Senior Scientist – Coffee & Tea Extraction Innovator

Vibrant Ingredients; Vista (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vacation time

Paid holidays

401(k) match

Health & wellness programs

Job summary

Vibrant Ingredients seeks a Senior Scientist to define the future of premium coffee and tea extraction. In this hands-on role, you will apply deep expertise in tea and coffee chemistry, sensory performance, and process development to turn complex technical challenges into scalable ingredient solutions with distinctive flavor, aroma, and quality.

You will lead formulation and development of new coffee and tea extracts, design benchtop and pilot experiments, and translate data into actionable

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related field.
• 10 years of experience in the Food Industry with a proven track record of success in new product development, improving process performance, and product quality.
• Direct experience with coffee/tea/botanical extraction and processing is highly preferred.
• Deep knowledge of manufacturing processes, including extraction, filtration, drying.
• Experience and knowledge of a wide range of aqueous extraction and separation technologies including Spinning Cone column, cold brew coffee, filtration, evaporation, drying.
• Hands on experience working with different tea, coffee raw materials and knowledge of their sensory characteristics and extraction behavior.
• Excellent technical execution and project management skills
• Well-developed communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively throughout all levels of the organization.
• Ability to travel up to 25%
• May involve exposure to allergens such as Soy, Wheat, Fish, Shellfish, Milk, Egg, Tree Nuts and Sesame.

Responsibilities

• Lead formulation and development of new coffee and tea extracts, concentrates, essences, and other value-added products.
• Conduct systematic technical assessment of existing processes. Redefine process parameters to balance extraction efficiency with preservation of desirable flavor and aroma characteristics.
• Design and execute benchtop and pilot extraction experiments to understand the relationship between raw material characteristics, extraction conditions, processing parameters, and finished product performance.
• Generate high-quality technical data and translate results into clear conclusions and recommendations.
• Work with sensory teams and/or conduct structured sensory evaluations to assess product and process performance.
• Stay current with emerging technologies, competitive products, processing methods, and industry trends related to tea and coffee ingredients.
• Manage and drive projects to a successful outcome.

Skills

Tea extraction

Coffee extraction

Process development

Sensory analysis

Project management

Data interpretation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related field

Tools

Spinning Cone column

Filtration

Drying technologies

Job description

Vibrant Ingredients seeks a Senior Scientist to define the future of premium coffee and tea extraction. In this hands-on role, you will apply deep expertise in tea and coffee chemistry, sensory performance, and process development to turn complex technical challenges into scalable ingredient solutions with distinctive flavor, aroma, and quality.

You will lead formulation and development of new coffee and tea extracts, design benchtop and pilot experiments, and translate data into actionable