Director, Applications

About us

Based in Berkeley, CA, UPSIDE Foods grows meat, poultry, and seafood directly from animal cells.  These products are not vegan or vegetarian—they are delicious meat, made without the need to raise and slaughter billions of animals. UPSIDE Foods recently became the first company in the world to receive the US FDA greenlight for cultivated meat, and UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken will be available to consumers following USDA inspection and label approval.
Founded as the world’s first cultivated meat company in 2015, UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) has achieved numerous industry-defining milestones, including being the first company to produce multiple species of meat (beef, chicken, and duck). The company believes that people shouldn’t have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet, and is working to build a better food system with access to delicious, humane, and sustainable meat, poultry, and seafood. UPSIDE Foods has won various industry awards, including New York Times’ Good Tech Awards, FastCo’s Next Big Thing in Tech, and the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation by the National Association for Business Resources. UPSIDE Foods has raised a total of $608 million, including from the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), Baillie Gifford, Bill Gates, Cargill, John Doerr, John Mackey, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, Norwest, Richard Branson, Softbank, Temasek, Threshold, Tyson Foods, and others.

About this job

The Director, Applications will lead the development of new ingredients and formulation delivery technologies with the main focus on cultivated meat product development. This individual will investigate and assess new ingredients, tools and delivery technologies; collaborate with cross functional teams and external partners in evaluation and design; and lead overall long term applications innovation strategy towards improving the functionality of UPSIDE cultivated meat. This individual will partner with ingredient discovery, consumer sensory insights, product and commercialization teams to evaluate new processing and formulation technologies that bring consumer delight to our cultivated meat. You should be capable and excel at designing, troubleshooting, and executing experiments while employing critical thinking and organizational skills throughout the scientific process. The ideal candidate will keep abreast of ingredients and new delivery technologies and constantly look for new ways to leverage ingredients, with a scalability and consumer oriented mindset.  

Responsibilities include

• Lead a small group whose goal is to identify, screen, and make recommendations on ingredients, processing, and formulation delivery technologies.
• Design and execute well-planned experiments, interpret complex data and propose innovative solutions aimed at expanding our ingredient technology toolkit, towards enabling rapid prototyping and innovation across many product-format categories.
• Collaboratively leads engagement with suppliers and building partnerships for future collaborations.
• Lead projects with high levels of technical complexity, and participate in technical project teams comprising cross-functional teams.
• Conceive new ideas and develop scalable methods for ingredient solutions to produce new products as well as novel derivatives of existing products with a consumer lens.
• Make recommendations and provide solutions to the product development team, aiding in the expansion of the UPSIDE product portfolio.
• Lead productivity opportunities both discovering and implementing new functional ingredients, tools, reformulation strategies, and technologies delivering on margin deliverables.

About you

• M.S. in food science, food chemistry, meat science, nutrition, processing or other applicable field, with 15+ years of relevant experience OR PhD in food science, food chemistry, meat science, nutrition, processing, or other applicable field, with 10+ years of related experience in food ingredients, alternative protein and consumer food product industries.
• 5+ years of experience leading a small group of research scientists preferably in ingredient applications and green clean-label oriented plant-based food product development.
• Extensive experience on food ingredients (protein, fat, carb, color, preservatives) and formulation technologies having enabled B2B/B2C food and beverage product launches.
• Expertise in ingredient applications and formulation technologies with a proven record of development and launch of innovative food products.
• Excels at translating primary research into practical applications.
• Able to handle ambiguity, adapt to change, overcome challenges, and set priorities.
• Future thinking with a “whole systems or holistic value-proposition” view.

Who you’ll work with

• This role will partner with ingredient discovery, consumer sensory insights and flavoromics, product development, and commercialization teams to develop our ingredient applications technology toolkit for producing delicious cultivated meat products.

Key Contributions in First Year

• Map out tools and technologies desired for UPSIDE’s needs
• Collaborate with sensory, ingredient discovery, product, and commercialization teams to unlock value propositions through product application deliveries
• Leverage external collaborations to advance product programs accelerating innovations
• Build an internal applications team that will augment Food R&D team capabilities.
• Bring the experience and practical knowhow to develop Food R&D team
• Drive margin enhancement and complex product development opportunities.

Compensation Range: $126,750 - $230,000*
*Pay may vary depending on factors including job-related knowledge and skills.

UPSIDE Benefits!

• Stock options for all full-time incoming team members!
• 90-100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for team members (medical [including HSA and FSA], dental, and vision)
• Pet insurance for your furry family members!
• Unlimited PTO
• DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Council and People Engagement Programs
• Company-sponsored learning & development opportunities