Research and Innovation Technologist

SUMMARY:

This is a key role in the research and innovation department, providing support to R&I and the sales team. This role will have strong sauce development experience and understanding of formulation and manufacturing processes to deliver technical expertise for continuous improvement. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Key functions of this role include problem solving, research, lab testing for proof of concept, and provide technical sales support to the customers. 
• Develops new products working closely with the sales team and the customers that are commercially feasible based on the project scope. Works on reformulations, product renovations, and cost optimization projects by revising the product formulations in a cross functional collaborative environment to ensure it would meet the current manufacturing capabilities. 
• Works closely with the food scientists and the procurement team to identify optimization opportunities to trial new ingredients (structural, functional, flavor, etc.) to provide improvements to the existing products. Conduct studies to determine the viability of the new ingredients. 
• Partners with quality and technical services to troubleshoot customer complaints from raw material, formulation and specification perspective. Makes prototypes in the lab to test out proposed changes. 
• Works closely with Project Manager to commercialize the products and ensures that the finished product meets customer’s analytical and sensory expectations. 
• Works with technical services to develop recipe cards and manufacturing standard procedures for hot sauce and tomato-based products.
• Collaborate with food scientists to understand critical design principles for the existing and new products to leverage gathered expertise for problem solving. Supports in product development of tomato based, hot sauces, and other new products by testing new ingredients, making culinary standards, and product prototypes. 
• Develops strong relationships with the suppliers to understand threats, and opportunities with regards to the ingredient processing, supply, and logistics. Works closely with the procurement team to develop solutions. 
• Understands processing, production processes, and quality control procedures for all the manufacturing plants of the company including co-manufacturer locations. Partners with technical services and engineering to work on cross functional projects representing R&I. 
• Assists the chefs and/or sales to conduct the culinary meetings and/or product presentations in-house and off-site as per the business needs. Presents training materials such as hot sauce 101 to the customers. 
• Works closely with the mash suppliers to explore innovation opportunities from raw materials, processing, and logistics. Works on appropriate prototype development as per the need to prove the concept and application. 
• Be a continuous improvement leader to provide technical solutions to the manufacturing plants for all sauce products from raw materials functionality, and product formulations, and testing equipment. 
• Works closely and supports sales team by providing technical solutions to the customers by participating on the customer call with the sales team. 
• Scouts for technological and process advances, and new or improved processing methods that continue to contribute sustainable competitive advantages in the marketplace against the current and potential new competition. Test the theories out in the R&I to generate the proof of concept. 
• Supports food scientists in development of technical training documentation such as Tomato 101, Hot Sauce 101, Ingredient 101, etc. to drive technical awareness, knowledge, and training for the customers and internal cross functional teams. 
• Develops creation of procedures and processes for R&I, as necessary, and develops standard operating procedures. 
• Develops a database and knowledge center to document research, project work and archive collected information for a strong business continuity. 

QUALIFICATIONS:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Bachelor’s degree (in applicable study) with 4 years of experience in R&D / food product development with a minimum experience of 3 years in hot sauce and tomato-based sauce and/or other condiment type sauce development and manufacturing, or equivalent combination of education and/or experience in food manufacturing. 
• Experience with ‘Farm to Fork’ operations for tomato-based and pepper-based products or any other agricultural product is highly preferred. 
• Must have experience with a wide variety of unit operations and processes for high acid and acidified products. Experience with process development, scale up, and launching products from concept to commercialization is required. 
• Strong leadership skills to encourage collaboration, provide expertise, and successful execution of research-based projects. Ability to recognize, analyze, and develop solutions and initiate problem-solving actions.
• Proven experience with working on research projects. 
• Excellent organizational skills to manage large amounts of data and multiple projects. Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and technical journals, and ingredient spec sheets.
• Ability to flex schedule to support 24-hour production scheduling requirements for test products at all facilities.
• Ability to communicate and interact effectively with various sales, marketing, and technical services personnel. 
• Must be a team player and effectively work in a cross functional environment. 
• Computer and software skills including MS office. Working knowledge of AutoCAD is preferred.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• Ability to be out on the produce fields, and /or supplier, manufacturing facilities routinely for hours at a time.
• Occasional lifting of cases of goods can weigh up to 45 lbs., can be accommodated.
• Capable of hand-mixing thick products, as required.