Sr Scientist, R&D - Product Development

Job Description

Sr Scientist, R&D - Product Development

This is a Sr. Scientist role in the Meals & Kits Technical Platform supporting the Lunchables Category. The candidate will be leading and driving technical projects to meet business initiatives focused on growth, productivity, ESG, and brand maintenance. The candidate should have a proven record of successfully leading, executing, and commercializing projects ranging in technical complexity with minimal guidance, and getting results in a variety of challenging and complex settings. The candidate should have experience leading business initiatives while exhibiting a collaborative approach and applying innovative solutions. Strong communication and collaboration skills are essential in this role, which operates in a dynamic and cross-functional environment.  

Responsibilities: 

• Manage multiple assignments/research projects concurrently and possess the ability to prioritize between a variety of business initiatives 

• Commercialization: Deep knowledge of commercialization processes and required activities as the technical/R&D lead. Ability to troubleshoot challenges. 

• Collaboration: Work with cross functional teams acting as the lead product developer to drive execution across multiple projects 

• Communication: Provide updates to cross-functional teams; Identify hurdles and propose solutions 

• Translate research findings into meaningful business objectives  

• Champion an innovation approach and exhibit influence on the cross functional partners 

• Mentor, coach and collaborate with other colleagues within and outside of your immediate team 

• Demonstrate the ability to develop relationships with and coordinate commercialization activities across internal and external manufacturing facilities. 

• Lead and complete product testing, qualification, and commercialization in laboratory and production environments 

• Assist in scoping and facilitating business opportunities 

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s Degree (Masters is a plus) - Food Science, Meat Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering 

• 4+ years Product Development and commercialization experience within a CPG or equivalent  

• Project management experience, technical expertise, and food science/processing knowledge  

• Excellent communication, influencing, project management and problem solving skills 

• Highly motivated and able to multi-task varying degrees of complex projects 

• Willingness/ability to learn new product categories and/or processing areas  

• Demonstrated ability to influence, manage multiple projects concurrently with the ability to prioritize work, and solve problems effectively.  

• Brings an entrepreneurial spirit and growth mindset 

• Ability to manage through ambiguity 

• Strong experience in commercialization  

• Understanding of ingredient interactions/functionality 

• Self-motivated problem solver and the drive to deliver objectives