Senior Product Development Scientist
About The Position
The Product Development team’s purpose is to lead the innovation and productivity agendas to grow KDP brands, transform beyond its core, and improve the profitability of our products. At KDP, our inspiration is to bring meaningful impact and that starts with our company vision -- Drink Well, Do Good! The Senior Scientist, Product Development (Productivity) is responsible for identifying, developing, and commercializing productivity initiatives that improve profitability, reduce complexity, enhance supply resilience, and accelerate speed to market across the KDP beverage portfolio. This role serves as a strategic technical leader, partnering across R&D, Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, and external suppliers to deliver sustainable enterprise value while maintaining product quality and consumer experience.
Requirements
- B.S. in Food Science, Chemistry, Biology, or Chemical Engineering. Master’s degree a plus.
- 7 years of experience in a related function within food/beverage (R&D, Quality), CPG, and/or commensurate advanced education
- Leads the development of ideas and proactively develops Innovation pipeline
- Highly independent, excels in team-based culture and proactively collaboration skills
- Excellent written and presentation skills
- Skilled in problem solving, with a growth-mindset
- Ability to travel is required
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree
Responsibilities
- Leads and develops the productivity strategy to meet the consumer need states across a variety of KDP brands and products
- Conducts bench-top work, pilot plant, and manufacturing trials to verify and support formula accuracy and documentation across projects within the KDP portfolio
- Leads initiatives that reduce product, ingredient, and formulation complexity across the portfolio while protecting consumer experience and brand equity
- Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to identify standardization opportunities that enable increased scale, simplified operations, and reduced supply chain complexity
- Takes initiative to strategically develop new ideas to build the productivity product pipeline, rooted in consumer insights, market research, and technology scouting
- Fully understands R&D functions and broadly understands the greater KDP organization
- Leads the project management process across initiatives to successfully commercialize products to launch
- Proactively partners and engages with various functions of R&D (Sensory, Ingredients, Nutrition, Regulatory, Flavor Technology, Packaging, Chemistry, Process Engineering)
- Manages and leads complex initiatives with cross-functional peers consisting of across R&D, Marketing, Supply Chain, Sales
- Delivers updates on strategic initiatives within business to key stakeholders and senior leaders
- Effectively communicates technical information to senior leadership
- Proactively identifies and implements opportunities for improvement within function
- Maintains accurate and detailed record of laboratory work
- Work appropriately and safely in a laboratory environment
- Use formulation software to document lab work and formulas
- Demonstrate flexibility and resilience in adapting to changing business needs and priorities
- Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and strengthen our culture of inclusion
- A successful candidate will exhibit a passion for problem solving, delivering value through product development
Benefits
- Medical
- Dental
- Vision
- Disability
- Paid Time Off (including paid parental leave, vacation, and sick time)
- 401k with company match
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Mileage Reimbursement
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
