Food Scientist

Food ScientistThe Farmer's Dog was born from a mission to change the landscape of pet health, providing dogs and their humans with honest, smart, and simple care. We're starting by radically improving the $90 billion pet food industry, replacing bags of highly-processed pellets with a personalized subscription service that sends complete and balanced, freshly-made dog food directly to customers' doors. Our ultimate goal is to create innovative, delightful and personalized experiences across all aspects of pet care, and we believe our direct-to-consumer business model, holistic approach to growth, and dynamic culture uniquely position us to shepherd this backwards industry into the future. To date, The Farmer's Dog has delivered over 1 billion meals nationwide and raised over $150M in funding to help us build a company as healthy as the dogs who are eating those meals. Join us as we continue to develop ways of bringing peace of mind to customers, health to their companions, and much-needed change to the way people feed and care for their pets.What We Stand For and Where You'll Come InThe Food Scientist will report directly to the Director, Food Science. This role leads product development initiatives and establishes operational objectives and work plans across the food science function. The Food Scientist will drive new formulations and identify opportunities in our current food and future products, while also mentoring and developing a direct report. They will serve as a key resource to Customer Experience, Brand, Animal Healthcare, and Operations team for physical product and process information. This role will also require travel of up to 40%.One Team: We don't think of ourselves as "Acquisition Marketers", "Engineers", "Data Analysts", or "Product Managers". Beyond denoting skill sets and areas of expertise, we don't think departments matter. We'd rather align ourselves to the goals we're working to achieve and make sure we have necessary subject matter expertise to drive meaningful impact. We strive to orient ourselves around customer problems TOGETHER – getting the right people, with the right context, in the right rooms/Zooms to solve problems holistically.We are skeptical about everything and precious about nothing: Ideas can and should come from anywhere, and we aren't tied to our own. We proactively source input. We talk to our customers and leads regularly and are quick to change course if we know there's a better or more impactful way to solve problems.We consider the customer journey in all of our decisions: We know that no interaction exists in a silo and therefore understand how important every single one is. We ensure our strategy sets prospective and new customers up for success and drives long-term retention. We answer questions and address problems early and proactively. We understand the value of different channels, initiatives, and messages and know how to articulate impact and advocate for prioritization holistically.We Execute For Impact: We don't subscribe to "best practices" or "industry KPIs". We're uninterested in how we compare to "benchmarks"; instead we orient ourselves around being the best we can possibly be. Similarly, we don't subscribe to rigid or classical expectations of roles – i.e. acquisition is hyper-focused on improving customer retention and experience.We Are Focused and Work Without Assumption: We are not beholden to ideas. We have goals and believe everything beyond that is a series of hypotheses to validate. To that end, we seek to work in sequence and not in parallel. We constantly ask ourselves, "what's the most important hypothesis I should be working on right now? How do I confirm or reject that hypothesis as fast as possible?". We rarely have timelines/deadlines and are constantly taking in new information and adjusting our priorities accordingly. We don't expect to be perfect the first time.How You'll Make An ImpactCreate products based on ingredient functionality, nutritional targets, consumer need, claim substantiation, operational feasibility, and financial targets. Bringing products from concept through commercialization.Design, execute, and document bench-top experiments to evaluate ingredient functionality, texture, palatability, nutritional density, and processing behavior; apply DOE principles to efficiently optimize formulations against nutritional targets, cost constraints, and consumer acceptance criteria; maintain rigorous lab notebooks and experimental records that support regulatory submissions, IP filings, and internal knowledge management.Assist with pilot facility maintenance and management. Daily activities will include equipment maintenance and sanitation as well as ingredient inventory and management.Prepare, label, and ship product samples for internal evaluation, external sensory panels, analytical testing, and feeding trials, maintaining chain-of-custody documentation and cold-chain integrity throughout.Analyze data from plant trials, proximate and nutrient analyses, feeding trials, and shelf-life studies; and translate findings into clear conclusions, actionable recommendations.Fully own all trial and experiment documentation, ensuring all information is clear, articulate, and accessible for relevant stakeholders.Author, own, and maintain ingredient, WIP, and finished product specifications; and manage version control through product life cycle changes.Develop and communicate project timelines and costs, and proactively surface risks or changes to senior leadership.Proactively work with cross-functional team members in Manufacturing, Operations, Product, Animal Healthcare, and Customer Experience to drive alignment and execution.Coordinate academic research partnerships.We're Excited About You Because8+ years of experience in R&D or Product Development in the food manufacturing industry, with a demonstrated track record of taking products from concept to commercialization. Experience in companion animal or pet food product development strongly preferred; human food or animal nutrition backgrounds considered.You have a Bachelor's Degree (or higher) in Animal Science, Food Science, or a related field.You have demonstrated experience managing or mentoring direct reports, with a track record of developing talent and driving team results.You are a direct, caring, and persuasive communicator and establish rapport easily with people on your cross-functional team and other key collaborators.You love to dig into the details, but it's also easy for you to pull up and look at the big picture.You have flexibility to commit to up to 40% travel, dependent on the event calendar and plant trials.You have proficient knowledge of food formulation, food safety, and manufacturing.You are able to thrive in a fast-paced and ambiguous environment, naturally curious and proactive self-starter, constantly on the lookout for new opportunities and solutions.You're an owner, have excellent problem-solving skills, and can prioritize tasks effectively, with a strong attention to detail.You're a skilled communicator with the ability to absorb and distill complexity into simple terms to drive decision making.You are capable of lifting/moving 50+ lbs.You love dogs.