Pet Product Development Scientist III

Business Unit Overview:

Headquartered in Lakeville, Minn., Post Consumer Brands, a business unit of Post Holdings, Inc., is dedicated to providing people and their pets with delicious food choices for every taste and budget. The company's portfolio includes beloved brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats, PEBBLES, Grape-Nuts and Malt-O-Meal cereal and Peter Pan peanut butter, as well as Rachael Ray® Nutrish, Kibbles 'n Bits and 9Lives dog and cat food. Post also provides private label solutions to customers in pet food, cereal, nut butters and granola. As a company committed to high standards of quality and to our values, we are driven by one idea: To make lives better by making delicious food accessible for all. For more information about our brands, visit www.postconsumerbrands.com and follow us on LinkedInor Facebook for the latest news.

Location Description:

Post Consumer Brands corporate headquarters in Lakeville, Minnesota, is about 20 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Lakeville has all the benefits of smaller town living with access to everything a large metropolitan area has to offer. Join more than 400 team members collaborating on the two-building campus to help put breakfast on the tables of millions of consumers in North America. 

Responsibilities:

 

Pet Product Development Scientist III

Lakeville, MN | Hybrid | Up to 25% Travel

Turn Pet Insights Into Products Pets Love

At Post Consumer Brands, great innovation starts with understanding what pets and the people who care for them need. As a Pet Product Development Scientist III, you’ll turn those insights into pet food and snack innovations that deliver on taste, nutrition, quality, value, and manufacturability.

This is a highly collaborative, hands-on R&D role for an experienced pet industry product developer who wants to make a visible impact across our pet portfolio. You’ll lead product development from technical design and formulation through testing, scale-up, and manufacturing readiness, solving complex challenges along the way.

If you bring strong pet food science expertise, a passion for experimentation, and the ability to turn technical findings into action, this is an opportunity to put your experience to work on products that matter to pets and their families.

What You’ll Do

• Lead pet product development: Formulate new pet food and snack products and improve existing products while working within AAFCO requirements.
• Take ideas from concept to commercialization: Lead technical development, experimentation, testing, scale-up, and manufacturing readiness.
• Design and execute meaningful experiments: Partner with pilot plant and manufacturing teams to evaluate sensory and palatability performance, stability, and other critical product attributes.
• Solve complex technical challenges: Apply scientific principles to address formulation, processing, product quality, cost optimization, packaging changes, equipment modifications, and manufacturability.
• Turn data into decisions: Analyze results, identify key learnings, and translate findings into clear recommendations and next steps.
• Lead across functions: Bring together R&D, pilot plant, manufacturing, business partners, and external collaborators to keep projects moving.
• Drive disciplined execution: Develop project plans, establish priorities, manage technical deliverables, and deliver against project timing.
• Communicate with influence: Develop technical proposals, project summaries, presentations, and reports that make complex information clear and actionable.

Qualifications:

What You’ll Bring

Pet industry R&D experience is required for this position.

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Chemical Engineering, Animal Nutrition, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of relevant research and development experience in the pet industry.
• Demonstrated experience developing or improving products within a fast-paced R&D environment.
• Ability to manage multiple technical projects simultaneously while meeting deadlines and communicating progress.
• Experience partnering effectively across multiple functional teams.
• Strong written, verbal, and technical communication skills.
• Ability to lead and facilitate cross-functional teams, build consensus, and navigate competing priorities.

Even Better If You Have

• Direct experience with pet food and/or pet snack formulation and product development.
• Knowledge of food manufacturing processes such as extrusion, thermal processing, or baking.
• Experience using formulation software such as Concept 5.
• Experience supporting product scale-up and commercialization in a manufacturing environment.

What Will Make You Successful

You’re curious enough to ask why, technical enough to find the answer, and practical enough to turn that answer into a product that can succeed at scale.

You combine scientific rigor with creativity and aren’t afraid to get hands-on when solving a difficult formulation or processing challenge. You can move comfortably between experiments, data, manufacturing realities, and cross-functional conversations. Most importantly, you know how to take what you learn and turn it into a clear path forward.

Why You’ll Love This Role

• Make an impact on the pet aisle. Help shape products designed to deliver quality, value, and experiences pets love.
• Own meaningful technical work. Take projects from formulation and experimentation through recommendations, scale-up, and manufacturing support.
• Work across the business. Collaborate with R&D colleagues, pilot plant teams, manufacturing sites, and business partners.
• Combine science with leadership. Use your technical expertise while influencing decisions and moving cross-functional teams forward.
• See your ideas come to life. Your work can directly influence innovation, product quality, manufacturability, and cost optimization.

Location & Travel

This role is based in Lakeville, Minnesota, with a hybrid schedule of three days per week in the office. Travel of up to 25% is expected.

Ready to Make Your Mark?

Bring your pet industry experience, product development expertise, scientific curiosity, and collaborative approach to Post Consumer Brands. Help us transform consumer and pet insights into products that make life better for pets and the people who care for them.

Big company opportunity. Small company attitude. Discover just right.

Immigration Sponsorship Not Available:

• Applicants for this position must be currently and legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship (e.g., H-1B, J-1, F-1, CPT, OPT, etc.).

• Post will not offer immigration sponsorship or assume sponsorship of an employment visa for this position.

• International relocation or remote work arrangements outside of the U.S. will not be considered.

 : The pay range for this position is $80,166 - $118,645 per year.