Sr Development Scientist, Nutraceuticals

At doTERRA we encourage all employees to seek out opportunities that will expand their skill set. We strive to help achieve personal career goals by providing opportunities of growth and movement throughout the company.

Job Descriptions:

This position is primarily responsible for the highly specialized and technical aspects of product development for dōTERRA’s line of dietary supplements and functional foods internationally to support and fulfill overall business objectives and strategies.

Job Summary

Sr. Development Scientist at doTERRA works closely with various departments and individuals from Research group, Regulatory, Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Marketing, Operations, Supply-chain, Warehouse, Customers, Vendors, Contract manufacturers and other third parties ensuring quality and compliance with applicable requirements. This position independently collects, organizes and writes technical monographs and reports, to support new product development. Sr. Development Scientist assists in developing new and innovative products, reformulates current products for improvements in quality and cost effectiveness. This position provides scientific data to the marketing department, interprets analytical testing results and stability studies for international regulatory teams, consumers and vendors supporting new and current product benefits to substantiate claims. The Sr. Development Scientist’s role and the job duties listed are a vital part of regular business of doTERRA. Sr. Development Scientist receives information from supervisor as to when, where, and how to perform work and to submit regular reports; undergoes regular training at doTERRA, corporate office and attends required educational training which help Sr. Development Scientist to perform services that are more important for business’s success and utilizes data base access to U.S. Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database, National Institute of Health’s Nutrient Recommendations: Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI), Dietary Supplement Label Database, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Dietary Supplements, U.S. National Library of Medicine (NCBI) and various other subscription based journals to learn, understands various concepts. The scope of this position includes, but is not limited to following Essential Duties and Responsibilities.

New product research, development, and improvements to existing products

• This position is part of dōTERRA’s Research & Development (“R&D”) staff.  R&D is tasked with creating and managing targeted new and improved nutraceutical product formulations for markets around the world. In these new and improved products, R&D emphasizes quality, manufacturability, cost and organoleptic attributes to meet project objectives and supports product enhancement. Development work includes hard-shell and softgel capsules, tablets, chewable, ready to mix powder beverage blends, nutritional bars and other dosage forms.

• Directs new product development processes with dōTERRA manufacturing team, external contract manufacturers, and drives new product formulations from concept to bench top to pilot scale completion and commercialization.

• Interprets and provides feedback to the Manager, Scientist of Nutraceuticals thru up-to-date information with the latest developments in revolutionary delivery systems, innovations in nutritional and botanical raw ingredients and determines best delivery systems, functional ingredients, laboratory and microbial test results, sensory evaluations, customer complaints, product support questions and special projects.

• This position anticipates a fully competent product development scientist in all aspects of the subject matter and functional area. This position contemplates a wide range of technical skills and applying scientific and engineering principles of research and development, planning and conducting work accordingly, and evaluating approaches to unforeseen problems.

• Applies an analytical approach to the solution of a wide variety of problems and assimilates the details and significance of various scientific analyses, procedures, and tests.

• Contributes to the development of project strategies and recommends technical direction to various groups within doTERRA through collaborations.

• Documents and report collected date by analyzing and summarizing information obtained from trends including failed processes, out of specifications, stability studies, deviations, corrective actions.

• Provides an interface to accurately interpret state and local regulations in regards to food safety program to ensure compliance with law.

• Reverse engineers existing formulas, while working closely with manufacturing and flavoring partners to create exact matches for improved reformulations and to register in international markets.​

• Understands nutrition/​supplement facts label panels and assist marketing in creating product labels for new and existing products in accordance with the new US FDA and international regulatory bodies using Genesis R&D software.​

• Assists Marketing in redesign and make improvements to existing products to increase quality and customer satisfaction.

• Assists in product sensory panel testing by preparing reference samples and product samples for the test and analyzing results.

Product specifications, international reformulations, safety and quality

• This position is responsible for initiating supplement safety and directing program quality in the development process to ensure that final product is of highest quality and meets all product specifications while ensuring the safest working environment possible.

• Sr. Development Scientist is responsible for communicating and documenting out-of-spec testing results and respective corrective actions in pilot run and production of finished products.

• A key function in this position requires writing and full implementing of programs and procedures to ensure all regulatory aspects along with customer requirements and certification standards.

• Assists Managing Scientist of Nutraceuticals in maintaining GMPs, allergen declaration programs and specifications for raw materials and finished products.

• Reviews, updates, verifies and maintains Standard Operating Procedures (“SOP”) of ingredient naming convention, allergen review process, formula draft and review process, process for defining product specifications and records.

• Responsible for maintaining company labelling policies procedures, and practices to ensure that labels for each product are accurate and up to date.

• Conducts annual label audits, review of supplement product information pages, and label claim revisions as per the requirements.

• Executes pilot run inspections and quality checks with contract manufacturers and provides effective solutions for challenges during the processes.

• Develops quality assurance documentation for new products, including formulations, ingredient statements, raw material specifications, finished product specifications, quality indexes.

• Oversees development requirements for registration process for country specific formulas.

• Coordinates with in-market regulatory bodies and personnel in providing a quality, stable and safe product that meets the specifications.

Technical monograph writing, collaboration, up-to date on industry trends

• The position requires close interaction with cross functional teams such as purchasing, marketing and manufacturers. The Sr. Development Scientist meets with clients, contract manufacturers, brokerage specialists as requested, and develops relationships with their representatives as necessary.

• Researches, reviews, and writes scientific and technical documentation for new products and collects supporting data and scientific studies from NCBI journals, publications database for existing products.

• Writes technical monographs and reports to support research and marketing departments at doTERRA.

• Works towards providing the effective dosage of an active ingredient in the finished product based on the existing literature studies and clinical trials database.

• Provides technical justification on inclusion of ingredients and their potency based on the scientific information resource.

• Updates job knowledge by studying market trends and developments in quality management; participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organization meetings, conferences, and expos where this position requires a willingness to travel.

• Sr. Development Scientist directs contract manufacturers to implement and trouble-shoot food and supplement formulations throughout the product development process. Maintains contact and good relationship with third party manufacturers and formulators in pilot runs, scaling up new product development and improving existing products and processes.

The duties immediately above prefer a master’s degree in nutrition and food Science or equivalent experience in the research field at least a bachelor’s degree with relevant and equivalent experience in this field because an in-depth understanding of the, product development, fundamental and advanced level Biochemistry, and Food Chemistry due to subject complexity and conduct research to test the samples and interpret results from microbiological quality testing and chemical analysis using different techniques. Understanding of a wide variety of techniques in quality control (GMP), HACCP, advanced sanitation, employee food safety, statistical process control (SPC), and safe quality foods (SQF), NSF training in Dietary Supplements and their application. Have the knowledge to translate the test results into understandable terms for use by other company departments and be able to analyze the existing specifications for product quality at doTERRA and provide information and SOP’s on establishing specifications that are specific to a region in this global market. These duties require knowledge in writing and gathering technical data, thorough knowledge, and experience in conducting research and providing accurate support data to the claims.

Job Qualifications:

• BS or MS degree in nutrition, food science, chemistry or closely related field

• 6-7+ years of commercial experience in the formulation of dietary supplement and functional foods, preferably involving a variety of dosage and product forms, including hard shell capsules, soft gel capsules, tablets, chewable wafer tablets, powdered drink mixes, granulations, nutrition bars; and preferably involving formulations for both domestic and international markets.

• Extensive experience and proven success in collaborating with nutraceutical contract manufacturers and testing laboratories to meet or exceed product requirements.

• Working knowledge of dietary supplement and functional food manufacturing and packaging techniques, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) as well as related quality protocols.

• Proven expertise in preparation and review of technically compliant dietary supplement and food labels.

• Extensively networked with raw ingredient suppliers, product development contract manufacturers, testing laboratories, flavor houses and related contacts.

• Working knowledge of chemistry and analytical chemistry.

• Formulation experience with predominantly natural and/or organic ingredients. Awareness of special product requirements, such as non-GMO, kosher, halal and vegan

• Attention to detail. 

• Excellent computer and quantitative skills, including technical document management.

• Proven ability to work well in cross-functional teams responsible for developing, registering, manufacturing, and promoting nutraceutical products.

• Basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel and Word

• Must demonstrate skill in basic laboratory technician practices

• Must be able to safely lift and maneuver ~ 20 lbs

• Must be able to working standing at a lab bench or sitting at a workstation for upwards to 2 hours

doTERRA International, LLC. is committed to employing a diverse workforce. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, protected veteran status, or disability.