R&D Principal Scientist

PepsiCo • Plano, TX

3d • Onsite

About The Position

This role is for an R&D Principal Scientist at Frito-Lay, Inc., focusing on leading seasoning and flavor development for new product innovation for major brands like Doritos and Fritos. The position involves interpreting market and consumer insights to build flavor strategies, developing processes and tools to support the innovation pipeline, and training other employees. Key responsibilities include designing product qualification protocols, defining product specifications for safety and legality, scaling up product designs from bench to full scale (including travel to manufacturing plants), applying expertise in seasoning processability modeling, and representing R&D in cross-functional teams. The role also involves seeking and testing new flavor technologies, forming technical hypotheses, designing experiments, building supplier relationships, and driving portfolio transformation initiatives such as sodium reduction and artificial ingredient removal. Additionally, the position includes leading training and development for new hires and developers in R&D on flavors and seasonings development.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree (US or Foreign Equivalent) in Food Science or Food Engineering and nine (9) years of experience in foods product development, Flavor & seasoning development OR Master's degree (US or Foreign Equivalent) in Food Science or Food Engineering and seven (7) years of experience in foods product development, Flavor & seasoning development.
• Nine (9) years’ experience (or 7 with master’s) with: Deep seed-to-shelf product development experience with strong consumer understanding.
• Nine (9) years’ experience (or 7 with master’s) with: Raw material specification, foods finished product specification, food safety, regulatory requirement for product launches.
• Nine (9) years’ experience (or 7 with master’s) with: Form technical hypothesis and design technical experiments to demonstrate and validate efficacy of new flavor/seasoning technologies.
• Nine (9) years’ experience (or 7 with master’s) with: Knowledge in consumer centric design, leveraging insights to build successful innovation pipeline strategy.
• Four (4) years’ experience with: Flavors & seasoning formulation technical knowledge for winning formula.
• Four (4) years’ experience with: Flavor & seasoning industry and supplier capability knowledge.
• Four (4) years’ experience with: Seasoning manufacturing and scale-up knowledge to functionality.

Responsibilities

• Lead seasoning & flavor development for new product innovation for Doritos & Fritos.
• Interpret market, industry and consumer insights and translating information to build flavor strategy accordingly.
• Develop process and toolbox to build flavor strategy supporting future innovation pipeline for portfolio growth.
• Train other employees on flavor strategy processes and tools.
• Design product qualification protocols to validate technical solutions and product design against desired consumer outcomes.
• Own and drive product specification definition to make sure raw materials and product designs can be made safe, legal, fit for purpose.
• Scale-up product design from bench-scale to full scale delivering consumer liking experiences including traveling to manufacturing plants to scale-up technology solutions and products.
• Apply deep expertise in seasoning processability modeling, a proprietary tool critical for ensuring production readiness and reducing risk.
• Represent research & development in cross-functional task forces to enable critical activities to drive a product from idea to launch in market.
• Seek, evaluate, and test new flavor technologies to enable incremental growth for innovation pipeline with winning consumer experiences.
• Ability to form technical hypothesis and design technical experiments to demonstrate and validate new technologies.
• Build close working relationships with key suppliers to identify and land new flavor technologies and solutions for innovation and renovation pipeline.
• Drive portfolio transformation initiatives leveraging deep knowledge in seasoning & flavor science and consumer behaviors to achieve sodium reduction, artificial removal with winning experiences.
• Lead training and development for new hires and developers in R&D on flavors & seasonings development.

Benefits

• Consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status.
• Consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status.

What This Job Offers

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