Senior R&D Food Scientist (Bakery/Pastry)

Lawler Foods; London; On-site; CAD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the dessert sector is seeking a Senior R&D Food Scientist to innovate and commercialize new products while ensuring consistent quality across existing offerings. This position requires a strong background in Food Science and extensive experience in product development, as the scientist will play a pivotal role in cross-functional teamwork and continuous improvement initiatives.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of experience in bakery/food development.
• Experience in leading new products in a manufacturing environment.
• Knowledge of Canadian and US food standards.

Responsibilities

• Lead new product development and commercialization.
• Design and execute experiments based on project needs.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams for product launches.

Skills

Problem Solving

Communication

Project Management

Education

Degree in Food Science / Food Engineering

Culinary Degree or equivalent experience

Tools

MS Office

ERP systems

Job description

Senior R&D Food Scientist

Are you ready to elevate your career and be a part of creating the world's best desserts? Dessert Holdings partners with some of North America’s most iconic chains to bring people together to celebrate life’s sweetest moments!

Dessert Holdings is looking for a Senior Research and Development Food Scientist to join our team based in London, Ontario. This role is responsible to ensure new items are built and launched successfully, that existing items are documented accurately, and will act as a liaison between Culinary, Production, Sales, Finance, QA, and Supply chain. The Sr. Food Scientist needs to understand the business needs, design and execute tests, analyze data, draw conclusions, communicate results, and commercialize new products.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Identify and implement innovative, practical application and modification of ingredients, formulations, and process.
• Provide project leadership in conjunction with the Culinary team in commercialization of new products, product improvement, and cost savings.
• Work on multiple interdisciplinary projects, set direction, develop and implement plans, identify and organize project team, coordinate resources to achieve goals, and lead all communication within and outside of organization.
• Design and execute experiments, analyze, and interpret data to make sound technical recommendations for specific projects.
• Provide and communicate technical and business risk assessment and perspective.
• Develop process specifications, ensuring training and transfer of specification knowledge to QA and Operations
• Research and gain thorough understanding and knowledge of emerging technologies in product and ingredient technologies.
• Support Operations and QA to resolve ingredient, formula, process issues and manage product/process changes.
• Provide technical support with Culinary team on product information and process capability.
• Collaboration with cross-functional teams on implementing new products, new equipment or new processes.
• Provide formula and process specifications on bench working with Culinary team and translating that to on floor processes and support to assure smooth rollouts of new products, equipment and/or processes.
• Support the process design and review on new capability expansion, cost enhancement, and/or process improvement opportunities.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives that enhance the new product development process by; actively participating in and encouraging continuous improvement to enhance our win rate, reduce our costs, improve our new product scale up and expedite our speed to market.

QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS:

• Degree in Food Science / Food Engineering with a strong functional Baking Science background (minimum 5 years bakery/food development / manufacturing experience)
• Experience in baking, pastry arts, R+D and Food / Baking Science
• Culinary Degree or equal work experience preferred
• Experience with leading new products through concept, prototyping and commercialization within a manufacturing environment.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Working knowledge of MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel), SharePoint, ERP systems
• Working knowledge of Canadian and US food standards and regulations.
• Self-directed with initiative; responsible for managing own projects and ensuring all timelines are met or exceeded for self and reports
• Ability/willingness to work off hours or extended amounts of time during product scale ups.
• Ability/willingness to travel up to 30% of the time.

About Dessert Holdings

Dessert Holdings is North America’s fastest-growing premium dessert company, recognized for provide retail and foodservice customers with chef-inspired, innovative desserts made with real ingredients, a flexible and low-cost supply chain, and best-in-class service. The company is a collection of premium dessert companies and brands: Steven Charles, The Original Cakerie, Lawler’s Desserts, Atlanta Cheesecake Company, Kenny's Great Pies, and Dianne’s Fine Desserts. Dessert Holdings is owned by Bain Capital, employing more than 3,200 people across nine manufacturing facilities, and is continuing its journey of rapid growth.

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