Product Development Scientist

SUMMARY:  Key aspects of this role includeintellectual leadership, expansion of knowledge base, management of projects,and effective interaction with customers.  Enable the overall success of the company by supporting all other functional areas, in particular, Sales, Quality Assurance, Marketing, and Manufacturing. 


 


ESSENTIAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES include the following: 


 






Provide and maintain a safe, accident-free laboratory environment.  Follow all company safety rules in performing job duties.






Demonstrate intellectual leadership by staying abreast of recent scientific food ingredient findings that pertain to relevant technical areas. Identify and address capability gaps in terms of knowledge, equipment and facilities and work with management to address these gaps.


 






Apply creativity along with the scientific method to generate new learnings that can be used to develop new and successful products and processes. Maintain a working knowledge of all phases of product development.






Plan and execute laboratory application projects for specific business needs and initiatives as well as those for customers as submitted by the sales team. Including evaluations and screening current Company products performance in a specific application, or formulating a new texture ingredient system.


 






Effectively manage projects by planning, designing, and scheduling experiments.  Ensure proper execution of experiments through effective use of time and resources.  Generate and evaluate data.  Draw conclusions and use them to design the next set of experiments as needed. 






Plan, direct, and participate in production and equipment trials that are focused on the implementation and/or evaluation of a new Company product, production process, or application.


 






Design and execute experiments in the lab, pilot plant, or field to determine how specific ingredients, or systems of food ingredients, behave in specific applications.


 






Characterize current ingredients, blends, and formulations as well as current work products through analytical techniques and analysis.


 






As necessary, supervise the execution and completion of projects assigned to Lab Technicians.  Provide guidance to Lab Technicians with respect to overall performance and career development in the form of performance coaching.






Complete assigned projects by agreed upon completion date and report status of projects as they progress with a final summary in the company designated data base system.   






Prepare and/or complete specifications, nutritional information, and MSDS documentation for new products and processes.






Serve as technical support within Company by: answering technical hot line, responding to technical review, and participating in customer sales calls in support of sales.  Generate literature and attend trade shows in support of marketing. Provide leadership for method development, product troubleshooting, customer audits, and maintaining the integrity of the Quality Management System in support of Quality Assurance.  Provide trouble shooting support, process scale-up and transfer, process optimization and training in support of Manufacturing. 






Maintaining a legible and organized laboratory book of all assigned projects.






Performing other duties as assigned.


 


 


EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE: 


The position requires a minimum of a Bachelor’s of Science in Food Science or a related discipline as well as 2-4 years of relevant technical experience.  Work-related experience in product development is required.