Vice President, Research & Development

fairlife, LLC is a Chicago-based nutrition company that creates great-tasting, nutrition-rich and dairy products to nourish consumers.

With nearly $3B in annual retail sales, fairlife’s portfolio of delicious, lactose-free, real dairy products includes: fairlife® ultra-filtered milk; Core Power® High Protein Shakes, a sports nutrition drink to support post-workout recovery; fairlife® nutrition plan™, a nutrition shake to support the journey to better health.

A wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola company, fairlife, LLC has been recognized by both Fast Company and Nielsen for its industry leading innovation.

To learn more about fairlife and its complete line of products, please visit fairlife.com.

job purpose:

The VP, R&D position is vital in the development of fairlife’s Research and Development program and key to the company’s innovation and continued growth. This position will be responsible for conducting applied research in dairy food process and nutrition. The VP, R&D will lead a team of scientists in the development of innovative projects on time and on budget and will be directly involved with the science and nutrition divisions of Coca Cola, including product development, packaging, and sustainability. This role will be responsible for a variety of tasks that include executing the company’s overall technology vision, managing the appropriate development methodologies, and creating an organizational structure that will drive a high performing development team to deliver top-quality solutions to the market. In addition, this role will be responsible for attracting, developing, and retaining top talent for the R&D function. This role is key to the development and expansion of intellectual and proprietary assets for the organization, so a passion for generating new ideas and creating patents is key.  

 responsibilities:  

• Responsible for continued innovation and discovery of new ingredients/functional foods 

• Research and develop new processes for fractionation of milk and techniques to improve stability and texture of beverages 

• Research into health benefits of different food components 

• Assist in patent research and patent development 

• Responsible for the coordination with research centers and universities  

• Research new analytical techniques and equipment  

• Analyze trends/consumer concerns and perceptions regarding foods, ingredients, and micronutrients 

• Direct collaboration with science divisions of Coca Cola including science and nutrition, product development, packaging, and sustainability 

• Study scientific research journals to stay current on recent developments in nutritional beverage processing and packaging and related disciplines 

• Provide technical support to all processing facilities for the fairlife organization and its subsidiaries and customers 

• Educate and train processing and quality control divisions  

• Lead in-depth research on raw milk as an ingredient or its components 

• Create comprehensive records of all research 

• Develop world class dairy/food applied research center 

• Develop new processes for manufacturing novel nutritional products 

• Maximize intellectual property in processing or recipes of wellness foods 

• Expand fairlife laboratories and pilot plant 

• Get involved in manufacturing expansion projects 

 skills/qualifications required:  

• Ph.D. in Dairy Science/Technology, Food Science/Technology, or related discipline required 

• Minimum 10 years of experience in dairy/food research at a Director/Manager level or above 

• Experienced in publishing research work in peer reviewed journals required 

• Excellent communication and organizational skills required