Principal Scientist, R&D and Technical Services

At Saputo, we bring good to the table by making high-quality products, investing in our people, and supporting communities around the world . As a top 10 global dairy processor, we value contributions that matter and strive to foster an inclusive, growth-driven work environment. Ready to bring your best?

The Principal Scientist, R&D and Technical Services will provide strategic technical leadership for the cheese portfolio at Saputo USA. The person will be responsible for identification of new technologies to enhance Saputo’s cheese operations, drive yield and quality improvements through innovative approaches, and identify and develop products for the cheese category new to Saputo. Further this position serves a technical voice to key stakeholders both internally and externally.

The position is to be based in Tulare or Newman, CA.

How you will make contributions that matter...

• The Principal Scientist will be a thought leader that leads both technical innovations and best practices within our cheese category to push forward new ways of bringing process optimizations, equipment technologies, or product performance improvements. The focus will be on pasta filata type cheeses (mozzarella, string, provolone)

• They will be a strong leader and cross-functional collaborator with other business teams and stakeholders in the product development process, including category management, operations, packaging, and sales.

• Act as technical leader for commercial and Intellectual Property legal matters.  Monitor industry IP and bring forth recommendations based on information in public domain.  Create processes to develop and protect our internal trade secrets and assist with the filing of patents when applicable.

• Maintain strong relationships with key ingredient suppliers (i.e., culture manufacturers) to ensure the division is current with most update to date technologies.  Build relationships to co-develop technologies that will provide Saputo unique advantages within the cheese category.

• Maintain strong relationships with key cheese and dairy universities to ensure that the division is current in research and potential future technical opportunities.  Create partnership opportunities that supports our strategic plan and maintains a strong pipeline for innovation.

• Provide technical assistance on quality issues as needed and support the engineering team with capital project feasibility and implementation.

• Ensure a consistent internal and external face for Saputo by building relationships with internal teams, suppliers, key customer contacts, industry groups, and universities.  Attend and build a network of technical resources throughout the industry by engaging and leveraging the resources of our vendors and university partners have at their disposal.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

You are best suited for the role if you…

• Have a minimum of 5 - 10 years of R&D and technical service experience in the dairy/cheese industry or business-related experience with dairy product development for consumer product industry and management of technical operations. 

• Experience with the development of pasta filata cheeses (string, mozzarella, provolone) and/or a combination of manufacturing industry knowledge of cottage cheese and cheddar cheese products with pasta filata cheese producing expertise is acceptable.  Experience outside the US market is desirable.

• Hands-on knowledge of cheese types (listed above) manufacturing industry experience/exposure and projects that are industry application focused is key to success. (A combination of academic research experience and industry work history in a cheese company is acceptable).

• Have a Master’s degree in Dairy Science, Food Science, Dairy Manufacturing, Chemistry, or related field.  PhD. is preferred.

• Can develop and interpret technical information and in turn lead and guide projects in an efficient and disciplined manner.

• Have strong leadership skills with a proven ability to develop and lead teams to drive results.

• Have a blend of strong technical and financial acumen to identify projects feasibility and ROI.

• Have strong understanding of commercial dynamics that drive business profitability and resource allocation to achieve optimum results.

• Can collaborate and persuade across multiple functional areas to effectively build consensus upwards, downwards, and laterally within the organization.

• Demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Are proficient in MS Office.

• Can travel 50%+ of the time.

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