
Which role levels do you cover?
We focus on managerial and executive-level appointments across product development, R&D, and quality leadership, such as heads of product development, R&D managers, technical directors, and quality and compliance managers: appointments where the hire shapes strategy, process, and team capability.
How do you reach candidates?
We combine three channels on every assignment: an established sector talent network, structured database search, and direct headhunting into named target organizations. The mix is adjusted for category, seniority, and confidentiality: a niche technical category may lean heavily on headhunting, while a broader commercial-facing role draws more from the network. The result is access to leaders who are performing well in their current roles and are not actively applying elsewhere.
What market insight do you share?
We share salary benchmarking, talent mapping, and competitor organization analysis as the search runs. That means clients see where the relevant talent sits, how comparable roles are structured and paid, and what the realistic trade-offs are between package, location, and experience. Setting credible expectations before final stages avoids the common failure point of a strong process ending in a declined offer.
How do you support the interview process?
We help structure interviews so technical, commercial, and quality stakeholders each test the right things rather than covering the same ground three times. That typically means agreeing a clear scorecard, sequencing the stages sensibly, and briefing candidates properly before each conversation. We then manage feedback and offer discussions between stages to keep momentum and reduce avoidable dropout.
How do you handle confidential searches?
Confidential searches run with restricted outreach and agreed rules on what is shared, when company identity is revealed, and how references are approached. This matters when a role is a replacement for an incumbent, when a new function is being built quietly, or when market signaling is a concern. We agree the disclosure point with you at the outset and brief candidates consistently throughout.
Start a product development search
If you are hiring for product development, R&D, quality assurance, or technical leadership in a consumer goods or retail business, speak with SundryHall before the vacancy becomes a launch risk. An unfilled role in a development team rarely stays contained: sampling slows, approvals slip, and critical path dates for the next launch start to move. We will help define the role, test the market, and build a shortlist that reflects how your products are actually made, approved, and sold.
Every search starts with a conversation about the brief rather than a job description. We look at where the role sits across the critical path, which parts of the process it owns, the categories and manufacturing routes involved, and the kind of commercial and technical judgment the person will need day to day. From there we can be realistic with you about the available talent pool, the salary the market is paying, and how long a search of this type usually takes.
The engagement model can follow the need, from a confidential search for a senior technical leader to a focused shortlist for a product development or packaging manager. We do not handle entry-level, junior or staff-level positions or internships, and we do not place temporary, hourly or staff-level contract workers; contract and interim appointments at manager level and above run through our interim practice.
Call +1 888-202-9809 or email [email protected] to discuss the brief, the likely talent pool, and the best engagement model for your search.
Brief us on the role you need to fill
Tell us about the position, the location and the timeline. A consultant who works your sector will follow up to talk through how we would run the search.