Food Scientist

Treehouse Island, Inc.; Downers Grove (IL); On-site; USD 66,000 - 98,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with employer match

Paid time off: four weeks vacation

11 company holidays

Paid training and tuition assistance

Job summary

TreeHouse Foods in Downers Grove, IL is seeking a Food Scientist to lead development of new products and cost improvement initiatives across powdered beverage, creamer, and dry mix categories. You will work closely with Marketing, Sales, Quality, Procurement, and Operations to deliver innovations from concept through commercialization.

This role offers opportunity to lead product development, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and drive continuous improvement across the organization with a

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, or related field.
• 3 years experience in Food Science Product Development.
• Experience in powdered beverage, creamer, dry mix, or similar product categories preferred.
• Understanding of ingredient functionality and interactions within dry systems.
• Strong communication and cross-functional teamwork.
• Self-starter with project management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead development from concept to commercialization for new products and cost optimization.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Sales, QA, Procurement, and Operations across functions.
• Transfer technology to operations when commercializing products.
• Provide technical oversight of manufacturing start-ups and ongoing technical service.
• Drive pipeline work to support cost optimization through formulation and processing efficiencies.

Skills

Cross-functional teamwork

Project management

Communication skills

Self-starter

Education

Bachelor's degree in Food Science or related field

Job description

Employee Details:

Employee Type: Full time Location: IL Downers Grove (Woodcreek Dr) Job Type: Research and Development Job Posting Title: Food Scientist

About Us:

TreeHouse Foods is a leading manufacturer of private label packaged foods and beverages, operating a network of over 20 production facilities and several corporate offices across the United States and Canada. At TreeHouse Foods, our commitment to excellence extends beyond our products and revolves around our people. We are investing in talent and creating a performance-based culture where employees can do their best work and develop their careers, directly impacting our mission to make high quality, affordable food for our customers, communities, and families. We hope you will consider joining the team and being part of our future. Named one of America’s Best Large Employers by Forbes Magazine, we are proud to live by a strong set of values and strive to “Engage and Delight – One Customer at a Time”. Guided by our values—Own It, Commit to Excellence, Be Agile, Speak Up, and Better Together. We are a diverse team driven by integrity, accountability, and a commitment to exceptional results. We embrace change, prioritize continuous learning, and foster collaboration, transparency, and healthy debate. Together, we set each other up for success to achieve enterprise-wide goals.

What You Gain:

• Competitive compensation and benefits program with no waiting period – you’re eligible from your first day!
• 401(k) program with 5% employer match and 100% vesting as soon as you enroll.
• Comprehensive paid time off opportunities, including immediate access to four weeks of vacation, five sick days, parental leave and 11 company holidays (including two floating holidays).
• Leaders who are invested in supporting your accelerated career growth, plus paid training, tuition reimbursement and a robust educational platform – DevelopU – with more than 10,000 free courses to support you along the way.
• An inclusive working environment where you can build meaningful work relationships with a diverse group of professionals.
• Take advantage of opportunities to build on our team-oriented culture, such as joining one of our Employee Resource Groups.
• Access to our wellness and employee assistance programs.

Job Description:

About the Role:

We are seeking a Food Scientist to join our R&D team at our Downers Grove/Oak Brook, Illinois corporate office. Working under limited supervision, this role is responsible for leading the development of new products, product improvements, and cost optimization initiatives across powdered beverage, creamer, and dry mix categories. In this role, you will work closely with cross-functional teams including Marketing, Sales, Quality, Procurement, and Operations to deliver innovative, high-quality products that meet business and customer needs. This position offers the opportunity to lead product development from concept through commercialization while supporting innovation and continuous improvement across the organization. You’ll add value to this role by performing various functions including, but not limited to:

• Under limited supervision, works collaboratively in the execution of development from bench to production scale for new products, product improvements and cost savings projects.
• Defines the formulation, nutritional, and process parameters needed to develop a product which meets the project objective(s).
• Understands the impact of these parameters on the overall project.
• Applies sound scientific methods in all stages of development.
• Including planning and executing trials, analyzing data, and defining solutions to achieve project goals.
• Identifies opportunities for competitive market advantage.
• Provide judgement and experience to assure that an appropriate level of technical knowledge and discipline are being applied and utilized in business decisions.
• Partner and communicate effectively with cross‑functional groups: Marketing, Sales, QA, Procurement, Finance, Operations and Engineering.
• Ensure the transfer of technology to the operations team when commercializing products.
• Provide technical oversight of internal and external manufacturing start‑ups and ongoing technical service.
• Contribute significantly and continually to attain results through the generation and application of advanced, specialized knowledge.
• Generate and support pipeline work to drive cost optimization through formulation and processing efficiencies.
• Participates in customer presentations and/or preparing product, content for customer meetings.

Important Details:

The anticipated compensation for this position ranges from $65,500.00 - 98,300.00 USD annually. This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue-based metrics and business or organizational needs. For certain roles, the successful candidate may be eligible for annual discretionary merit compensation award, bonus and equity pay. This is a full-time role based in our Downers Grove/Oak Brook, IL office. Travel up to thirty percent (30%) may be required to support plant trials, customer needs, and project work.

You’ll fit right in if you have:

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, or related field required.
• 3 years experience in Food Science Product Development.
• Experience in powdered beverage, creamer, dry mix, or similar product categories preferred.
• Understanding of ingredient functionality and interactions within dry systems.
• Communicate effectively and openly while working in a cross‑functional team.
• Must be a self‑starter, independent, energetic and resourceful.
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills.
• Solid Project Management skills and experience.
• Aptitude for technical leadership and project management.

At TreeHouse Foods, we embrace diversity and inclusion for innovation and growth. We are committed to building inclusive teams and an equitable workplace for our employees to bring their true selves to work to help us “Engage and Delight – One Customer at a Time”. TreeHouse Foods is an Equal Opportunity Employer that prohibits discrimination or harassment of any type. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Applicants who require an accommodation to participate in the job application or hiring process should contact disability‑[e-mail]