R&D Associate Principal Scientist - Meals Product Development

n at PepsiCo Foods North America (PFNA). In this role, you'll lead cross-functional projects from concept to shelf-bringing together culinary creativity, scientific rigor, and empathy for the consumer. You'll focus on innovation across our Meals portfolio, including iconic brands like Quaker Oats, Quaker Grits, Rice A Roni®, Pasta Roni®, Near East®, and Tex Mex.

Join a dynamic, collaborative team that thrives on curiosity, courage, and challenging the status quo. You'll have the opportunity to grow, learn, and drive meaningful impact-transforming insights into products people love.

Responsibilities

• Translate consumer and customer insights into product attributes

• Develop formulations by applying technical expertise in food chemistry, processing, and ingredient functionality

• Scout and evaluate new ingredients, technologies, and suppliers, leveraging internal and external networks

• Design and analyze experiments to inform product and process decisions; translate findings into business-relevant insights

• Manage scale-up efforts for sales samples, shelf-life testing, and commercialization trials at pilot and production facilities

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Procurement, Co-Manufacturing, Quality, SRA, Legal, Marketing, and Engineering

• Manage multiple innovation workstreams, ensuring alignment on deliverables, resources, and timelines

• Own formula and ingredient specification development, ensuring compliance and clarity

• Support economic evaluations related to ingredients, formulations, and feasibility

• Represent R&D in multifunctional business teams and influence decisions through clear, confident communication

• Champion the Stage Gate process and help assess technical and commercial risk across initiatives

• Up to 25% travel required

Compensation and Benefits:

• The expected compensation range for this position is between $89,000 - $149,000.

• Location, confirmed job-related skills, experience, and education will be considered in setting actual starting salary. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range during the hiring process.

• Bonus based on performance and eligibility target payout is 10% of annual salary paid out annually.

• Paid time off subject to eligibility, including paid parental leave, vacation, sick, and bereavement.

• In addition to salary, PepsiCo offers a comprehensive benefits package to support our employees and their families, subject to elections and eligibility: Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, Health, and Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Insurance (Accident, Group Legal, Life), Defined Contribution Retirement Plan.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Chemical Engineering, or related discipline

• 5+ years of product development experience-ideally across categories like shelf-stable meals, refrigerated foods, or foodservice

• Deep knowledge of formulation, scale-up, and commercialization processes

• Strong communicator with the ability to translate technical detail into actionable strategy

• Adept at managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced, matrixed environment

• Passion for innovation and a consumer-first mindset

• This position is limited to persons with indefinite right to work in the United States.

Bonus If You Have

• Experience with sensory testing, rapid prototyping, or culinary-based product development

• Background working in cross-functional teams or large, matrixed organizations

• Demonstrated curiosity, adaptability, and continuous improvement orientation

Ideal Candidate Traits

• Entrepreneurial Mindset - Comfortable with ambiguity; acts with urgency and ownership

• Human Empathy - Values diverse consumer perspectives and integrates them into decision-making

• Culinary Intuition - Translates taste and texture into meaningful product experiences

• Strategic Risk-Taking - Willing to push boundaries while balancing business implications

• Behavioral Curiosity - Investigates the "why" behind consumer choices and food culture

• Technical Ingenuity - Connects the dots between insights, ingredients, and scalable solutions

Core Capabilities

• End-to-end development ownership: concept, prototyping, scale-up, launch

• Culinary creativity, paired with scientific and manufacturing understanding

• Grain ingredient expertise (e.g., oats, pasta, rice)

• Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset

• Effective written and verbal communicator across technical and business audiences

• Team player with the ability to lead, inspire, and collaborate

• Travel flexibility: up to 25% as needed

Keys to Success

• Drive Consumer-Led Innovation: Champion the creation and commercialization of consumer-led products rooted in consumer insights, leveraging deep expertise in Food Science and ingredient functionality.

• Build What's Next, Together: Collaborate cross-functionally to ideate, prototype, and scale new products-from kitchen bench to full-scale production

• Balance What Matters and Think Strategically: Weigh trade-offs across desirability, feasibility, viability, and sustainability to deliver well-rounded, future-forward product solutions

EEO Statement

Our Company will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and all other applicable laws, including but not limited to, San Francisco Police Code Sections 4901-4919, commonly referred to as the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance; and Chapter XVII, Article 9 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, commonly referred to as the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status.

PepsiCo is an Equal Opportunity Employer: Female / Minority / Disability / Protected Veteran / Sexual Orientation / Gender Identity

If you'd like more information about your EEO rights as an applicant under the law, please download the available EEO is the Law & EEO is the Law Supplement documents.

View PepsiCo EEO Policy.

Please view our Pay Transparency Statement