Senior Scientist, R&D Lifecycle & Commercialization

Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.; Springfield (MO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. is seeking a Sr. Scientist – R&D Life Cycle to lead complex lifecycle workstreams from concept to launch.

This role acts as a senior technical and process leader, governing opportunity intake, briefs, documentation, sensory readiness, and commercialization readiness across cross‑functional teams. The role partners with formulation, process design and validation, pilot plant, sensory, and commercial leaders to develop technically sound formulas, drive scale‑up,

Qualifications

• B.S. degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Biological Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Business, Operations, Project Management, or related discipline required; M.S. and/or Ph.D. desirable.
• 6+ years of industry experience in R&D, product development, formulation, commercialization, food manufacturing, lifecycle management, technical program management, process improvement, operations, or related food industry function.

Responsibilities

• Lead medium‑to‑large or complex lifecycle workstreams and/or multiple concurrent projects, owning lifecycle plans, timing, risks, governance checkpoints, and deliverables.
• Serve as a senior gatekeeper for assigned opportunities, confirming briefs, approvals, documentation, sensory reviews, technical validation, and commercialization readiness requirements are complete before projects advance.
• Review opportunity briefs in depth to clarify customer needs, business value, technical feasibility, project scope, success criteria, decision rights, resource needs, and timing expectations.
• Remove barriers for stuck or high‑priority opportunities by aligning R&D, sales, marketing, innovation, operations, process technology, QA/food safety, regulatory, procurement, finance, supply planning, and business leadership.
• Set expectations and coach project teams on lifecycle discipline, standard work, documentation rigor, clean handoffs, and readiness requirements.

Skills

Lifecycle management

Stage-gate governance

Commercialization readiness

Project prioritization

Documentation

Cross-functional leadership

Formulation development

Scale-up support

Sensory evaluation

Education

B.S. in Food Science or related

M.S./Ph.D. desirable

Tools

PLM

Salesforce CRM

Lifecycle tools

Dashboards

Job description

Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. is seeking a Sr. Scientist – R&D Life Cycle to lead complex lifecycle workstreams from concept to launch.

This role acts as a senior technical and process leader, governing opportunity intake, briefs, documentation, sensory readiness, and commercialization readiness across cross‑functional teams. The role partners with formulation, process design and validation, pilot plant, sensory, and commercial leaders to develop technically sound formulas, drive scale‑up,