Lead Cultured Dairy & Fermentation Scientist

Socket.dev; Rochester (MN); On-site; USD 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

DFA seeks a Principal Scientist to lead the development of cultured dairy products from concept to commercialization, focusing on cottage cheese, yogurt, and related platforms. You will serve as a technical expert and mentor within the culturing and fermentation capability area, guiding bench, pilot, and manufacturing scale-up.

Collaborate with engineering, QA, regulatory, and sales to drive innovation, ensure food safety by design, and accelerate speed-to-market.

Qualifications

• B.S. degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Food Microbiology, Dairy Chemistry, Biological Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Fermentation Science, or related discipline
• Master’s degree or Ph.D. desirable
• 10+ years of industry experience in R&D, product development, applications, formulation, commercialization, cultured dairy, cottage cheese, yogurt, fermentation, dairy microbiology, refrigerated dairy foods, dairy processing, or related environments

Responsibilities

• Lead cottage cheese development across formulation, culture selection, coagulation, cutting, cooking, washing, draining, creaming, salt balance, texture, whey control, and shelf-life.
• Lead yogurt and drinkable yogurt development across standardization, heat treatment, inoculation, incubation, fermentation endpoint control, stabilization, and shelf-life.
• Diagnose microbial, process, ingredient, and equipment-related deviations and resolve root causes with Operations and R&D.
• Drive commercialization readiness and partner with cross-functional teams to ensure technology translates to plant trials and launches.
• Mentor and influence R&D resources and contribute to IP opportunities while expanding DFA’s capabilities.

Skills

Dairy fermentation

Starter culture

Scale-up processes

Shelf-life design

Textural analysis

Process troubleshooting

Product development

Education

B.S. in Food/Dairy Science or related

Master’s or Ph.D. desirable

Tools

Salesforce

Job description

DFA seeks a Principal Scientist to lead the development of cultured dairy products from concept to commercialization, focusing on cottage cheese, yogurt, and related platforms. You will serve as a technical expert and mentor within the culturing and fermentation capability area, guiding bench, pilot, and manufacturing scale-up.

Collaborate with engineering, QA, regulatory, and sales to drive innovation, ensure food safety by design, and accelerate speed-to-market.