Sr. Scientist – R&D Life Cycle

Dairy Farmers of America•Springfield, MO

About The Position

The Sr. Scientist – R&D Life Cycle is a senior technical and process leader responsible for complex R&D lifecycle workstreams and formulation projects from concept through launch. The role governs opportunity intake, project prioritization, formulation development, bench and pilot work, resource scheduling, documentation, sensory and sampling readiness, stage-gate discipline, KPI tracking, and continuous improvement. It partners across R&D, commercial, operations, quality and food safety, regulatory, procurement, supply planning, finance, and business teams to develop viable formulas, remove project barriers, improve sample acceptance, and strengthen scale-up and commercialization outcomes. The position leads lifecycle plans, governance, schedules, systems, analytics, and readiness reviews while also performing hands-on formulation and product development. It translates customer and business requirements—including technical, regulatory, cost, nutrition, labeling, sensory, processing, and operational needs—into products that can be scaled and commercialized. The role coaches project teams and technical colleagues on lifecycle discipline, documentation, data integrity, and readiness, and leads process improvements that strengthen R&D capability and business impact. Travel of 15–25% (1–2 times per quarter) is required.

Requirements

B.S. degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Biological Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Business, Operations, Project Management, or a related discipline.
At least 6 years of industry experience in R&D, product development, formulation, commercialization, food manufacturing, lifecycle management, technical program management, process improvement, operations, or a related food-industry function.
Demonstrated progression in technical responsibilities and ability to lead complex projects or cross-functional workstreams with limited supervision.
Strong knowledge of R&D lifecycle management, stage-gate governance, commercialization readiness, project prioritization, technical documentation, and cross-functional execution.
Strong formulation and product-development capability, including ingredient functionality, formula design, cost and nutrition targets, labeling inputs, benchtop development, pilot preparation, sensory evaluation, troubleshooting, and scale-up support.
Ability to translate strategy and business priorities into operating routines, process standards, schedules, metrics, and continuous-improvement actions.
Strong organizational, systems, data, analytics, project leadership, and process-improvement skills.
Ability to lead through influence across R&D, sales, marketing, innovation, operations, process technology, QA/food safety, regulatory, procurement, supply planning, finance, and business teams.
Strong understanding of ingredient functionality, food safety by design, product specifications, labeling, nutritionals, claims, raw-material qualification, sensory evaluation, shelf life, scale-up, and commercialization requirements.
Strong communication skills and ability to simplify complex technical, commercial, and operational issues for leadership and cross-functional decisions.
Ability to balance a heavy workload, manage multiple priorities, identify bottlenecks, remove barriers, and drive action with urgency and discipline.
Strong documentation discipline and proficiency with PLM, CRM/Salesforce.com, lifecycle tools, dashboards, spreadsheets, templates, and standard productivity tools.
Collaborative, hands-on work style with a “solve for yes” mindset; ability to coach others and influence without direct authority.
Able to read, write, and speak English.
Willingness to travel 15–25% (1–2 times per quarter).

Nice To Haves

M.S. and/or Ph.D. degree.
Experience developing or optimizing food and/or dairy formulations.
Experience leading or improving stage-gate, lifecycle, project management, resource planning, documentation, data analytics, or commercialization processes.
Food, dairy, ingredient, beverage, cultured, frozen, powder, filtration, aseptic/ESL/retort, or related manufacturing experience.

Responsibilities

Lead medium-to-large or complex lifecycle workstreams and multiple concurrent projects, owning lifecycle plans, timing, risks, governance checkpoints, and deliverables.
Review opportunity briefs and confirm customer needs, business value, feasibility, scope, success criteria, decision rights, resource needs, and timing.
Serve as a senior gatekeeper, ensuring approvals, documentation, sensory reviews, technical validation, and commercialization-readiness requirements are complete before projects advance.
Remove barriers for stuck or high-priority opportunities by aligning cross-functional teams and business leaders.
Set expectations and coach teams on lifecycle discipline, standard work, documentation, handoffs, and readiness requirements.
Lead and improve lifecycle systems, schedules, templates, dashboards, and project-tracking routines for opportunity flow, resource allocation, and commercialization readiness.
Partner with R&D leadership to prioritize work, balance workloads, maximize resources, and focus on high-value opportunities.
Develop, maintain, analyze, and communicate lifecycle KPIs, including sample turnaround time, first-round acceptance, scale-up and commercialization success, documentation efficiency, project cycle time, resource utilization, and ROI impact.
Use data and process observations to identify bottlenecks, resource constraints, recurring failure points, data-quality issues, process gaps, and improvement opportunities.
Lead implementation and optimization of lifecycle-enabling tools and workflows, including stage gates, pipeline approvals, development updates, formula and cost-modeling inputs, ingredient databases, specifications, labeling workflows, and commercialization tracking.
Lead and execute formulation work for lifecycle, renovation, productivity, customer, and innovation projects, including formula development, ingredient selection, benchtop work, pilot preparation, sample execution, and troubleshooting.
Translate customer, business, regulatory, cost, nutrition, labeling, sensory, processing, and operational requirements into practical, scalable, manufacturable product formulas.
Develop and maintain formulations, ingredient declarations, nutritional targets, cost and processing assumptions, and technical documentation with relevant partner teams.
Support formula optimization, matching, reformulation, productivity, value engineering, raw-material substitution, shelf-life and sensory improvement, and troubleshooting.
Partner with process design and validation resources to align formulas, processing parameters, equipment assumptions, plant capabilities, and scale-up requirements before trials and commercialization.
Oversee sensory science, sampling, customer-ready development output, and stage-gate readiness; help ensure samples meet product brief requirements before customer submission when applicable.
Ensure matching projects and appropriate development work include sensory review before development begins and before matched samples are released externally.
Confirm plant-trial, scale-up, and commercialization readiness across formulas, processes, quality, nutrition, claims, raw materials, packaging, shelf life, labeling, food safety, regulatory requirements, and customer deliverables.
Lead readiness reviews and post-project learning to improve project speed, robustness, documentation quality, and commercialization success.
Facilitate project reviews, escalations, action-item closure, risk mitigation, and leadership updates for high-priority or complex work.
Report pipeline health, project status, capacity, risks, bottlenecks, wins, and improvement opportunities to leadership.
Coach Scientists, Associate Scientists, technical resources, and project participants on lifecycle processes, documentation, data integrity, and commercialization readiness.
Promote a one-team R&D mindset that balances speed, discipline, quality, food safety, compliance, cost, customer experience, monetization, ROI, and farmer-owner value.
Lead continuous improvement to reduce non-value-added documentation, simplify handoffs, improve transparency, and standardize work initiation, development, validation, and commercialization.
Translate R&D priorities into operating routines, lifecycle standards, resource plans, training needs, and measurable outcomes.
Identify process, systems, data, documentation, technical-discipline, and commercialization-readiness capabilities to strengthen for mid- and long-term R&D development.
Perform other duties as assigned.