Senior Scientist

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Food, Dairy, or related scientific field with at least 5 years of industrial experience or advanced degree (MS/PhD) in closely related scientific field with at least 3 years of experience and/OR strong knowledge of the science of dairy ingredients and non-dairy ingredients and their quality, functionality and interactions within cheese matrix.
• Must have valid driver’s license with flexibility to travel and visit customers up to 10-15% of the time
• Must be able to lift up to 50 lbs. as needed

Other Preferred Qualifications:

• Experienced in developing standardized/non-standardized processed cheese or imitation cheese
• Experience working in application lab, pilot plant systems and with laboratory instrumentation.
• Experience working in Food industry - B2B product development, formulation, and commercialization of cheese/dairy/food products  
• Familiarity with FDA Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) cheese standards, and dairy products guidelines, definitions, nutritional and labeling claims.
• Experience or familiarity working with starch systems, protein matrices and/or plant-based cheese
• Lean Six Sigma experience/certification or likewise
• Culinary experience designing custom applications with custom cheese ingredients will be a plus  
• Working knowledge of sensory science and texture analysis techniques   

Principal Duties:

• Provides strong expertise and technical leadership on new product development, functionality in end products, and commercializing them in collaboration within R&D/Innovation, and cross-collaboration with commercial (sales), procurement, finance, and quality assurance departments.
• Conducts optimization projects based on sound understanding and knowledge of OINA capabilities
• Mentors and upskill others on technical leadership, project management, material risk assessment
• Initiates and drives projects, focusing on ROI, efficiency to address short-term and long-term business needs & support other projects as needed
• Develops and commercializes high quality, innovative, efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable cheese solutions
• Contributes to determine new approaches within existing business and to identify new business opportunities
• Conducts pilot and production plant experiments to test and develop new products and processes.
• As necessary, conducts laboratory evaluations on composition and functionality of products and ingredients
• Investigates new technologies for producing safe, high quality food products
• Participates in on-going sensory/organoleptic analyses and shelf life studies of Ornua products as required
• Uses planning and organization, time management, and project management skills to deliver results
• Establishes control limits for production items and manages process/formulation changes.

Competencies:

• Customer Focus – Advocates for the customer, balances customer and business needs, and spots opportunities for growth
• Communicative – Applies advanced communication skills, considering impact on the audience and desired outcomes
• Curiosity – Creates an environment for innovative thinking; rewards and recognizes creative thinking and continuous improvement.
• Forward looking – Leads other through change and contributes to competitive challenges and functional strategic plans.

Travel requirements:

• Up to 15% travel to other OINA locations, customer sites and industry events