Senior R&D Scientist
Job Description Summary
The Senior R&D Scientist leads the development, validation, and commercialization of new food products, recipes, processes, and product improvements for Bel's GoGo SqueeZ fruit-based snacking portfolio. This role manages complex local R&D projects with limited direction, partners cross-functionally with internal teams and external suppliers, and applies advanced food science expertise to deliver solutions that meet consumer expectations, business needs, food safety, quality, cost, and manufacturing requirements. The position also supports continuous improvement, technical documentation, launch readiness, and team capability by serving as a strong technical role model and sharing expertise across projects.
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
Lead development, validation, and commercialization of new food products, recipes, processes, and technologies from concept through launch.
Translate marketing briefs, consumer needs, technical requirements, and business priorities into development plans, prototypes, timelines, and launch-ready solutions.
Develop recipes and process parameters at bench, pilot, and industrial scale while ensuring alignment with food safety, quality, regulatory, cost, and operational requirements.
Conduct pilot and industrial trials, write protocols, document results, evaluate product performance, and recommend next steps based on data and risk assessment.
Evaluate physical, sensory, organoleptic, chemical, and shelf-life performance to confirm products meet expected functionality and consumer expectations.
Project Leadership and Cross-Functional Execution
Manage complex local R&D projects with limited direction by defining scope, milestones, communication needs, risks, and delivery expectations.
Partner with Marketing, Quality, Regulatory, Purchasing, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, and Packaging Engineering teams to develop and launch commercially viable products.
Identify and advance development plans and continuous improvement opportunities that support product quality, process reliability, cost optimization, and operational efficiency.
Anticipate technical and execution risks, recommend practical contingencies, and influence project-level decisions using technical judgment and business awareness.
Technical Expertise and Continuous Improvement
Apply advanced knowledge of fruit-based products, ingredients, formulation, processing, and manufacturing systems to resolve complex technical challenges independently.
Evaluate, develop, and implement new food technologies, ingredients, processing methods, and equipment approaches with limited guidance.
Maintain and expand ingredient, supplier, process, and competitive product knowledge through technical literature, supplier engagement, benchmarking, trade shows, and industry learning.
Support optimization of existing products and processes, including quality improvement, cost reduction, production troubleshooting, and customer complaint resolution.
Documentation, Compliance, and Launch Support
Create and maintain trial reports, product specifications, process documentation, ingredient documentation, nutritional inputs, label inputs, and launch records.
Ensure development work complies with applicable regulations, food safety principles, internal procedures, confidentiality expectations, and project schedules.
Support raw material and supplier qualification through conformity testing, technical reviews, documentation, and supplier collaboration.
Support scale-up, first production runs, operator training, and troubleshooting in partnership with operations and efficiency teams.
Team Contribution and Technical Role Modeling
Serve as a positive technical role model by demonstrating accountability, curiosity, sound judgment, and a continuous improvement mindset.
Share technical knowledge through tastings, product evaluations, training sessions, process demonstrations, and documentation reviews, as appropriate.
Contribute to a collaborative R&D culture by modeling professionalism, constructive problem solving, continuous learning, and cross-functional partnership.