Senior Scientist, R&D - Food Service

Campbell Soup Supply; New Jersey; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Campbell's is seeking a senior product development professional to lead the design and commercialization of new Campbell Food Service products, translating operator and consumer feedback into scalable formats.

You will manage timelines, prototypes, and collaborations with Marketing, Sales, Culinary, Insights, and Supply Chain to ensure cost, nutrition, quality, and guardrail targets are met.

Qualifications

• Experience in food product development and commercialization.
• Ability to translate culinary insights into prototypes and new formats.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration across marketing, sales, culinary, insights, supply chain, and operations.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage technical timelines for multiple product-development projects.
• Lead projects from concept through commercialization with operator and consumer feedback.
• Define manufacturing needs and equipment requirements with cross-functional teams.
• Lead pilot plant trials to assess scale-up feasibility and product specs.
• Apply scientific principles to improve products and processes.

Skills

Product development

Project management

R&D

Scale-up

Job description

Since 1869, we've connected people through food they love. We're proud to be stewards of amazing brands that people trust. Our portfolio includes the iconic Campbell's brand, as well as Cape Cod, Chunky, Goldfish, Kettle Brand, Lance, Late July, Pacific Foods, Pepperidge Farm, Prego, Pace, Rao's Homemade, Snack Factory, Snyder's of Hanover. Swanson, and V8.

Why Campbell's...

Benefits begin on day one and include medical, dental, short and long-term disability, AD&D, and life insurance (for individual, families, and domestic partners).

Employees are eligible for our matching 401(k) plan and can enroll on the first day of employment with immediate vesting.

Campbell's offers unlimited sick time along with paid time off and holiday pay.

If in WHQ - free access to the fitness center.

Access to on-site day care (operated by Bright Horizons) and company store.

Giving back to the communities where our employees work and live is very important to Campbell's. Our "Campbell's Cares" program matches employee donations and/or volunteer activity up to $1,500 annually.

Campbell's has a variety of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to support employees.

How You Will Make History Here...

The successful candidate in this role will be responsible for developing new Campbell Food Service (CFS) product designs that support well-defined business propositions and incorporate operator and consumer feedback. Working with minimal supervision, this individual will lead product development from concept through commercialization and apply strong technical principles, experimentation, and creative problem-solving skills.

This position supports frozen and shelf-stable soups, sauces, entrées/simple meals, dips, and new platforms. New-platform work includes new product formats and technologies that enable scalable solutions for emerging operator and channel opportunities.

What You Will Do...

• With minimal supervision, develop and manage technical timelines and activities for multiple product-development projects. Partner with Marketing, Sales, Culinary, Insights, Supply Chain, and Commercialization Planning to define milestones, R&D activities, and timing.
• Lead projects from concept through commercialization based on product-design criteria and operator and consumer feedback. Build and refine prototypes to identify winning formulations.
• Work with Process R&D, Engineering, Packaging, Operations, suppliers, and co-manufacturers to define manufacturing needs and equipment requirements.
• Lead trials in pilot plants and manufacturing facilities, including co-manufacturers, to assess scale-up feasibility, production repeatability, and finished-product specifications.
• Proactively apply scientific knowledge and technical skills to business issues and opportunities. Incorporate operator and consumer feedback into prototype development.
• Deliver products against business objectives, including cost, nutrition, quality, and food guardrail targets.
• Perform analyses, testing, and experiments to develop or improve products and processes.
• Identify and communicate constraints and risks, solve technical problems, and provide sound technical guidance, proposals, and recommendations.
• Adapt formulations and processes to internal and external manufacturing systems.
• Lead operator collaboration, concept development, menu-gap analysis, and efforts to win new business.
• Provide technical leadership in operator-facing meetings and presentations.
• Partner with Marketing, Sales, Culinary, and Insights to identify and build concepts for new products and platforms.
• Translate culinary trends and operator and consumer insights into prototypes, line extensions, new product formats, and technologies that support scalable operator and channel opportunities.
• Establish and maintain shelf-life studies for assigned projects and lead competitive benchmarking. Apply findings to product design, quality improvement, and business-development opportunities.
• Manage and prioritize multiple projects while remaining flexible as operator and business needs change.
• Work effectively through ambiguity, identify critical-path activities and risks, persevere through less-defined work, and communicate implications to business partners and management.
• Collaborate with Purchasing on ingredient supply and costing; partner with Process R&D, Engineering, Packaging, Operations, and Supply Chain on equipment and manufacturing requirements; and leverage internal and external expertise to resolve technical challenges.
• Adapt Campbell formulations and processes to co-manufacturer equipment and systems while maintaining product quality, feasibility, and repeatability.
• Apply proficient technical R&D expertise and a strong understanding of scale-up and manufacturing challenges.
• Demonstrate financial and business acumen, including P&Ls, menu engineeri