Principal Technical Expert, Plant Extract
Job Description
You’re not the person who will settle for just any role. Neither are we. Because we’re out to create Better Care for a Better World, and that takes a certain kind of person and teams who care about making a difference. Here, you’ll bring your professional expertise, talent, and drive to building and managing our portfolio of iconic, ground-breaking brands. In this role, you’ll help us deliver better care for billions of people around the world. It starts with YOU.
Kimberly-Clark is seeking a Principal Technical Expert, Plant Extract to serve as the senior individual contributor responsible for understanding the plant, its chemistry, its variability, and the ways it can be transformed into useful, differentiated ingredients. This role owns the science and technical learning agenda for the plant extract. You will characterize the raw material, identify active and valuable constituents, develop extraction and fractionation concepts, and define fit-for-purpose ingredient forms for multiple markets.
You will work across research, process development, formulation, analytical, regulatory, quality, commercial, and external technology partners. Your role is to create the technical understanding and ingredient concepts for the business to commercialize.
This is an individual-contributor role with no direct people-management responsibility. The focus is technical depth, creative problem solving, experimental design, scientific judgment, and translating complex plant science into clear ingredient and business opportunities.
In this role, you will:
- Build a fundamental understanding of plant composition, seasonal and batch variability, active and inactive constituents, impurities, degradation pathways, and relationships between chemistry, processing, and performance.
- Design and execute laboratory and pilot studies to characterize the plant extract and reduce uncertainty around composition, functionality, stability, safety, and value.
- Develop and evaluate extraction, fractionation, concentration, stabilization, drying, and other processing concepts that create useful ingredient forms. Provide technical targets and learning priorities to the process engineering lead.
- Identify promising compounds, fractions, and extract forms that can create differentiated value target markets.
- Define critical material attributes, marker compounds, analytical methods, specifications, and performance requirements for extracts, fractions, concentrates, and other value-added ingredients.
- Partner with the Senior Formulation Scientist to translate ingredient hypotheses into application requirements, screening plans, prototypes, and performance testing.
- Partner with the Technical Project Leader, Process Engineering to translate research findings into scalable process requirements, mass-balance assumptions, recovery targets, quality limits, and technical risks.
- Use analytical data, designed experiments, technical modeling, and scientific literature to develop structure-function and composition-performance relationships.
- Evaluate technical, economic, quality, safety, sustainability, and intellectual-property implications of alternative ingredient pathways. Make clear recommendations when a go/no-go decision is required.
- Build external capability through universities, contract laboratories, technology suppliers, equipment manufacturers, and other strategic partners.
- Support regulatory, product-safety, claims, and intellectual-property assessments for plant-extract-based ingredients and applications.
- Document technical findings, learning plans, specifications, study protocols, conclusions, and recommendations in a clear and decision-ready manner.
- Provide technical mentoring and thought partnership to scientists, engineers, formulators, and cross-functional teams without formal people-management responsibility.
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About Us
Huggies®. Kleenex®. Cottonelle®. Scott®. Kotex®. Poise®. Depend®. Kimberly-Clark Professional®. You already know our legendary brands - and so does the rest of the world. In fact, millions of people use Kimberly-Clark products every day. We know these amazing Kimberly-Clark products wouldn’t exist without talented professionals, like you. At Kimberly-Clark, you’ll be part of the best team committed to driving innovation, growth and impact. We’re founded on more than 150 years of market leadership, and we’re always looking for new and better ways to perform – so there’s your open door of opportunity. It’s all here for you at Kimberly-Clark.
Led by Purpose. Driven by You.
About You You perform at the highest level possible, and you appreciate a performance culture fueled by authentic caring. You want to be part of a company actively dedicated to sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development. You love what you do, especially when the work you do makes a difference. At Kimberly-Clark, we’re constantly exploring new ideas on how, when, and where we can best achieve results. When you join our team, you’ll experience Flex That Works: flexible (hybrid) work arrangements that empower you to have purposeful time in the office and partner with your leader to make flexibility work for both you and the business.
In one of our professional roles, you’ll focus on winning with consumers and the market, while putting safety, mutual respect, and human dignity at the center.
To succeed in this role, you will need the following qualifications:
- Master’s degree or Ph.D. preferred in chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemistry, biochemical engineering, food science, pharmaceutical science, cosmetic science, materials science, or a related discipline.
- Typically 10 or more years of experience in natural products, plant science, process chemistry, bioprocessing, specialty chemicals, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, personal care, agricultural processing, or a related technical field.
- Demonstrated success solving complex scientific or technical problems involving biological, botanical, or other variable raw materials.
- Strong understanding of composition analysis, extraction and separation science, solubility and phase behavior, degradation mechanisms, impurity management, mass balances, and structure-function relationships.
- Experience using analytical data and designed experiments to identify critical quality attributes, establish specifications, and guide technical decisions.
- Ability to connect plant chemistry and ingredient attributes to application performance, business value, cost, quality, sustainability, and intellectual property.
- Strong written, verbal, presentation, influencing, and technical storytelling skills.
- Ability to make sound decisions with incomplete information and create structure in ambiguous situations.
- Willingness to travel approximately 20% to 30%, depending on project and partner requirements.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Botanical extracts, natural products, bioactive compounds, plant-derived surfactants, personal care, household care, agriculture or related applications.
- Experience developing value-added ingredients from complex biological or plant-derived streams.
- Experience with membrane separations, adsorption or resin technologies, chromatography, evaporation, drying, stabilization, or related technologies.
- Experience with nontraditional feedstocks, agricultural crops, seasonal raw materials, or first-of-kind technical systems.
- Experience supporting regulatory, microbial, toxicology, product safety, claims, or intellectual-property assessments.
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What success looks like:
Within the first 12 to 18 months, you will have:
- Established a reliable understanding of plant-extract composition, variability, functionality, and key quality attributes.
- Identified and technically characterized promising extract forms, fractions, and value-added ingredient opportunities across priority markets.
- Developed a prioritized research and learning plan with clear technical decision points.
- Defined the ingredient attributes, specifications, and process requirements needed by formulation and process engineering partners.
- Generated the data and recommendations needed for pilot, commercialization, partnership, and go/no-go decisions.
- Created a strong technical foundation for scalable processes and market-ready formulations.
Location and Travel:
This role will be based in Summit, New Jersey. Travel to research, pilot, manufacturing, supplier, technology-partner, and customer locations will be required as the program develops.
Total Benefits Here are just a few of the benefits you’d enjoy working in this role for Kimberly-Clark. For a complete overview, see www.mykcbenefits.com.
Great support for good health with medical, dental, and vision coverage options with no waiting periods or pre-existing condition restrictions. Access to an on-site fitness center, occupational health nurse, and allowances for high-quality safety equipment. Flexible Savings and spending accounts to maximize health care options and stretch dollars when caring for yourself or dependents. Diverse income protection insurance options to protect yourself and your family in case of illness, injury, or other unexpected events. Additional programs and support to continue your education, adopt a child, relocate, or even find temporary childcare.
To Be Considered Click the Apply button and complete the online application process. A member of our recruiting team will review your application and follow up if you seem like a great fit for this role. In the meantime, please check out the careers website.
And finally, the fine print…. For Kimberly-Clark to grow and prosper, we must be an inclusive organization that applies the diverse experiences and passions of its team members to brands that make life better for people all around the world, which is why we seek to build a workforce that encompasses the experiences of our consumers. When you bring your original thinking to Kimberly-Clark, you fuel the continued success of our enterprise. We are a committed equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
The statements above are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this classification. Statements are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and skills required for this position.
Employment is subject to verification of local policies.
Employment is subject to verification of pre-screening tests which may include drug screening, background check, and DMV check.
Veterans and members of the Reserve and Guard are highly encouraged to apply.
Kimberly-Clark will support in-country relocation for the chosen candidate for the role. The benefits provided will be per the terms of Kimberly-Clark’s applicable mobility policies. The benefits/policy provided will be decided at Kimberly-Clark’s sole discretion.
Salary Range: 105,740 – 130,620 USD At Kimberly-Clark, pay is just one aspect of our total rewards package, which also includes a variety of benefits and opportunities to achieve, thrive and grow. Along with base pay, this position offers eligibility for a target bonus and a comprehensive benefits suite, including our 401(k) and Profit Sharing plan. The anticipated base pay range for this role is provided above for a fully qualified hire. Actual pay will depend on several factors, such as location, role, skills, performance, and experience. Please note that the stated pay range applies to US locations only. Primary Location Summit, NJ, USA Additional Locations
Worker Type Employee Worker Sub-Type Regular
Time Type
Full time
