New Product Development Executive - Snacks & Sweets

Location: Chennai

Company: Indian Snack House (ISH)

Indian Snack House is building India's most loved South Indian snacking brand. Our mission is to bring authentic South Indian sweets and snacks from their native towns to households across India in a clean-label, premium, and modern format.

We work with traditional makers and manufacturing partners across South India to create products that retain authentic taste while meeting modern quality, hygiene, and shelf-life standards.

We are looking for a New Product Development (NPD) Executive who will own the end-to-end development of new South Indian sweets and snacks.

This is not just a product development role—it is a product sourcing, manufacturing, and commercialization role. You will work closely with traditional manufacturers, food technologists, operations teams, and founders to identify the best products across South India, develop scalable manufacturing processes, improve product quality, and launch new products successfully.

If you enjoy travelling, discovering authentic regional foods, working with manufacturers, solving production challenges, and bringing new products to market, this role is for you.

• Identify and develop new South Indian sweets and snack products for the ISH portfolio.
• Conduct market research and identify emerging product opportunities.
• Build a strong innovation pipeline aligned with the company's vision.
• Benchmark products against local market leaders and competitors.

• Identify and onboard the best manufacturing partners across South India.
• Evaluate manufacturers based on quality, authenticity, capacity, hygiene, and scalability.
• Build long-term relationships with production partners.
• Travel extensively to manufacturing locations and native towns.

• Standardize recipes and production processes.
• Improve consistency, taste, texture, and product quality.
• Work with manufacturers to improve shelf life without compromising authenticity.
• Develop scalable manufacturing SOPs.
• Coordinate pilot production and commercial production.

• Continuously improve existing products based on:
• Customer feedback
• Product reviews
• Returns and complaints
• Internal quality observations
• Work closely with Customer Experience, Operations, and Quality teams to drive improvements.

• Work with Operations for production readiness.
• Work with Packaging for suitable packaging formats.
• Coordinate with Quality teams for product validation.
• Support Marketing by providing product stories and technical information.

We are looking for someone who has:

• 2–6 years of experience in Food Product Development, R&D, or Manufacturing.
• Experience in Indian sweets, snacks, bakery, namkeen, or traditional foods.
• Strong understanding of food manufacturing processes.
• Experience working directly with manufacturing partners or contract manufacturers.
• Ability to troubleshoot production challenges.
• Passion for traditional Indian foods.
• Willingness to travel extensively across South India.

Experience in one or more of the following is highly preferred:

• South Indian sweets
• Murukku and savouries
• Banana chips
• Halwa
• Milk sweets
• Traditional snack manufacturing
• Shelf-life improvement
• Process standardization
• Contract manufacturing
• Vendor development
• Food technology

• Product Development
• Food Manufacturing
• Vendor Development
• Manufacturing Process Setup
• Product Commercialization
• Quality Orientation
• Problem Solving
• Strong Ownership
• Attention to Detail
• Excellent Communication
• Project Management

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Number of successful product launches.
• Time taken to commercialize new products.
• Quality and consistency of launched products.
• Customer ratings and feedback.
• Improvement in existing products.
• Number of high-quality manufacturing partners developed.
• Cost and manufacturing efficiency improvements.
• Product repeat purchase and commercial performance.

At Indian Snack House, you'll have the opportunity to build products that preserve India's rich culinary heritage while creating a modern national brand.

You won't just develop products—you'll help revive iconic South Indian sweets and snacks, work with traditional artisans across the region, and build products that reach millions of households across India.

• If you're passionate about food, innovation, and authentic regional cuisine, we'd love to hear from you.