Senior Food Innovation & Scale-Up Engineer

Westfalia Fruit Group; Wingene; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vacation days

Hospitalization

Group insurance

Mobile phone

Meal vouchers 9.5€

Bike leasing

Eco vouchers

Job summary

Westfalia Fruit Group in Wingene, Belgium is seeking a Senior R&D Engineer to drive product and process innovation across our scaling convenience team. You will translate customer needs into technically viable food solutions.

You will lead industrial trials, optimise recipes, validate processes, and collaborate with Quality, Production, Sales and Supply Chain while upholding HACCP and food safety standards.

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent higher education qualification in Food Science, Food Technology, Food Engineering or related discipline.
• Several years of relevant experience in food manufacturing with product development and process engineering/production optimization.
• Experience developing food formulations and transferring concepts to industrial production.
• Strong knowledge of food processing technologies, ingredient functionality, food chemistry and microbiology.
• Understanding of production equipment, process validation and manufacturing constraints.
• Experience evaluating packaging materials and compatibility with food products and processes.
• Knowledge of HACCP and food safety systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end development and industrialisation of new food products translating requirements into viable solutions.
• Develop, formulate and optimise recipes balancing ingredients, nutrition, product quality, cost and manufacturing capabilities.
• Plan, coordinate and evaluate laboratory, production and industrial trials scaling concepts to full production.
• Develop, validate and optimise manufacturing processes addressing freezing, thawing and processing conditions.
• Research, develop and validate innovative packaging materials and configurations compatible with products and processes.
• Identify and implement continuous improvement opportunities across products, processes and packaging to improve efficiency, quality, cost, sustainability and waste reduction.
• Collaborate with suppliers and internal teams to support innovation and technical development.
• Manage validation activities including customer samples, sensory evaluations, shelf-life testing and technical specifications.

Skills

Food science expertise

Process engineering

Product development

Packaging technologies

Project management

Quality HACCP

Dutch & English (C1)

Education

Degree in Food Science/Technology/Engineering

Tools

Laboratory equipment

Job description

Westfalia Fruit Group in Wingene, Belgium is seeking a Senior R&D Engineer to drive product and process innovation across our scaling convenience team. You will translate customer needs into technically viable food solutions.

You will lead industrial trials, optimise recipes, validate processes, and collaborate with Quality, Production, Sales and Supply Chain while upholding HACCP and food safety standards.