Principal Scientist

Description

Ready for more than just a job? Build a career with purpose.

At Lactalis in the USA, we’re committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive—whether you’re just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed.

As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we’re proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together.

In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani® Italian cheeses and ricotta, Président® specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft® natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone’s® cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel®, Black Diamond® cheddar, and Parmalat® milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi’s®, Stonyfield Organic®, Brown Cow™, Oui®, Yoplait®, Go-Gurt®, :ratio®, Green Mountain Creamery®, and Mountain High®, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun®, Gopi®, and Arz®.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values—Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone’s unique background and ideas are valued.

Even if you don’t meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy. 

From your PASSION to ours

Lactalis USA, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Principal Scientist based in Buffalo, NY. The Principal Scientist will be responsible for the technological part of projects, to improve existing products or creating new products, within specific product group or channel of business. Will organize and implement trials, from conceptual stages through end of the projects, to reach the goals defined by the project teams, using the following duties below:

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:  

• Provide technical knowledge on a variety of projects, which will improve quality, yields, or address any other areas identified by the company to enhance products or production processes. 
• Propose Ideas for new product
• Will propose and organize pilot plant or plant trials, interpret the results and assist process development; will be responsible to write well structured thorough reports, with proper conclusions and recommendations
• Work with plant and engineering in conducting feasibility studies pertaining to new product development and product improvement. 
• Work closely and develop good relationship with other departments (Marketing, Purchasing, Packaging, Manufacturing, QA, Legal)
• Continually explore and evaluate ways to improve all aspects of production, including raw materials, production techniques, specifications, packaging, shelf life, etc. 
• Participate in Quality Assurance activities involving any number of issues or concerns. This may include activities such as HACCP analysis, good manufacturing practices, labeling, standards of identity etc…
• Coordinate all support activities including maintaining complex technical notes and records of activity.
• Ensure the confidentiality of our process, information.
• Participate in patent search to protect company business and ensure that all findings are properly documented and recorded. 
• Develop and maintain contact inside R&D company network, including developing product for other countries and subsidiaries or sharing data, information, knowledge with other teams
• Develop and maintain both industry and academic contacts to remain current in regard to technical developments.
• Be capable of acting as a Research & Development Technician for all routine pilot plant activities

Requirements

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

Technical Skills:

• Strong Cheese process knowledge
• Strong Food Technology knowledge (Microbiology / Physics / Biochemistry / Process)
• Strong Mathematics knowledge including statistics.
• Strong Communication skills to communicate with other department and technicians
• Strong Computer skills with a working knowledge of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for report writing and presentations.

Education and/or Experience:

• Master’s degree (M.S.) or equivalent in Dairy or Food Science; and minimum five to ten years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Physical Demands:

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 
• While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and ability to adjust focus.

Travel:

• There will be 30%  traveling for plant trials / training / focus groups type settings / suppliers visit etc..

At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options. We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one. We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities. Further, any division of the Company that is an Affirmative Action Employer will comply with all related legal obligations.