{"id":3182273,"url":"https://alion.io/job/fairlife-associate-scientist","title":"Associate Scientist","company":{"id":672973,"name":"fairlife","domain":"fairlife.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/fairlife","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":7,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":44,"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"}},"role":"Science & Research","role_family":"Science & Research","seniority":"junior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Chicago, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":52000,"max_usd":110000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":849},"experience_years_min":1,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T19:11:24Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-23","last_verified_at":"2026-10-27T16:26:57Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":3},"description":"fairlife, LLC is a Chicago-based nutrition company that creates great-tasting, nutrition-rich and dairy products to nourish consumers.\nWith over $3B in annual retail sales, fairlife’s portfolio of delicious, lactose-free, real dairy products includes: fairlife® ultra-filtered milk; Core Power® High Protein Shakes, a sports nutrition drink to support post-workout recovery; fairlife® nutrition plan™, a nutrition shake to support the journey to better health.\nA wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola company, fairlife, LLC has been recognized by both Fast Company and Nielsen for its industry leading innovation.\nTo learn more about fairlife and its complete line of products, please visit fairlife.com.\njob purpose: \nWe are seeking an independent and driven Associate Scientist to join our R&D team as a Method Developer & Project Owner. This role marks a pivotal career step on our team, transitioning from executing assigned tasks to fully owning experiments and scientific decision-making. Operating with project-level ownership, you will be responsible for driving specific workstreams end-to-end, developing comprehensive research plans, and validating underlying physical and chemical mechanisms. This is a hands-on opportunity centered on benchtop lab work with pilot plant support as needed, where you will apply scientific judgment to translate raw data into actionable, contextualized business insights. \nresponsibilities: \nExperimental Ownership & Method Innovation \nDesign, set up, and execute scientific experiments, ensuring all work aligns with broader project goals and strict scientific rigor. \nInnovate within the laboratory environment by adapting analytical methods, optimizing existing testing protocols, and validating new analytical approaches. \nContinually improve laboratory practices by writing, establishing, and implementing new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). \n Root Cause Analysis & Technical Troubleshooting \nActively engage in cross-functional root cause analysis to investigate and resolve complex technical and product quality issues. \nApply independent scientific judgment to troubleshoot analytical and process deviations, contributing insights that go beyond simple task execution. \n Cross-Functional Influence & Communication \nTranslate and report complex scientific data into clear, actionable insights for an expanded group of cross-functional stakeholders, including QA, Supply Chain, Plant Operations, Marketing, and Consumer Insights. \nCommunicate technical findings with clear business context and impact, focusing on the \"why\" behind the results rather than just reporting raw data. \n Knowledge Transfer & People Leadership \nOperate with a high degree of day-to-day autonomy to lead seamless technical knowledge transfers across R&D and manufacturing networks. \nProvide active peer-to-peer coaching, technical guidance, and mentorship to junior technicians within both the R&D and Quality departments. \nskills/qualifications required: \nRequired: \nEducation: Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Food Scienceor Dairy Science, or a closely related scientific field. \nExperience: 1-3 years of laboratory experience within food, beverage, or fluid dairy R&D/manufacturing environments. \nTechnical Competence: \nProven experience in method development, protocol optimization, and authoring technical SOPs. \nHands-on proficiency with analytical laboratory instrumentation (such as rheology, physical chemistry testing, or compositional analysis). \nDemonstrated ability to apply independent scientific judgment to move projects from data collection to mechanistic understanding. \nStrong communication and collaborative skills, with a track record of sharing data clearly with cross-functional partners like plant operations and quality teams. \n\nPreferred: \nDirect experience supporting pilot plant operations or commercial scale-up trials. \nStrong foundational knowledge of dairy, physical chemistry, protein stability, or fluid milk matrix interactions. \nExperience training plant floor operators or QA technicians on newly implemented laboratory methods. \nhow fairlifenourishes you: \nAt fairlife, we believe in better - and that includes how we support our people. We offer a comprehensive suite of benefits and wellbeing resources designed to support you physically, emotionally, socially, and financially, both in and out of work. \nComprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, effective day one! \nSupplemental health plans (hospital indemnity, accident, and critical illness insurance) \nPaid Time Off to recharge and support work-life balance \nPaid parental leave & adoption assistance (up to $10,000) \nParental support & family care benefits, including childcare resources and lactation support \n401(k) to support retirement planning with up to 9% in employer match \nWellness reimbursement (up to $500 for qualified wellbeing expenses) \nEmployee Assistance Program (EAP) for emotional wellbeing and work-life support \nCompany-paid life insurance and short-term disability \nEmployer HSA funding (for HDHP participants) \nTuition reimbursement (up to $10,000) and student loan repayment ($200/month) \nLearning & development programs to unlock your full potential \nRewards & recognition, matching gifts, free product, and Business Resource Groups \nfairlife’s nour!sh program is designed to meet you where you are - supporting your individual wellbeing journey while enabling you to do your best work every day. \nposition location: Chicago, IL \nreports to: Senior Director, Process Science & Technology \ntravel requirements: 15-30% \nexempt/nonexempt: Exempt \n*Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.\nBase pay range:\n$60,000—$80,000 USD\nfairlife, LLC is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. All qualified applicants and employees will be given equal opportunity. Selection decisions are based on job-related factors.\nIn addition to its nondiscrimination commitment, the Company will also provide reasonable accommodation of qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the Company. If you have a disability and would like to request accommodation in order to apply for a position with us, please email .\n\nFor Recruitment Agencies\nAt fairlife, we manage the majority of our hiring internally through our dedicated Talent Acquisition team, which is actively engaged in direct candidate sourcing. Most of our roles are filled through applications submitted via our careers site or through direct outreach by our team.\nAs our recruitment is primarily handled in-house, we work only occasionally with external agencies, and only those on our existing, pre-approved vendor list. At this time, we are not reviewing or expanding that list.\nUnsolicited resumes or submissions from external agencies not authorized by our Talent Acquisition team will be considered direct candidate applications. As such, fairlife will not assume responsibility for any placement fees associated with these submissions.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7428,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":1,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Life insurance","Parental leave","Retirement plans"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Dairy Products"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-23T21:57:13Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 3","filings_12m":3,"filings_prev_12m":10,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":82500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":3,"expected_fill_days":44,"reasons":["conf:2","win:early","comp:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/fairlife-associate-scientist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/fairlife-associate-scientist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-27T17:04:16Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":6536,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-28T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":672973},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=672973"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffairlife-associate-scientist"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Ffairlife-associate-scientist"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Ffairlife-associate-scientist"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/fairlife-associate-scientist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffairlife-associate-scientist"}]}