RD&A Senior Scientist / Coffee

About Kerry

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

About the role

We are seeking an innovative and customer-focused RD&A Scientist to lead formulation and concept development for the Dairy and Coffee Beverage market across North America.

In this role, you will take ownership of product development projects from initial concept through commercialization, working across both liquid and powdered beverage formats. You will combine technical expertise, creativity, commercial awareness, and customer insight to develop innovative products that meet performance, cost, regulatory, and manufacturing requirements.

This is a permanent position with significant cross-functional and customer-facing exposure.

Key responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end formulation and concept development for internal and customer projects within the Dairy and Coffee Beverage market.
• Develop products across liquid and powdered beverage applications, translating customer briefs into technically feasible and commercially relevant solutions.
• Apply technical knowledge of ingredients, formulation, processing, and beverage applications to successfully deliver project objectives.
• Create innovative products while working within established cost, regulatory, quality, and manufacturing parameters.
• Ensure new formulations comply with applicable requirements in their intended country of use.
• Plan and manage pilot plant validation, including product preparation, process evaluation, troubleshooting, and optimization.
• Support and facilitate first production trials, working closely with internal manufacturing teams and third-party manufacturers to transition products successfully from laboratory or pilot scale to commercial production.
• Build strong relationships with customers through clear technical communication, virtual and on-site meetings, product presentations, development sessions, and production trials.
• Serve as a technical partner to customers by understanding their product challenges and recommending appropriate formulation solutions.
• Collaborate extensively with Flavorists, Nutrition Scientists, Regulatory Affairs, Marketing, Manufacturing, Procurement, Sales, Business Development, and Finance to successfully deliver projects.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with raw material and ingredient suppliers to remain informed about emerging ingredients, technologies, and processing improvements.
• Identify opportunities to incorporate new technologies and ingredients into beverage concepts and customer solutions.
• Maintain accurate product development documentation, formulations, trial records, and project updates.

Qualifications and skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Chemistry, Dairy Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related scientific discipline.
• Product development or formulation experience within the food, beverage, dairy, coffee, flavor, or ingredient industry.
• Hands-on experience taking formulations from bench development through pilot plant and commercial scale-up.
• Understanding of ingredient functionality and processing requirements in beverage systems.
• Experience with liquid and/or powdered beverage formulations is highly desirable.Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to troubleshoot formulation and processing challenges.
• Strong project-management and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple development projects and customer priorities simultaneously.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly cross-functional environment.
• Strong customer orientation with the ability to translate customer needs into practical technical solutions.

The pay range for this position is $70,100 - $109,050 in Annual Salary. Kerry typically does not hire an individual at the top or near the top of the range, as we are a pay-for-performance company, and this range is set to continue to reward performance annually while in role. Compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. The specific compensation offered to a candidate within the above range may be influenced by a variety of factors including skills, qualifications, experience, and internal equity. Kerry offers a competitive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, paid time off, a 401(k) plan with employee and company contribution opportunities, Employee Share Plan, Life, disability, and accident insurance, and tuition reimbursement. This job posting is anticipated to expire on January 30th, 2027.

We may use artificial intelligence tools to support the review and assessment of applications and assist with scheduling interviews. We do not use AI to make decisions during the interview process. All candidate assessments and hiring decisions are made by our recruitment and leadership teams