Confections Application Technologist

About the role

This position is responsible for leading the development of innovative confectionery applications to support strategic customer initiatives and revenue growth. The role includes ownership of technical projects, customer-facing innovation support, and leadership in scale-up and commercialization efforts.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of confectionery applications for strategic customer presentations, product demonstrations, and trade shows.
• Serve as a technical liaison to customers, consulting on formulation, ingredient functionality, processing considerations, labeling, and regulatory compliance.
• Develop and optimize formulations for gummies, nutraceutical gummies, licorice, chocolate, compound coatings, hard candy, soft candy, pectin systems, starch-molded confections, chews, and related confectionery products.
• Evaluate flavor performance, sweetness systems, masking technologies, texture systems, and color performance in confectionery applications.
• Develop innovative prototypes aligned with consumer trends, customer requests, and strategic business objectives.
• Navigate and apply legislation (FDA, Kosher, Halal, DSHEA), regulatory/nutritional labeling.
• Lead pilot trials and provide on-site support for scale-up and commercialization activities.
• Responsible for physical/chemical stability checks to determine shelf life reliability or to ensure product potency and structure meets intended shelf life.
• Support product development and applications teams in tastings, information sharing, concept development, training, and sample creation as needed.
• Maintain detailed and accurate records of formulations, processing parameters, project activities, stability studies, and test results.
• Conduct sensory evaluations and participate in internal tasting panels to assess flavor, texture, and overall product performance.
• Collaborate with Flavor Development, Sales, Marketing, Regulatory, Quality Assurance, Operations, and Commercialization teams to support business objectives.
• Stay current on confectionery market trends, ingredients, technologies, consumer insights, and manufacturing advancements.
• Mentor laboratory technicians and junior technologists on confectionery formulation and processing techniques.
• Report any food safety or quality issues to appropriate personnel.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Confectionery Science, Culinary Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related field required.
• Minimum 3 years of confectionery product development or applications experience required.
• Preferred 5+ years of confectionery product development, applications, or commercialization experience.
• Strong experience in gummies, nutraceutical gummies, licorice, chocolate, compound coatings, hard candy, soft candy, chews, and related confectionery systems.
• Preferred experience with gelatin gummies, pectin gummies, starch-molded products, sugar-free confectionery systems, and functional confectionery products.
• Preferred experience working with and applying active ingredients commonly used in nutraceutical products, including vitamins, minerals, botanicals, adaptogens, caffeine, and other functional ingredients preferred.
• Experience with flavor masking technologies and sweetness optimization for nutraceutical and functional confectionery products preferred.
• Knowledge of chocolate processing, tempering, viscosity management, bloom prevention, cocoa systems, and compound coating technologies preferred.
• Ability to support finished product labeling and regulatory compliance initiatives.
• Ability to support scale-up activities from bench-top development through commercial manufacturing.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and willingness to learn new software applications.
• Strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Able to work effectively both independently and within cross-functional teams in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Physical Demands/Work Environment: Regular exposure to allergen-containing materials and products, including dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame, meat, seafood, and other food ingredients. Individuals must be able to safely work around these materials while following established allergen-control procedures.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is mainly subjected to an indoor office environment. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
• Must be able to wear required personal protective equipment (PPE) and comply with all safety requirements.