Job Description

About Us

The Kraft Heinz Company is one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, with eight $1 billion+ brands and global sales of approximately $25 billion. Were a globally trusted producer of high-quality, great-tasting, and nutritious foods for over 150 years. While Kraft Heinz is co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh, our brands are truly global, with products produced and marketed in over 40 countries. These beloved products include condiments and sauces, cheese and dairy, meals, meats, refreshment beverages, coffee, infant and nutrition products, and numerous other grocery products in a portfolio of more than 200 legacy and emerging brands.

We spark joy around mealtime with our iconic brands, including Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Heinz, Philadelphia, Lunchables, Velveeta, Planters, Maxwell House, Capri Sun, Ore-Ida, Kool-Aid, Jell-O, Primal Kitchen, and Classico, among others.

No matter the brand, were united under one vision: To sustainably grow by delighting more consumers globally. Bringing this vision to life is our team of 39,000+ food lovers, creative thinkers, and high performers worldwide. Together, we help provide meals to those in need through our global partnership with Rise Against Hunger. We also stand committed to responsible, sustainable practices that extend to every facet of our business, our consumers, and our communities. Every day, were transforming the food industry with bold thinking and unprecedented results. If you share our passion and are ready to create the future, build a legacy, and lead as a global citizen theres only one thing to do: join our table and lets make life delicious!

Our Culture of Ownership, Meritocracy & Collaboration

We're not afraid to think differently. Embrace new ideas. Dream big. We empower our people at every level from entry-level intern to senior leader to own their work. We share a responsibility to think like Owners to be mindful of the collective and sustained success of Kraft Heinz which we apply to every situation, every day. As part of Kraft Heinz, you're supported to grow and achieve. Youre expected to bring your authentic self to work every day, to lead with humility, and drive outstanding performance at every level and youll be rewarded. Youre given opportunities to leave a mark and build a legacy. But you wont do it alone. Youre supported by passionate teammates along the way, and our collective, collaborative spirit fuels our incredible progress.

Job Description

The Kraft Heinz Tech Discovery & Development team is seeking individuals with expertise in one of the following: lipids, proteins, enzymes, or bioconversion and fermentation, or preservation. This individual will take on new research objectives as a Principal Scientist within the Global Growth R&D team. This position offers the candidate an excellent opportunity to lead innovative and disruptive ingredient technology platforms while creating competitive advantage across the global Kraft Heinz portfolio.

The candidate will manage technical platforms, identify and lead ingredient technology development initiatives. The candidate should be able to also identify future technology platforms, prioritize research pathways, demonstrate proof of concept, develop prototypes, conduct technology scale up trials, validate technology in model systems and applications, conduct consumer testing, and commercialize technologies.

This individual must have a proven strong technical background, leadership, intellectual curiosity, problem solving and project management skills. Technical background must include at least one of the following:

* Lipids: Lipid chemistry/processing and emulsion science, knowledge of structure and functionality of edible fats is a plus. Ingredient fundamentals and their interaction, specifically to lipids, emulsions, emulsion systems, dairy and non-dairy, cultured or non-cultured.

* Proteins: Food or ingredient science, ingredient interactions, ingredient functionality, flavor science/applications. Proven expert knowledge with broad ingredient fundamentals and their interactions. Proven expert knowledge with dairy and non-dairy science, emulsion technology, flavor/ingredient interactions, in plant-based systems.

* Enzymes: Protein chemistry, enzymology, ingredient interactions, and processing for improved protein functionality. Knowledge on fermentation, enzymatic conversions, and designing systems for optimizing enzymatic activity is also desired. Must exhibit expertise in developing bioassays for screening and knowledge building on characterization of proteins and enzymes. Experience with ingredient fundamentals and their interactions, specifically to proteins, both dairy and non-dairy is a plus.

* Bioconversions/Fermentation: Proven technical background, leadership, intellectual curiosity, problem solving and project management skills. Strong fermentation, ingredient and product development skills. Expert in fermentation/ bioconversions/ biochemistry. Expert in developing different bioassays to drive screening and knowledge building.
* * Food Preservation: Applied microbiology with expertise in food preservation and antimicrobial technologies. Experience in working in BSL-2 lab. Expert in developing different bioassays to drive screening and knowledge building. Strong fermentation, ingredient and product development skills is a plus.

Experience in any of these core areas including plant-based ingredients or proteins is a plus.

The candidate will also have cross-functional team interaction with the scientific community/ecosystem outside of Kraft Heinz, the internal marketing, Business Units R&D, procurement, finance, operations, quality, regulatory and manufacturing. He or she will need to interact and build research collaboration programs with the external ecosystem while progressing some of the research pathways internally.

Responsibilities:

* The individual will identify, scope, design and develop technology platforms to support different KHC product categories renovations and innovations initiatives
* Design and execute experimental plans. Apply learnings to drive product renovation and /or innovation
* Possess strong technical functional skills to evaluate lipids and other ingredients for functionality and process interaction in various food matrixes, including plant based foods.
* Be able to embrace all aspects of ingredient technology development including the fuzzy front end, ideation, design, development and commercialization.
* The candidate will need to also understand fundamentally other product technologies associated with applications.
* Establish solid project research plans, conduct appropriate testing, gather and analyze data, develop recommendation and assess risk based on finding
* Conduct bench top, pilot plant and plant trials to explore, optimize formulation and processes.
* Work cross functionally with other team members to progress company research project
* Responsible for technology scouting and discovery.
* Build /have external connection to research partners such as universities, research centers, consultants

Technical Requirements:

* PhD in one of the following: Food Science, Emulsion Science, Dairy Science, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Biochemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, or related fields, with 3-5+ years of relevant experience or MS in the above fields with 5+ years of relevant experience
* Strong ingredient and food matrix /model system knowledge
* Demonstrated record of conducting research development projects either individually and or in collaboration with other teams
* Demonstrated executional excellence in technology discovery, scale up and commercialization experiences

Additional Requirements:

* Demonstrated ability to prioritize and manage complexity while ensuring setting up research planning for success
* Demonstrated ability to deal with ambiguity
* Demonstrated track record of creative out of the box thinker with ability to define and prioritize research pathways that will ensure success.
* Possess excellent industry external ecosystem, demonstrate ability to tap into external knowledge and or set successful external collaborations.
* Possess technical /intellectual curiosity. Insulate technology to create KHC competitive advantage.
* Ability to manage projects with a high degree of autonomy
* Excellent verbal and communication skills

Location(s)

Glenview R&D Center

Equal Opportunity Employerminorities/females/veterans/individuals with disabilities/sexual orientation/gender identity