Head of Dairy Formulation & Innovation

Dairy Challenge; Springfield (MO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Dairy Challenge is seeking a senior leader to drive formulation-driven R&D across priority platforms, translating customer briefs into optimized, scalable formulations and ensuring commercial viability, regulatory compliance, and cost competitiveness. This role leads a multidisciplinary team focused on speed-to-market and robust sample acceptance.

You will guide cost-out efforts, protect IP, and partner with Operations, QA, Regulatory, and Supply Chain to accelerate scale-up while delivering

Qualifications

• Bachelor-level degree in a relevant science discipline required; advanced degrees preferred.
• Progressive R&D leadership in food/dairy with formulation-driven development.
• Willingness to travel and collaborate across functions.

Responsibilities

• Lead formulation development from concept through pilot plant readiness across dairy platforms.
• Translate briefs into executable plans with clear success criteria and timelines.
• Own ingredient selection, prototyping, and formula optimization with validation.
• Drive cost-out, margin improvements, and flexible formulation strategies.
• Collaborate across departments to connect formulation to commercialization and scale-up.

Skills

Formulation science

Ingredient functionality

Dairy chemistry

Sensory optimization

Applications testing

Commercial product development

Leadership

Project management

Education

B.S. degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Biological Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related discipline

Master’s degree or Ph.D. desirable

Tools

CRM/Salesforce

Cost modeling tools

Job description

Dairy Challenge is seeking a senior leader to drive formulation-driven R&D across priority platforms, translating customer briefs into optimized, scalable formulations and ensuring commercial viability, regulatory compliance, and cost competitiveness. This role leads a multidisciplinary team focused on speed-to-market and robust sample acceptance.

You will guide cost-out efforts, protect IP, and partner with Operations, QA, Regulatory, and Supply Chain to accelerate scale-up while delivering