Sr Scientist, Product Development - Innovation

Job Description

This is a Sr. Scientist role focused on innovation. 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: 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, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering 

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

• Deep experience working on ambiguous front end innovation projects

• 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 

• Experience in commercialization  

• Understanding of ingredient interactions/functionality 

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