Back to jobs
New

Food & Beverage Scientist

Lexington, KY

At Curaleaf, we’re redefining the cannabis industry with a strong commitment to quality, expertise, and innovation. As a leading global cannabis provider, our brands—including Curaleaf, Select, and Grassroots—offer premium products and services in both medical and adult-use markets.

Join us at Curaleaf to be part of a high-growth, purpose-driven company that champions corporate social responsibility through our Rooted in Good initiative, supporting community outreach and positive change. Here, you’ll have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact, drive innovation, and help shape the future of cannabis.

Job Title: Food & Beverage Scientist
Location: Lexington, KY (Relocation may be provided for the right candidate)
Job Type: Full Time | Exempt

Who You Are:
You’re a curious innovator with a passion for food science and product development. With a strong background in food and beverage manufacturing, you thrive in hands-on environments where creativity meets compliance. You bring deep knowledge of ingredient functionality, emulsions, and hydrocolloids, paired with the technical skill to scale formulations from the lab bench to full production. Whether running shelf-life studies, managing formulation data, or collaborating with cross-functional partners, you approach each challenge with precision, organization, and a problem-solving mindset. Above all, you’re excited to push boundaries in the growing cannabis edibles and beverages space while upholding the highest standards of quality, safety, and compliance.

What You’ll Do:

As a Food & Beverage Scientist, you’ll play a central role in developing and scaling innovative cannabis-infused products. You’ll conduct formulation trials, lead product testing, and support commercialization to bring new concepts to market. Your work will span from sensory evaluations to regulatory compliance, ensuring each product is safe, consistent, and high-quality. On any given day, you might be:

  • Supporting the development, optimization, and scaling of cannabis-infused edibles and beverages through bench trials, pilot runs, and full-scale production
  • Conducting sensory testing, shelf-life studies, and technical evaluations of texture, flavor, and stability using industry tools like viscometers and texture analyzers
  • Maintaining SOPs, batch records, and technical documentation to streamline operations and support audits
  • Ensuring compliance with GMP, food safety, labeling, and cannabis regulations, including coordinating third-party lab testing and interpreting results
  • Managing formulation and ingredient data using MRP systems and formulation software for efficiency and accuracy
  • Sharing data-driven insights that influence innovation, continuous improvement, and collaboration across the team

What You’ll Bring:

  • 5–8 years of experience in food or beverage manufacturing
  • A bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Food Chemistry, or a related field
  • Hands-on experience in beverage formulation and scale-up, with knowledge of production equipment for both beverages and confections
  • Strong understanding of ingredient functionality, food chemistry, emulsions, and hydrocolloids to design stable formulations
  • Familiarity with GMPs, food safety, and regulatory requirements, with direct experience in sensory testing and shelf-life evaluations
  • Excellent communication and documentation skills, paired with attention to detail and strong organizational abilities
  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office and formulation software
  • Willingness to travel up to 10% for trials, production support, and industry events

Even Better If:

  • You have experience in the cannabis or hemp industry
  • You’re familiar with ERP/MRP systems for managing formulations and ingredient tracking
  • You bring experience applying data science or analytics to product development
  • You’ve supported R&D trials and helped scale products from concept to commercialization

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to stand, walk, sit, talk or hear, use hands to finger or feel, reach with hands and arms, and lift up to 25 lbs. The employee is occasionally required to climb and balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and lift up to 50 lbs. This position requires close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment:

This position has allergen warnings, potential exposure to dust, pollen, and plant pathogens, requires exposure to cleaning solvents, such as high volumes of isopropyl alcohol, requires daily use of provided PPE, such as masks, hair nets, beard covers, respirators, boot covers, scrubs, non-slip shoes, and Tyvek suits as necessary, requires the ability to work in confined spaces, has exposure to loud noises, including but not limited to air compressors, packaging equipment, and alarms, has exposure to CO2 manufacturing procedures at OSHA approved CO2 levels and requires a high stress tolerance, adaptability, and flexibility. Ability to work in an ever-changing environment.

Curaleaf Pay Transparency

$78,000 - $87,000 USD

What We Offer:

  • Career Growth Opportunities
  • Competitive Pay and Benefits (Health, Dental Vision)
  • Generous PTO and Parental Leave
  • 401(K) Retirement Plan
  • Life/AD&D Insurance, Short & Long-Term Disability
  • Community Involvement Initiatives
  • Employee Referral Bonuses and Product Discounts

Not all benefits listed above are available to all employees at all locations.  

Curaleaf Awards and Achievements:

  • 2023 Ragan’s Top Places to Work
  • 2022 TIME100 Most Influential Companies
  • 2020 Cannabis Doing Good’s Good Neighbor Award
  • 2020 Minorities for Medical Marijuana’s Diversity & Inclusion Award

Follow us on Social Media: 
Instagram: @curaleaf.usa
Twitter: @Curaleaf_Inc
LinkedIn: Curaleaf LinkedIn

Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (TSX: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) ("Curaleaf") is a leading international provider of consumer products in cannabis with a mission to enhance lives by cultivating, sharing, and celebrating the power of the plant. As a high-growth cannabis company known for quality, expertise and reliability, the Company, and its brands, including Curaleaf, Select, Grassroots, JAMS, Find and Zero Proof provide industry-leading service, product selection and accessibility across the medical and adult-use markets. Curaleaf International is the largest vertically integrated cannabis company in Europe with a unique supply and distribution network throughout the European market, bringing together pioneering science and research with cutting-edge cultivation, extraction, and production. Home | Curaleaf | Cannabis with Confidence

Our corporate Social Responsibility is Rooted in Good. We believe in taking corporate and social responsibility very seriously, from our educational outreach to national partnerships, state-wide initiatives, and local causes. Giving back to the communities where we operate is important to us and helps to change old attitudes by showing the positive impact of cannabis in creating jobs, changing lives, and helping local communities. 

Our Vision: To be the world's leading cannabis company by consistently delivering superior products and services and driving the global acceptance of cannabis. 

Our Values:

  • Lead and Inspire.  
  • Commit to Win.  
  • ONE Curaleaf.  
  • Driven to Deliver Excellence.  

Curaleaf is an equal opportunity employer. Curaleaf recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Individuals adversely impacted by the war on drugs are encouraged to apply.

Current Curaleaf employees should apply for open positions through our Internal Job Board, which can be accessed via the link on The Leaf. 

 

 

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Curaleaf ? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Education

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Please note that U.S. immigration rules and regulations are governed by federal law; not state law.  Although Curaleaf operates in states that have legalized and decriminalized marijuana, it is still considered a controlled substance under federal regulations and thus illegal under federal law. For this reason, unless and until federal law changes, Curaleaf is prohibited from offering sponsorship for any nonimmigrant or immigrant visas. 

 

Please also note that while candidates who are Lawful Permanent Residents (such as those with Green Cards) are eligible for employment with, and are hired by Curaleaf, working for a company engaged in a business that grows and sells a product that is illegal under federal law might compromise the candidate’s immigration status. Before a Lawful Permanent Resident accepts an offer of employment, Curaleaf recommends that the candidate seek the advice of an immigration lawyer. 

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Curaleaf ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.