Scientist Food Sr

About Us:

 T.  Marzetti Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lancaster Colony Corporation (NASDAQ: LANC), is a manufacturer and marketer of specialty food products for the retail and foodservice markets. Our retail brands include Marzetti^®, New York Bakery™ and Sister Schubert’s^®, in addition to exclusive license agreements for Olive Garden^® dressings, Chick-fil-A^® sauces and Buffalo Wild Wings^® sauces. Our foodservice business supplies many of the top restaurant chains in the United States.

Overview:

Marzetti, and we reserve the right to contact those candidates without any obligation to pay a fee.

The ideal candidate will play a key role in driving new product development, improving product performance, and mentoring junior scientists while collaborating with cross-functional teams to bring new products to the market.

Responsibilities:

• Product & Process Development:
• Lead the development of innovative salad dressings, sauces, and condiments that align with market trends, customer strategies, regulatory changes, and sustainability initiatives.
• Optimize formulations for taste, texture, stability, nutrition, and cost-effectiveness while ensuring scalability for mass production.
• Explore emerging ingredient technologies (e.g., next-generation emulsifiers, natural preservatives, and plant-based alternatives) to enhance product performance.
• Technical Leadership & Expertise:
• Serve as the technical resource on developing emulsions, flavor, use of stabilizer systems to enhance product functionality.
• Troubleshoot complex formulation and processing challenges such as separation, viscosity inconsistencies, and flavor matching.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to food scientists and technologists.
• Food Service: Serve as the primary technical contact for key food service accounts, providing expert support, troubleshooting, and solutions to enhance product performance, customer experience, and business relationships.
• Regulatory & Quality Compliance:
• Ensure all formulations comply with FDA, FSMA, and relevant food safety regulations.
• Work closely with regulatory affairs to develop accurate ingredient declarations and compliant nutrition panels.
• Collaborate with quality assurance to verify product specifications and maintain consistency across production batches.
• Commercialization & Process Optimization:
• Lead plant trials and start up production process and execution; troubleshoot processing challenges in batch and continuous production environments.
• Partner with operations and engineering teams to seamlessly transition formulations from lab-scale to commercial production.
• Optimize processing parameters (e.g., shear rates, homogenization, and order of addition) to enhance product texture and stability.
• Cross Functional Collaboration & Industry Engagement:
• Collaborate with internal cross functional project teams: culinary, marketing/consumer insights, sales, procurement, to align product and customer strategies with business objectives.
• Engage with supplier and industry partners to stay ahead of emerging ingredient technologies and global food trends.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s in food science, Food Chemistry, or a related field preferred.
• 5-10+ years of experience in sauce, dressing, or condiment formulation.

Technical Skills:

• Strong knowledge of processing, shelf-life process, and ingredient functionality.
• Experience with sensory methods and testing, physical and chemical testing and analysis.
• Familiarity with HACCP, GMPs, and USDA/FDA regulations.

Leadership & Soft Skills:

• Ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams, mentor junior scientists, and drive R&D strategy.
• Strong project management and critical thinking skills.
• Excellent communication skills for interfacing with internal and external teams.