Food Scientist

RYZE • Santa Ana, CA

5d • Remote

About The Position

RYZE is seeking a Food Scientist with deep product formulation experience to join their Product Development team. This role is crucial for developing and launching canned or liquid beverage products through a co-manufacturer to retail shelf, understanding the distinct science, validation requirements, and quality standards demanded by commercial-scale production. The position will own formulation for RYZE's innovation pipeline (new products and formats) and renovation pipeline (reformulating and improving existing products) across all current and future formats, including RTD beverages, powdered instant, and emerging formats. The role reports directly to the Senior Director of R&D and collaborates closely with Regulatory, Quality, Ops, and the Lab Team.

Requirements

• Proven track record of personally owning a product end to end through a co-manufacturer to retail shelf, including hands on floor time during production runs, fill line troubleshooting, and QC alignment with external manufacturing partners (not advisory, not supporting).
• Minimum 3 years of experience in food or beverage product formulation, preferably beverage, moving fluidly between new product innovation and renovation of what's already on shelf.
• Deep technical knowledge of formulation science in at least one commercial format (liquid beverage, powdered/instant, or comparable), with the ability to learn and apply the science of additional formats as the portfolio grows.
• Experience developing sensory specifications and validation protocols that hold up at commercial production volume.
• Bachelor's degree or higher in Food Science, Food Technology, Chemistry, or a related field.
• Comfortable operating at the intersection of science, regulatory requirements, and commercial constraints: knows when a decision needs deliberate process and rigor versus when it can move fast, and can say this needs more rigor without slowing everything down.
• Energized by building things that don't exist yet, including the systems and processes around them, not just the formulas.
• Strong opinions about quality standards, with the patience to document them so they outlive any individual on the team.
• Works independently and with cross-functional teams to get new products across the finish line.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with functional ingredients (adaptogens, mushroom extracts, nootropics, botanical ingredients) and the formulation challenges they create in liquid matrices.
• Background at a better-for-you, functional, or natural beverage brand that has successfully scaled through Target, Whole Foods, Kroger, or Costco.
• Familiarity with structure/function claim requirements and the regulatory considerations affecting active ingredient dosage levels in functional beverages.
• Experience working in a cross-functional environment where NPD, Quality, and Regulatory have defined decision rights, with comfort building those structures in a scaling organization.
• Multi-format experience (e.g., RTD beverage plus powdered instant, or beverage plus bars/gummies/other formats), reflecting the breadth this role requires.

Responsibilities

• Lead formula development across RYZE's innovation projects (new products and new formats) and renovation projects (reformulating, improving, or extending existing SKUs), from concept through co-manufacturing qualification and commercial production.
• Own formulation science across formats, including liquid beverage chemistry (emulsification, pH buffering, pasteurization kill steps, headspace management, ambient vs. cold chain stability) and powdered/instant formulation (solubility, moisture control, blend uniformity, shelf stability).
• Lead or support the co-manufacturing qualification process for any format in play: technical evaluation, formula alignment, line troubleshooting, and QC standards.
• Support ingredient sourcing for RTD-specific inputs in partnership with Supply Chain.
• Serve as the go-to technical resource across the portfolio, flexing between formats as innovation and renovation priorities shift; this role is not siloed to a single product type.
• Design and implement formal ingredient validation protocols for both RTD and powdered formats, including backup supplier qualification checklists that meet retail audit standards.
• Partner with Quality and Sensory to build written sensory specifications for all retail-bound SKUs, creating objective pass/fail gates that can be used without your direct involvement.
• Support third-party lab testing programs: defining what gets tested, interpreting results, and working with Regulatory and Quality on action thresholds.
• Contribute to formula change review triggers, helping define when a formula adjustment requires regulatory review before it ships.
• Work with Regulatory to ensure active ingredient dosage levels across all formats are aligned with claim substantiation requirements before formulation work begins.
• Partner with Marketing and the founders during brief development to ensure ingredient levels and format decisions are commercially viable and scientifically sound.
• Contribute to RYZE's stage-gate process, building the technical documentation that allows projects to advance through gates with confidence.
• Support backup ingredient reformulation decisions with science-backed validation data, working cross-functionally with Quality and Regulatory before product ships.

Benefits

• Competitive hourly or monthly contract compensation
• Fully remote, flexible work environment
• Opportunity to work on high-impact performance creative for a fast-growing brand
• Access to RYZE creative assets, tools, templates, and performance insights

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level