Product Manager

Auner is hiring a Product Manager to launch and own its cat-food product line, from formulation and testing through manufacturing, packaging, compliance, and launch. The role coordinates external partners and tracks product performance to guide improvements and future production.

Responsibilities:

• Own the product line: multiple recipes, bag sizes, and launch sequencing
• Keep one source of truth for every SKU: formula version, cost, specs, packaging, and status
• Bring product decisions to the team with options, costs, and a recommendation
• Build and run the critical-path plan for the late Q1 2027 launch, working back from ship date
• Track every dependency across formulation, testing, packaging, labeling, and 3PL handoff, and flag slips early
• Run the product section of the biweekly team meeting
• Manage formulation work with our formulation lead and manufacturer, from first draft to locked formula
• Design and run palatability studies, including fast in-home panels and outside testing partners, and feed results back into formulation
• Coordinate nutritional adequacy, guaranteed analysis, and stability testing
• Be the day-to-day contact with our manufacturing partner on production schedules, minimum order quantities, and costs
• Manage first production runs, quality checks, and lot release
• Source and qualify packaging suppliers
• Decide packaging structure: bag type, barrier, reseal, sizes, and shipping box
• Own label content and regulatory compliance (AAFCO, FDA, and state feed registrations) with our veterinarian and legal counsel
• Work with brand and design to get artwork from concept to print-ready files on schedule
• Days 1–30: audit where the current recipes stand, publish the launch critical path with owners and dates, update palatability panel, and decide the packaging structure
• Days 31–60: close palatability results into locked formulas, lock the bag and shipping box, and get label copy and guaranteed analysis approved
• Days 61–90: release print-ready artwork, confirm the first production run with our manufacturer, and test 3PL receiving and subscription shipping cycles
• Days 91–120: run first production, complete quality checks and lot release, get inventory into the 3PL, and launch
• Days 121–180: track reviews, palatability complaints, returns, and reorder rates, make the first formula or packaging improvements, and plan the second production run

Requirements:

• Product development or product management for consumer packaged goods (packaged food or pet food)
• At least one product taken from formula to shelf, working directly with a co-manufacturer
• Hands-on knowledge of pet food or supplement regulation: AAFCO, FDA, and labeling
• Experience running timelines across several outside partners at once: manufacturers, labs, packaging suppliers
• Comfort with costing: cost of goods, minimum order quantities, and margin by SKU
• Startup pace. You work without a big team around you and close loops yourself
• Cat-specific experience, especially palatability testing
• 3-5+ years in product development or product management for pet food, pet supplements
• Multi-form pet food experience
• Soft-chew supplement development, for the line that follows initial launch
• Experience launching on DTC subscription and Amazon
• A network of testing labs, packaging suppliers, and formulators you can call on