Senior Food Scientist

Dessert Holdings is the leading premium dessert company in the world. We craft artisanal, scratch-made desserts at scale, combining culinary innovation with the finest real ingredients. With a rich heritage spanning seven distinctive brands, we bring unmatched expertise and tailored solutions to our Retail and Foodservice partners.

About the role

We are looking for a Senior Food Scientist to be based in our Aurora, CO location. This position will work directly with the culinary team to create robust formulas that can be scaled up for the Commercialization team. The Senior Food Scientist will ensure new items are built and launched successfully, existing items are documented accurately, and act as a liaison between the Culinary Team, Production, Sales, Finance, Quality Assurance, and Supply Chain. The role drives technical projects to meet business initiatives focusing on new product development, quality improvement, and cost improvement.

Responsibilities

• Provide project leadership in the development of new formulations, proper use of functional ingredients, and creation of robust formulations on the bench.
• Work on multiple interdisciplinary projects, developing and implementing plans, and coordinating resources to achieve goals.
• Design and execute experiments, analyze and interpret data to make sound technical recommendations for specific projects.
• Develop product and process specifications, ensuring training and transfer of specific knowledge to QA and Operations.
• Support Commercialization, Operations, and QA to resolve ingredient, formula, and process issues and manage product/process changes.
• Provide technical support to the Culinary team on product information and process capability.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams on implementing new products, new equipment, or new processes.
• Provide formula and process specifications with the Culinary team and translate them into on-floor processes to ensure smooth rollouts of new products, equipment, and/or processes.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives that enhance the new product development process by actively participating in and encouraging improvements to enhance win rate, reduce costs, improve new product scale-up, and expedite speed to market.

Requirements

• Degree in Food Science / Food Engineering with a strong functional Baking Science background.
• 5–8 years' experience in manufacturing required.
• Experience with designing and working on new products through concept, prototyping, and commercialization within a manufacturing environment.
• Strong re-engineering knowledge/experience.
• Recipe/Formulation and raw material knowledge/experience.
• Strong bench skills in recipe testing and development.
• Team-oriented when handling large sample requests.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Working knowledge of MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel), SharePoint, and D365 systems.
• Self-directed with initiative; responsible for managing own projects and ensuring all timelines are met or exceeded.
• Ability/willingness to work off-hours or extended amounts of time during product scale-ups.
• Ability/willingness to travel up to 40% of the time.

Pay

The typical hiring range for this role is $100,000 to $110,000 annually and is based on several factors such as education, work experience, skills, certifications, and location.

Benefits

• Choice of comprehensive medical plans.
• Dental and vision insurance.
• Paid vacation and holidays.
• Retirement contribution for all eligible employees.

About Dessert Holdings

Dessert Holdings is a collection of premium dessert companies and brands: The Original Cakerie, Lawler's Desserts, Atlanta Cheesecake Company, Steven Charles, Dianne's Fine Desserts, Kenny's Great Pies, and Willamette Valley Pie Company. Owned by Bain Capital, Dessert Holdings is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, employs more than 3,500 people across ten manufacturing facilities, and is continuing its journey of rapid growth.