R&D Intern

About the role

As our Bakery R&D Intern, you'll play a vital role in supporting our technical services team by conducting experimental testing and evaluation on yeast and other ingredients used in bakery applications. You'll have the opportunity to take on an individual project related to yeast, dough improvers, or both, where you'll test these components in yeast-raised products. Collaborating closely with our scientists and bakers, you'll gain a deep understanding of ingredient functionality in industrial bakery settings. Your hands-on work and insights will directly contribute to the development of innovative solutions that drive success for our customers.

Responsibilities

• Develop and design ingredient prototypes for testing in yeast-raised bakery applications
• Evaluate existing products for new opportunities
• Potential to run field trials at industrial locations with assistance of Technical Services Team
• Work with Supply Chain to source raw materials to use in newly developed ingredients
• Collaborate with Quality & Regulatory Groups to develop raw material and final product technical document specifications
• Potential to travel to customer facilities, other Lesaffre locations (bake centers/ingredient manufacturing plants), trade shows, etc.
• Assist in additional projects related to industrial bakery applications
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Applicant must be in the process of pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Bakery Science or Food Science with a minor in bakery science or emphasis
• Ability to understand and use Baker’s percent as well as add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals
• Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office suite programs
• Must be willing to relocate to Milwaukee for the full summer of 2027
• Ability to travel up to 15%

Preferred Qualifications

• One to three years of bakery experience a plus
• Ability to speak French, German, or Spanish is a plus

Skills

• Be able to work under the supervision of lab scientist and baker to perform testing
• Work in a lab consisting of both analytical and baking equipment
• Basic lab skills: measuring, using a scale, follow formulas, etc.
• Understand how to properly run a baking test
• Experience running standard baking equipment
• Self-motivated and can work in a group setting
• Well organized and can efficiently follow through on a work assignment and reporting data in assigned Lab Notebook
• Clearly express thoughts and ideas so others can follow and understand