Director, R&D - Formulation

Leads formulation-driven R&D activities across priority business platforms, ensuring development of commercially viable products that meet customer, regulatory, operational, sensory, nutritional, and financial expectations. Responsible for translating customer briefs and business priorities into optimized, scalable formulations while driving innovation, cost competitiveness, IP development and protection, and monetization of the opportunity pipeline. This role leads the formulation organization with a clear focus on speed-to-market, first-round sample acceptance (making it to the second round and/or hitting customer expectations), commercialization success, and organic growth through new product development, applications development, benchtop sessions, standard samples, and formulation cost-out. While formulation is the primary focus, this role and the team also provide process design, process validation, scale-up support, plant trial leadership, and troubleshooting expertise when required to ensure products can be successfully manufactured at commercial scale.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

Formulation Development & Execution:

Lead formulation development from concept through pilot plant readiness across dairy beverages, cultured systems, sauces, cheese, dry blends, concentrates, flavors, specialty co-drying, and other priority platforms

Translate customer briefs, business objectives, and consumer needs into executable formulation plans with clear success criteria, timelines, risks, and decision points

Own ingredient selection, supplier qualification input, benchtop development, iterative prototyping, formula optimization, nutritional targets, and application validation

Use sensory science, analytical data (from R&D work and plants), and customer end-use testing to ensure products meet or exceed expectations for taste, functionality, nutrition, processing performance, and shelf-life

Drive disciplined documentation in R&D modeling solutions, including formula version control, development notes, learnings, specifications, sample history, and commercialization readiness inputs

Define and validate critical product and process requirements, including processing conditions, ingredient addition sequence, hydration, shear, heat treatment, hold times, cooling, packaging considerations, and other parameters needed to translate bench formulations into repeatable manufacturing processes.

Commercialization Readiness & Pipeline Monetization:

Monetize the opportunity and innovation pipeline by prioritizing formulation work that supports growth, margin, strategic customer needs, and ROI expectations

Drive formulation support for priority commercialization programs, ensuring samples are internally validated before customer submission and ready for scale-up handoff

Partner with Processing Design & Validation, Operations, Quality, Regulatory, Procurement, Supply Chain, Finance, and Commercialization to reduce risk from bench to pilot plant to full-scale production

Lead or support process design and validation work when formulation decisions directly affect equipment capability, processing windows, yield, product stability, food safety, quality attributes, throughput, or commercial feasibility

Improve speed-to-market, sample turnaround time, first-round acceptance (making it to the second round and/or hitting customer expectations), scale-up success, and customer conversion through disciplined development plans and decision-making

Partner with plants and technical resources to design trials, establish run conditions, evaluate process performance, document learnings, and confirm that the final formula-process combination is ready for repeatable commercialization

Use CRM/Salesforce and R&D metrics to manage opportunity status, project milestones, sample activity, pipeline health, and leadership reporting.

Cost, Margin & Formula Optimization:

Lead formula cost modeling, least-cost formulation, and flexible formulation strategies that account for commodity volatility, raw material availability, customer requirements, and supply chain realities

Deliver margin improvement through ingredient optimization, reformulation, cost-out, and value engineering while protecting product performance and customer acceptance

Build formulation approaches that allow for ingredient substitution, raw material flexibility, and supply continuity without compromising quality, safety, or label expectations

Partner with Finance, Procurement, and Commercial teams to ensure development decisions are connected to COGS, pricing effectiveness, profitability, and business case expectations

Innovation, Capability Development & IP:

Drive formulation-based innovation in protein fortification, stabilization and emulsification, fermentation and flavor development, natural emulsification, fat utilization, dairy powders, concentrates, sauces, permeate, cultured products, specialty co-drying, and other new aspects of food science

Expand DFA’s technical capabilities by identifying new ingredients, technologies, methods, and formulation approaches that create differentiated customer solutions and switching barriers

Partner with engineering, process technology, operations, and Sr. Principal Scientists to connect advanced discovery with scalable formulation and commercialization pathways

Contribute technical leadership to process design and validation for new or complex product platforms, particularly where formulation functionality, process capability, equipment design, and commercialization risk are highly interdependent

Identify, develop, document, and protect intellectual property where formulation, ingredient systems, applications, or process/formula combinations create unique value.

Customer, Commercial & Cross-Functional Leadership:

Lead technical engagement with customers through benchtop sessions, ideation meetings, demos, sample reviews, troubleshooting, plant trials, and post-launch support

Support Sales, Marketing, Innovation, and business leaders by translating customer strategies, brand needs, and category priorities into commercially relevant formulation solutions

Influence cross-functional partners to “solve for yes” while maintaining food safety, regulatory, quality, operational, and financial discipline

Contribute technical content and review customer-facing presentations, sell sheets, technical briefs, and commercialization materials for accuracy and impact

Team Leadership & Talent Development:

Lead and develop a formulation team that may include Principal Scientists, Sr. Scientists, Scientists, Associate Scientists, and other technical resources assigned to formulation-related work

Build technical depth and breadth across wet and dry dairy systems, applications, cost-out, customer support, and commercialization readiness

Ensure the team maintains practical capability in process design, process validation, plant trial execution, troubleshooting, and scale-up support so formulation work remains connected to operational reality

Establish development plans, coaching routines, technical standards, and learning opportunities that strengthen bench strength and career progression

Create a culture of accountability, speed, monetization, customer focus, and “do what it takes to win” while reinforcing a “never stop learning” mindset

The requirements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employee, but is not a complete list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required. Other duties may be assigned as required.