Product Technologist

Jigsaw Talent Management; City of Melbourne; On-site; AUD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Jigsaw Talent Management with a Mount Waverley manufacturing site seeks a Product Technologist to lead end-to-end product development from concept to commercial production. You will bridge the lab bench with the factory floor, translating briefs into robust formulations and coordinating trials across multiple internal teams.

The role also covers evaluating supplier documentation, translating ingredient functionality into real product applications, and ensuring FSANZ compliance and packaging

Qualifications

• Degree in Food Science or Food Technology or related discipline.
• At least 3 years in the food industry with hands-on NPD or Product Technologist experience.
• Proven track record of managing product development from brief to commercial launch, including trials.
• Strong formulation and food chemistry knowledge with sensory assessment skills.
• Experience creating and controlling recipes, BOMs, specifications, batch sheets and NIPs.
• Experience in sports nutrition, functional foods, powdered beverages, dietary supplements or protein products is advantageous.
• Sound knowledge of FSANZ requirements, GMP and HACCP food safety systems.

Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end product development projects from customer brief through formulation, bench trials, scale-up, first production and post-launch review.
• Translate customer requirements into formulations that are technically sound, compliant and commercially viable.
• Design and run bench trials, sensory evaluations and stability or shelf-life assessments and interpret results.
• Plan and coordinate factory trials and first production runs with Production, Quality, Engineering, Procurement and Supply Chain.
• Maintain recipes, BOMs, finished product specifications, Nutrition Information Panels and other technical documentation.
• Review formulation and labelling compliance against FSANZ requirements and relevant certification standards.
• Support raw material substitutions, change controls and continuous improvement work.
• Conduct technical assessments of ingredients for the distribution business, including documentation, certifications and physical samples.
• Create practical ingredient concepts and application samples to support the sales team and customers.

Skills

Formulation

Food Chemistry

Sensory Analysis

NPD Management

Production Liaison

Education

Food Science / Food Technology degree

Job description

Jigsaw Talent Management – Mount Waverley VIC

We are partnering with an Australian owned health and wellness business that combines ingredient distribution with local product development and manufacturing, to recruit a Product Technologist for their Mount Waverley manufacturing facility.

This is a genuinely varied role split across two connected parts of the business. On one side you will manage customer projects from brief through to commercial launch, running bench trials, coordinating factory trials and solving formulation and processing problems along the way. On the other, you will support the ingredient distribution side of the business, assessing supplier documentation and physical samples and helping translate ingredient functionality into real product applications.

If you want a technical role where you are genuinely across the full journey from concept to commercial production, rather than sitting in one narrow lane, this is worth a look.

The Role

Reporting to the Product Development Manager, you will take ownership of your own portfolio of product development projects and be the technical link between customers, the factory floor and the wider business.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Managing end to end product development projects from customer brief through formulation, bench trials, scale up, first production and post launch review
• Translating customer requirements into formulations that are technically sound, compliant and commercially viable
• Designing and running bench trials, sensory evaluations and stability or shelf life assessments, and interpreting the results
• Planning and coordinating factory trials and first production runs with Production, Quality, Engineering, Procurement and Supply Chain
• Maintaining recipes, bills of materials, finished product specifications, Nutrition Information Panels and other technical documentation
• Reviewing formulation and labelling compliance against FSANZ requirements and relevant certification standards
• Supporting raw material substitutions, change controls and continuous improvement work
• Conducting technical assessments of ingredients for the distribution business, including documentation, certifications and physical samples
• Creating practical ingredient concepts and application samples to support the sales team and customers

About You

You are a food technologist who has genuinely done the job, not just studied it. You are comfortable moving between the lab bench and the factory floor, and you know how to take a formulation from an idea to something that actually runs on a production line.

Ideally, you will bring:

• A degree in Food Science, Food Technology or a closely related discipline
• At least 3 years in the food industry, including experience in a hands on NPD or Product Technologist role within food manufacturing
• A track record of independently managing product development projects from brief through to commercial launch, including production trials and first runs
• Strong formulation and food chemistry knowledge, backed by sensory assessment skills
• Experience creating and controlling recipes, BOMs, specifications, batch sheets and NIPs
• Experience in sports nutrition, functional foods, powdered beverages, dietary supplements or protein products would be highly regarded
• Sound working knowledge of FSANZ requirements, GMP and HACCP based food safety systems

Why Consider This Opportunity?

This business sits across two interesting spaces, ingredient distribution and its own manufacturing operation, and this role gives you visibility across both. You will not be pigeonholed into one narrow technical function. Instead you get ownership of your own projects end to end, exposure to a genuinely broad range of product categories, and the chance to influence how ingredients are assessed and applied as well as how products is developed and produced.

For a Product Technologist who wants more scope and more ownership than a purely NPD or purely QA role usually offers, this is a strong next step.