Senior Food Scientist

The Farmer’s Dog was born from a mission to change the landscape of pet health, providing dogs and their humans with honest, smart, and simple care. We’re starting by radically improving the $90 billion pet food industry, replacing bags of highly-processed pellets with a personalized subscription service that sends complete and balanced, freshly-made dog food directly to customers’ doors. Our ultimate goal is to create innovative, delightful and personalized experiences across all aspects of pet care, and we believe our direct-to-consumer business model, holistic approach to growth, and dynamic culture uniquely position us to shepherd this backwards industry into the future.

To date, The Farmer’s Dog has delivered over 1 billion meals nationwide and raised over $150M in funding to help us build a company as healthy as the dogs who are eating those meals. Join us as we continue to develop ways of bringing peace of mind to customers, health to their companions, and much-needed change to the way people feed and care for their pets.

#LongLiveDogs

The Senior Food Scientist will report directly to the Director, Food Science. This role leads product development initiatives and establishes operational objectives and work plans across the food science function. The Senior Food Scientist will drive new formulations and identify opportunities in our current food and future products, while also mentoring and developing a direct report. They will serve as a key resource to Customer Experience, Brand, Animal Healthcare, and Operations team for physical product and process information. This role will also require travel of up to 40%.

One Team: We don’t think of ourselves as “Acquisition Marketers”, “Engineers”, “Data Analysts”, or “Product Managers”. Beyond denoting skill sets and areas of expertise, we don’t think departments matter. We’d rather align ourselves to the goals we’re working to achieve and make sure we have necessary subject matter expertise to drive meaningful impact. We strive to orient ourselves around customer problems TOGETHER – getting the right people, with the right context, in the right rooms/Zooms to solve problems holistically.

We are skeptical about everything and precious about nothing:  Ideas can and should come from anywhere, and we aren’t tied to our own. We proactively source input. We talk to our customers and leads regularly and are quick to change course if we know there’s a better or more impactful way to solve problems.

We consider the customer journey in all of our decisions:  We know that no interaction exists in a silo and therefore understand how important every single one is.  We ensure our strategy sets prospective and new customers up for success and drives long-term retention.  We answer questions and address problems early and proactively.  We understand the value of different channels, initiatives, and messages and know how to articulate impact and advocate for prioritization holistically.

We Execute For Impact: We don’t subscribe to “best practices” or “industry KPIs”. We’re uninterested in how we compare to “benchmarks”; instead we orient ourselves around being the best we can possibly be. Similarly, we don’t subscribe to rigid or classical expectations of roles – i.e. acquisition is hyper-focused on improving customer retention and experience.

We Are Focused and Work Without Assumption: We are not beholden to ideas. We have goals and believe everything beyond that is a series of hypotheses to validate. To that end, we seek to work in sequence and not in parallel. We constantly ask ourselves, “what’s the most important hypothesis I should be working on right now? How do I confirm or reject that hypothesis as fast as possible?”. We rarely have timelines/deadlines and are constantly taking in new information and adjusting our priorities accordingly. We don’t expect to be perfect the first time.

• Create products based on ingredient functionality, nutritional targets, consumer need, claim substantiation, operational feasibility, and financial targets. Bringing products from concept through commercialization.
• Design, execute, and document bench-top experiments to evaluate ingredient functionality, texture, palatability, nutritional density, and processing behavior; apply DOE principles to efficiently optimize formulations against nutritional targets, cost constraints, and consumer acceptance criteria; maintain rigorous lab notebooks and experimental records that support regulatory submissions, IP filings, and internal knowledge management.
• Assist with pilot facility maintenance and management. Daily activities will include equipment maintenance and sanitation as well as ingredient inventory and management.
• Prepare, label, and ship product samples for internal evaluation, external sensory panels, analytical testing, and feeding trials, maintaining chain-of-custody documentation and cold-chain integrity throughout.
• Analyze data from plant trials, proximate and nutrient analyses, feeding trials, and shelf-life studies; and translate findings into clear conclusions, actionable recommendations.
• Fully own all trial and experiment documentation, ensuring all information is clear, articulate, and accessible for relevant stakeholders. 
• Author,own, and maintain ingredient, WIP, and finished product specifications; and manage version control through product life cycle changes.
• Develop and communicate project timelines and costs, and proactively surface risks or changes to senior leadership.
• Proactively work with cross-functional team members in Manufacturing, Operations, Product, Animal Healthcare, and Customer Experience to drive alignment and execution.
• Coordinate academic research partnerships.

• 8+ years of experience in R&D or Product Development in the food manufacturing industry, with a demonstrated track record of taking products from concept to commercialization. Experience in companion animal or pet food product development strongly preferred; human food or animal nutrition backgrounds considered.
• You have a Bachelor’s Degree (or higher) in Animal Science, Food Science, or a related field.
• You have demonstrated experience managing or mentoring direct reports, with a track record of developing talent and driving team results.
• You are a direct, caring, and persuasive communicator and establish rapport easily with people on your cross-functional team and other key collaborators.
• You love to dig into the details, but it’s also easy for you to pull up and look at the big picture.
• You have flexibility to commit to up to 40% travel, dependent on the event calendar and plant trials.
• You have proficient knowledge of food formulation, food safety, and manufacturing.
• You are able to thrive in a fast-paced and ambiguous environment, naturally curious and proactive self-starter, constantly on the lookout for new opportunities and solutions.
• You’re an owner, have excellent problem-solving skills, and can prioritize tasks effectively, with a strong attention to detail.
• You’re a skilled communicator with the ability to absorb and distill complexity into simple terms to drive decision making.
• You are capable of lifting/moving 50+ lbs.
• You love dogs.

We are an in-office culture, made of in-office people who thrive on the collaboration and magnetism of working in a shared space. We are seeking individuals who excel in this type of environment, where being present fosters deeper connections and engagement. We ask all team members to be in office 4 - 5 days a week to build a collaborative and invested environment to foster our unique in-person culture we are proud to have. This office policy is subject to change at company discretion.

At TFD, we believe Belonging is a shared commitment to creating a workplace where every person feels respected, valued, and empowered to be themselves. When people feel a true sense of belonging, they do their best work, take smart risks, and bring forward diverse perspectives — leading to stronger decisions and deeper relationships.

We anchor this belief in a simple phrase: “Everyone’s welcome at the dog park.” No matter your background, identity, or role, there’s space for you here. There’s no one way to show up at the dog park— just shared space, mutual respect, and the freedom to be yourself. Being included is just the beginning, it’s about contributing your voice, growing through challenges, and building trust through shared goals. This philosophy guides how we lead, how we hire, how we communicate, and how we grow.
                    
We continuously evaluate to ensure we are creating a consistent experience that cultivates belonging for all employees, from hiring and performance reviews to talent development. We also believe Belonging happens in everyday moments of connection; lunch with a new teammate, a shared laugh, or a quick story about your weekend. Our structure includes biannual employee surveys, manager training, TFD camps, and support from Humans to ensure we’re listening and learning from our Team.

Together, these efforts reflect what Belonging means at TFD: a culture where everyone can thrive.

The Farmer's Dog, Inc. is an equal employment opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic or status. For more information, please visit Know Your Rights.

TFD complies with applicable federal, state, and local disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities.  If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact humansops@thefarmersdog.com.

We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about the position or our hiring process - please reach out at careers@thefarmersdog.com.