Senior Food Formulations Scientist
About the role
The Food Scientist leads the development, optimization, and commercialization of food products and ingredient systems, with a primary focus on dry blends, seasonings, sauces, breaders, batters, and related value-added food solutions. This role combines hands-on bench-top formulation with plant-scale commercialization to deliver innovative, high-quality products that meet customer requirements, regulatory standards, and operational objectives. The Food Scientist acts as a technical expert and project leader, partnering closely with Sales, Marketing, Quality, Operations, Procurement, and customers to drive product innovation and continuous improvement across the product portfolio. Permanent role with relocation assistance offered. Based out of Chicago, IL.
Responsibilities
- Lead the development of new products and the reformulation of existing products within dry blend, seasoning, sauce, batter, and breading categories.
- Perform hands-on bench-top formulation, ingredient evaluation, prototype development, and product optimization to achieve desired performance and quality.
- Design and execute experimental trials to improve flavor, texture, functionality, shelf life, and cost efficiency of products.
- Develop products that align with customer specifications, processing capabilities, regulatory requirements, and margin objectives.
- Conduct competitive product evaluations, benchmarking, and ingredient assessments to inform product development strategies.
- Maintain accurate formulation records, project documentation, and technical reports to ensure traceability and knowledge sharing.
- Lead scale-up activities from laboratory prototypes through pilot and commercial production, ensuring smooth transitions to manufacturing.
- Collaborate with Operations and Quality teams to ensure successful implementation of new products and processes in the plant environment.
- Support first production runs, process validations, and manufacturing