Food Scientist II

Primary Responsibilities

• Independently leads product development projects from concept through commercialization, partnering directly with Sales, Operations, Quality, Procurement, and Manufacturing to deliver customer and business objectives.
• Utilizes DMS and MES systems to develop, optimize, and commercialize formulations while ensuring manufacturability and cost targets are achieved.
• Applies strong project management skills to manage multiple priorities, identify risks, and drive timely decisions across cross-functional teams.
• Serves as a primary technical contact during customer interactions and confidently presents concepts, technical recommendations, and project updates.
• Anticipates technical challenges and develops innovative solutions that balance customer requirements, operational capabilities, and business needs.
• Provides guidance and technical support to junior scientists and technicians.
• Designs and executes complex experimental plans using statistical analysis to develop products, optimize processes, and resolve product quality challenges.
• Independently establishes product specifications, process parameters, and validation criteria that balance customer requirements, manufacturing capability, and business objectives.
• Evaluates existing analytical methods and develops enhanced testing approaches to improve product understanding, troubleshooting, and quality assurance.
• Partners directly with suppliers, customers, laboratories, and industry resources to benchmark practices, evaluate new technologies, and align testing methodologies with industry standards.
• Provides technical guidance to junior scientists in experimental design, data interpretation, and problem-solving methodologies.
• Leads successful scale-up and commercialization activities to consistently achieve Right-First-Time (RFT) targets while balancing customer expectations, product quality, operational efficiency, and cost requirements.
• Applies advanced knowledge of ingredient functionality, processing conditions, and manufacturing capabilities across multiple facilities and production lines to proactively identify commercialization risks.
• Designs and executes pilot plant and intermediary scale-up plans to validate formulations and manufacturing processes prior to full-scale production.
• Partners closely with Operations, Quality, Procurement, and Production teams to resolve startup challenges and implement effective corrective actions.
• Independently leads investigations involving formulation, ingredient, or process-related failures and develops sustainable solutions to improve future commercialization success.
• Affirm cost and productivity improvement initiatives as needed to ensure that product quality and customer requirements are not compromised.
• Builds systems and programs to maintain development laboratories in a neat and organized manner to allow for efficient operation by utilizing designated procedures and systems.
• Suggests upgrades as needed.
• Shares knowledge during project work to support business success and contribute to the development of other team members.

Formal Education Required

• Minimum: B.S. in Food Science, Food Engineering, Culinology or related food technical field. Also open to consider Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biology degrees.

Specific Experience and Key Knowledge Requirements

• Minimum 5-8 years food industry R&D experience in related product areas or 4-7 yrs experience with a M.S. degree and related thesis; expertise in formulation, process scale-up, food regulations, use of functional ingredients such as stabilizers (starches, pectins gums), colors, flavors, texturizing ingredients and fruit formulations.
• Inclination to understand problems and find sustainable solutions.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

Special Skills and Abilities Required

• Positive, proactive work ethic.
• Strong organizational, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Comfortable presenting technical information to customers and internal partners.
• Strong familiarity with functional ingredients, product formulations, thermal processes and production scale equipment.
• Strong computer software programs proficiency Microsoft Office 365 applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook. Familiarity with SAP and formula management applications a plus.
• Ability to represent the company externally in a professional and supportive manner.
• Able to travel to support business initiatives.