Principal Scientist – Cultured Dairy & Fermentation

Responsible for leading the development of cultured and fermented dairy products for the food and dairy industry from concept/opportunity through commercialization, with major emphasis on cottage cheese, yogurt, drinkable yogurt, sour cream, cultured dairy bases, cultured beverages, and related fermentation-enabled dairy platforms. This role serves as a Principal Scientist-level technical expert and go‑to resource within DFA’s culturing and fermentation capability area for critical, complex, and/or high‑profile opportunities.

The role requires deep expertise in dairy fermentation science, starter culture selection and performance, milk and dairy substrate design, acidification kinetics, pH control, texture development, curd formation, whey separation, post‑fermentation handling, ingredient interactions, sensory performance, shelf‑life design, food safety by design, and scale‑up across bench, pilot, and manufacturing environments. In addition to hands‑on development, this role contributes to strengthening DFA’s technical capability, mentors and influences other R&D resources, supports development of new capabilities and IP opportunities, narrows the gap from bench to pilot plant to scale‑up, and drives organic growth through monetization, ROI, speed‑to‑market, and successful commercialization of the opportunity and innovation pipeline.

• Develop new cultured and fermented dairy products, including cottage cheese, yogurt, Greek-style yogurt, drinkable yogurt, sour cream, cultured dairy bases, cultured beverages, and related refrigerated dairy systems using DFA’s ingredient options, cultures, processing platforms, Innovation Centers, pilot plants, and manufacturing capabilities.
• Serve as a technical expert and internal go‑to resource within culturing and fermentation, including starter culture performance, strain behavior, acidification kinetics, pH targets, buffering capacity, lactose utilization, flavor development, proteolysis, viscosity, gel structure, syneresis control, curd firmness, curd size, moisture management, and shelf‑life stability.
• Lead cottage cheese development and troubleshooting across formulation, culture selection, coagulation, cutting, cooking, washing, draining, creaming, fruit or inclusion addition, stabilizer systems, salt balance, texture, whey control, microbial quality, packaging, and refrigerated shelf‑life performance.
• Lead yogurt and drinkable yogurt development and troubleshooting across milk standardization, heat treatment, homogenization, culture inoculation, incubation, fermentation endpoint control, smoothing, fruit preparation integration, stabilizer systems, protein fortification, texture, viscosity, flavor, post‑acidification, and shelf‑life performance.
• Utilize DFA’s expansive network and capabilities to enhance the value of DFA’s products and capabilities using a “what can we do with what we have?” mentality.
• Work with engineering, process technology, operations, QA, food safety, regulatory, and R&D leadership to expand DFA’s cultured dairy capabilities through discovery of new technologies, cultures, enzymes, ingredients, equipment, process modifications, formulation design, manufacturing platform development, and capability knowledge‑sharing for the broader team.
• Partner with process technology, engineering, pilot plant, and manufacturing teams to translate bench formulas and fermentation models into scalable processes using appropriate unit operations, including milk standardization, blending, heat treatment, homogenization, inoculation, fermentation, cutting, cooking, washing, draining, cooling, smoothing, filling, packaging, and refrigerated distribution.
• Design and execute bench microbiology,…