R&D Assistant

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Recipe Standardization and Quality Control

• Supporting our continuous growth with new products. Documenting new product formulas with developing notes for all processes of development including mixing, bench work and baking.
• Assist in testing and validating existing recipes to ensure consistency and adherence to quality standards.
• Support with sensory evaluations and maintain sensory panels for existing and new products.
• Document production parameters and help troubleshoot variations in product quality.
• Documenting current standard operating procedures (SOPs) for existing processes and recipes, and validating current SOPs

Product Development and Innovation

• Keep informed of external cutting-edge standards and nuances, and participating in continuing education in the industry standards and challenging current and new baking standards.
• Help develop samples for new baked goods under the guidance of the R&D Director.
• Conduct ingredient research, benchmarking, and testing of alternative formulations.
• Support the scaling up of new recipes for pilot testing and production trials.
• Utilization of the vacuum cooling oven and application into various product recipes. Become a vacuum cooling baking technician that can adjust recipes and input them into the system.

Documentation and Compliance

• Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) development support. Assist in developing Standard Operating Procedures to support our new products with SOP’s and support teams with seasonal and ingredient updates from a procedural and documentation perspective.
• Working alongside the Quality Product Success Director and our Quality Assurance team to analyze and ensure compliance with quality & shelf-life testing. Determining and ensuring application of determined improvements with our current recipes and adjusting them to improve the taste and shelf life by keeping our label clean and prioritizing quality objectives.
• Ensuring that all baked goods are compliant with our safe quality food objectives.
• Document troubleshooting and recipe variation for seasonal and ingredient changes.

Cross-functional Support

• Train and support with the new product development teams by new products. Supporting our production teams to ensure that the recipes processes can be successful at larger scale runs. This includes being available to be onsite for team training opportunities of all shifts for teaching and validating of new and existing bakery products.  
• Support quality auditing and weekly trends with scrap and quality to help guide our quality objectives.
• Be present and support teams in reviewing operational and product concerns and areas of focus.
• Will serve as a culinary apprentice to the Director of Quality and product success for making show case samples for the media and catalog bakery. Becoming an R&D protégé will take time to work alongside some of our skilled team members to understand all the processes needed to be successful.
• Collaborate with production, procurement, and quality teams to facilitate smooth transitions from development to full-scale production.
• Assist in preparing product presentations and samples for internal reviews or customer feedback.
• Support teams to prepare and provide support and products for photoshoots and other media representations.
• Other duties as assigned by management.

Education and Experience

• 2 years’ experience in culinary bakery and pastry, food science, and baking technology required
• Degree in culinary arts, Food Science, Baking Technology, or a related field is preferred
• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills, and willingness to work hands-on in a test kitchen and production environment
• Passion for pastries, breads, and innovative baked goods