Principal R&D Engineer - Ingredient Systems & Particle Engineering

Job Overview

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 will strengthen KDP's capability to commercialize powdered beverage, emulsion, and complex ingredient systems through disciplined process technology development, scale-up, plant readiness, and data-driven decision making.

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 will strengthen KDP's capability to commercialize powdered beverage, emulsion, and complex ingredient systems through disciplined process technology development, scale-up, plant readiness, and data-driven decision making.

The role leads process technology strategy and scale-up across liquid and dry ingredient systems, with emphasis on particle science, material behavior, process design, and functionality. It translates formulation intent into reliable manufacturing solutions that deliver solubility, dispersibility, flowability, emulsion stability, texture, sensory quality, and shelf-life performance.

This role will build critical R&D capability at the intersection of ingredient science, process engineering, and manufacturing scale-up. The Principal Engineer will help KDP bring more complex beverage systems to market faster, reduce technical risk, strengthen plant readiness, and create reusable technical knowledge that improves first-time-right commercialization across the portfolio.

This is a senior technical leadership role for an engineer who can manage ambiguity, challenge historical thinking, influence cross-functional partners, mentor others, and create practical solution paths that are technically sound, scalable, sustainable, and business-relevant. The Principal Engineer will partner with Product Development, Flavor & Concentrate Development, Quality, Packaging, Engineering, Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, suppliers, co-packers, and external technical partners.

• Lead process development and scale-up for powdered beverages, dry mixes, emulsions, and complex ingredient systems from bench through commercialization.
• Define material and processing requirements for powder flow, dry blending, dispersion, dissolution, hydration, agglomeration, ingredient variability, and powder handling.
• Apply particle science, material science, rheology, transport phenomena, and first-principles engineering to explain technical behavior and guide decisions.

• Develop robust processing solutions for emulsification, homogenization, stabilizer systems, viscosity control, separation risk, texture, mouthfeel, and shelf-life stability.
• Partner with Product Development to translate formulation intent into scalable process designs that protect flavor, color, sensory quality, food safety, and product performance.

• Define process-critical parameters, material attributes, operating windows, design spaces, manufacturing constraints, and commercialization readiness criteria.
• Lead risk assessments, test plans, DOE studies, pilot and plant trials, process verification, validation, and readiness reviews.
• Support plants and co-packers through capability assessments, process fit and equipment gap evaluations, startup support, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and qualification recommendations.

• Use statistical analysis, historical and plant data, visualization, modeling, simulation, predictive analytics, and AI-enabled tools to improve trial design, troubleshooting, and technical decisions.
• Create reusable technical knowledge, including process flow diagrams, operating windows, manufacturing instructions,…