Scientist, R&D - Product Dev

The Kraft Heinz Company•Glenview, IL

3d•$77,800 - $97,300•Hybrid

About The Position

The Scientist, Away From Home and KHI supports product development across medium-complexity projects for the Away From Home / KHI business, contributing to a broad portfolio of innovation, renovation, and brand maintenance initiatives. This role helps translate business needs into practical development plans, supports technical execution, and helps projects progress effectively from formulation through scale-up and commercialization. This role operates in a dynamic, cross-functional environment and requires strong technical judgment, project management, and problem-solving skills across a range of product categories and business needs. Success in the role requires the ability to manage multiple priorities, collaborate effectively across functions, and maintain strong execution and documentation discipline.

Requirements

BS in Food Science, Food Engineering, Dairy Science, Meat Science, Chemical Engineering, Biological Engineering, or related field and 2 years of relevant experience or MS plus minimum of 1 year of relevant experience, or PhD and no relevant experience required
Product development and commercialization experience
Understanding of ingredient functionality and interrelationship of ingredients and process
Excellent communication, influencing, prioritization, and project management skills
Strong critical thinking skills and ability to make connections to the big picture
Ability to lead, coach, and motivate others
Manage multiple assignments/tasks concurrently with the ability to question the priority of work

Nice To Haves

Willingness to travel approximately 30% of the time

Responsibilities

Support product development across multiple cross-functional projects and product categories within the Away From Home / KHI business, including innovation, renovation, and brand maintenance work
Drive product development workstreams from formulation through scale-up and start-up with appropriate guidance and cross-functional partnership
Work from ideation to commercialization, from benchtop samples to final production and from raw material to finished product specification.
Partner with cross-functional teams to advance projects, resolve technical issues, and deliver against business timelines
Serve as an R&D point person for manufacturing plants and support plant operations with troubleshooting, process design, and product quality-related issues to maintain business continuity
Lead product testing, qualification, and commercialization activities across laboratory, pilot plant, and production environments
Apply technical judgment to product, ingredient, process, and formulation challenges and develop recommendations and contingency plans based on findings
Communicate technical findings, recommendations, risks, and implications clearly and in a timely manner to cross-functional stakeholders
Manage technical timelines, proactively raise issues and risks, and adjust plans as needed
Manage multiple priorities concurrently and identify tradeoffs, resource constraints, and priority conflicts across initiatives, including planned and unplanned brand maintenance work
Interface with technical experts, category scientists, and cross-functional partners to understand technologies, applications, and business needs
Assist in scoping early-stage innovation ideas and participate in ideation sessions
Conduct lab, pilot plant, and manufacturing trials to optimize formulations and processing systems
Write specifications and maintain high-quality documentation that supports consistent, high-quality products
Demonstrate flexibility and willingness to learn new categories, technologies, and processing areas in support of business needs