Principal R&D Engineer

Come join a creative team of scientists and engineers at the forefront of beverage innovation. The R&D Process Development Engineering team translates product ideas into robust, scalable, and manufacturable processes that deliver quality, safety, cost, and speed-to-market for Keurig Dr Pepper. This Principal Engineer role will strengthen KDP’s capability to commercialize complex beverage and adjacent food platforms through disciplined scale-up, plant readiness, technical troubleshooting, data-driven decision making, and future-ready ways of working.

• Lead technical process development and scale-up for complex R&D projects from bench through pilot, plant trial, validation, and commercialization.
• Define processing requirements for juice, dairy, and other complex beverage formulations, including process-critical parameters, operating windows, thermal targets, process capability needs, and manufacturing constraints.
• Provide technical leadership for aseptic processing, hot-fill, pasteurization, HTST/UHT or other thermal processes, batching, blending, deaeration, homogenization, filling, packaging interfaces, sanitation/CIP, and startup readiness.
• Lead complex test plans, research trials, DOE studies, risk assessments, pilot plant trials, plant trials, process verification/validation activities, and commercialization readiness reviews to generate insight into key design spaces, system limitations, and scale-up opportunities.
• Apply first principles, experimental data, statistical analysis, data visualization, and light modeling approaches to explain technical phenomena, establish tradeoffs, and influence decisions with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Explore and apply data science, AI-enabled tools, predictive modeling, historical validation data, plant data, and digital knowledge systems to improve technical learning, process decisions, troubleshooting, and future commercialization effectiveness.
• Partner with Product Development to translate formulation intent into scalable process designs that protect flavor, color, texture, stability, food safety, and finished product quality.
• Support manufacturing plants and co-packers through capability assessments, process fit evaluations, gap assessments, startup support, troubleshooting, corrective actions, and qualification recommendations.
• Create clear technical documentation including process flow diagrams, manufacturing instructions, trial protocols, validation summaries, technical reports, presentations, standards, and lessons-learned documentation.
• Lead root cause analysis for process-related quality, stability, throughput, yield, sanitation, or manufacturing performance issues and recommend practical corrective and preventive actions.
• Collaborate with Procurement, suppliers, and external partners to assess ingredient/process impacts, alternative materials, productivity opportunities, and supplier technical capabilities.
• Pro-actively identify and implement improvement opportunities within Process Development Engineering and across functions, including process, tools, standards, systems, and ways of working.
• Build strong relationships with internal and external partners while demonstrating KDP values, ownership, collaboration, resilience, and a strong technical voice.
• Act as an advisor, coach, and mentor to engineers and cross-functional partners on complex technical challenges, trial design, troubleshooting, commercialization governance, and disciplined documentation.

• Salary Range: $96,800 - $145,000
• Actual placement within the compensation range may vary depending on experience, skills, and other factors
• Benefits, subject to election and eligibility:
  Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, Paid Time Off (including paid parental leave, vacation, and sick time), 401k with company match, Tuition Reimbursement, and Mileage Reimbursement
• Annual bonus based on performance and eligibility

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Food Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 10+ years of relevant experience in R&D process engineering, food/beverage processing, technical commercialization, manufacturing engineering, or related CPG technical roles.
• Must-have experience with juice, dairy, and complex beverage formulation commercialization, including scale-up from bench or pilot through plant production.
• Demonstrated hands-on knowledge of aseptic processing and other thermal process platforms used for beverage and food commercialization.
• Strong understanding of beverage processing operations including batching, blending, thermal processing, filling, packaging interfaces, sanitation/CIP, process capability, and plant startup.
• Experience leading plant trials, validation activities, process troubleshooting, technical risk assessments, and commercialization readiness evaluations.
• Demonstrated capability using DOE, statistical analysis, data-driven problem solving, and structured…