Principal Scientist, R&D - Product Dev

Principal Scientist, R&D – Packaging Dev

Job Overview:

This position offers an excellent opportunity to identify, drive, commercialize, and lead growth and innovation in packaging technology within the MCCS (Meat/Cheese/Coffee/Snacking) platform, with a specific focus on Lunchables and Adult Snacking. The role serves as the Packaging point of contact, working directly with Core, Innovation, and Club Mkt, and is instrumental in delivering novel, competitive, and cost-advantaged solutions.

Responsibilities include identifying research pathways, demonstrating proof of concept, scaling up technology, and supporting commercialization. The ideal candidate brings strong technical skills and the ability to connect technologies to real-world applications, along with intellectual curiosity, problem-solving ability, leadership, the confidence to champion ideas, and solid project management skills. A collaborative mindset and a commitment to applying innovative solutions are essential.

Job Duties:

- Work with internal teams and cross-functional partners to understand portfolio and strategy opportunities and build solid plans with defined timing and deliverables.

- Identify and quantify growth spaces (e.g., new usage occasions, formats, channel needs like Club).

- Build business cases for innovation bets (value creation, cost, risk, timing, resource asks) and present to leadership.

- Translate consumer insights into packaging design requirements (ease-of-use, freshness perception, portability, convenience).

- Lead end-to-end packaging commercialization on key platform projects - owning scale-up trials, qualification/validation, launch execution, and post-launch stabilization - to deliver high-quality packaging to on time and at target cost.

- Partner with Brand/Insights to define and interpret packaging-focused consumer tests (what to test, success criteria).

- Ability to ideate novel ideas for new product solutions.

- Lead multiple/large initiatives with complex scopes and/or cross enterprise platforms concurrently.

- Act as technical/commercialization expert for junior developers and flex onto projects requiring problem solving.

- Execute research plans, including patent/literature reviews, tech documentation, prototyping, lab testing, consumer testing, qualification on pilot and/or production equipment, provide solutions to hurdles and provide next steps, with updates to leadership.