Sr. Scientist – R&D Life Cycle

Dairy Farmers of America•Springfield, MO

About The Position

The Sr. Scientist – R&D Life Cycle leads complex R&D lifecycle and formulation workstreams from concept through launch. The role provides senior technical and process leadership across opportunity intake, brief quality, 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 with cross-functional teams to develop technically sound formulas, remove barriers, improve sample acceptance, strengthen scale-up and commercialization success, and improve the R&D operating system. The position owns lifecycle plans, timing, risks, governance checkpoints, and deliverables for medium-to-large or complex workstreams and concurrent projects. It reviews opportunities for business value and technical feasibility, confirms readiness requirements, improves lifecycle systems and analytics, and coaches project teams on standards and documentation. It also leads hands-on formulation and product development, supports sensory and sampling readiness, coordinates plant-trial and commercialization readiness, and drives continuous improvement and business impact.

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 capabilities, 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, including the ability to explain complex technical, commercial, and operational issues for leadership and cross-functional decisions.
Ability to manage a heavy workload and 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.
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 plans, timing, risks, governance checkpoints, and deliverables.
Review opportunity briefs and confirm business value, technical feasibility, scope, success criteria, decision rights, resources, 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 high-priority or stalled opportunities by aligning cross-functional teams and business leaders.
Coach project teams on lifecycle discipline, standard work, documentation, handoffs, and readiness requirements.
Lead and improve lifecycle systems, schedules, templates, dashboards, and project tracking routines.
Partner with R&D leadership to prioritize work, balance workloads, allocate resources, and focus on high-value opportunities.
Develop, analyze, maintain, and communicate lifecycle KPIs, including turnaround time, acceptance rates, scale-up and commercialization success, cycle time, resource utilization, and ROI impact.
Use data and process observations to identify bottlenecks, resource constraints, data-quality issues, process gaps, and improvement opportunities.
Implement and optimize lifecycle 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 and product development work, including formula development, ingredient selection, benchtop work, pilot preparation, sample execution, and technical troubleshooting.
Translate customer, business, regulatory, cost, nutrition, labeling, sensory, processing, and operational requirements into scalable, manufacturable formulas.
Develop and improve 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, process parameters, equipment assumptions, plant capabilities, and scale-up requirements.
Provide lifecycle oversight for sensory science, sampling, customer-ready outputs, and stage-gate readiness; ensure samples meet brief requirements before customer submission when applicable.
Ensure matching projects and appropriate development work receive 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, materials, packaging, shelf life, labeling, food safety, regulatory needs, and customer deliverables.
Lead readiness reviews and post-project learning to improve speed, robustness, documentation, and commercialization outcomes.
Align R&D priorities with customer needs, business strategy, operational feasibility, and commercial value; facilitate reviews, escalations, action closure, risk mitigation, and leadership updates.
Report pipeline health, project status, capacity, risks, bottlenecks, wins, and improvement opportunities to leadership.
Coach Scientists, Associate Scientists, technical resources, and project participants on process expectations, documentation, data integrity, and readiness.
Promote a collaborative 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 work, simplify handoffs, improve transparency, and standardize project initiation, development, validation, and commercialization.
Translate R&D priorities into operating routines, lifecycle standards, resource plans, training needs, and measurable outcomes.
Identify capability needs in processes, systems, data, documentation, technical discipline, and commercialization readiness.
Perform other duties as assigned.