Senior Cocoa & Chocolate Scientist: Sustainable Innovation

Protea Recruitment Ltd | Food | Drinks | FMCG Recruitment Partner; England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Protea Recruitment Ltd is partnering with a global FMCG business to recruit a Senior Cocoa & Chocolate Scientist to join a highly innovative R&D and technology function.

This role focuses on building technical expertise in cocoa materials and chocolate technologies, translating science into commercially scalable products and breakthrough solutions within a non-traditional NPD context.

Qualifications

• Experience in chocolate, confectionery, cocoa ingredients or related food technology environments.
• Strong knowledge of chocolate processing, formulation and scale-up.
• Hands-on pilot plant and factory trial experience.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and optimisation of cocoa blends and chocolate systems across confectionery and baked applications.
• Build and share technical expertise around cocoa processing methods, materials science and emerging technologies.
• Support breakthrough innovation projects focused on sustainability, functionality and product performance.
• Lead bench development, pilot plant trials and factory scale-up activities.
• Provide technical solutions to product and processing challenges.
• Collaborate closely with procurement, sensory, supply chain, quality and commercial teams.
• Work with external suppliers and technology partners to identify new opportunities and best practices.
• Support the development of proprietary technologies and patentable innovation opportunities.
• Manage technical project plans and support delivery of long-term innovation roadmaps.

Skills

Cocoa & chocolate technologies

Confectionery / ingredient FMCG

Pilot plant scale-up

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Protea Recruitment Ltd is partnering with a global FMCG business to recruit a Senior Cocoa & Chocolate Scientist to join a highly innovative R&D and technology function.

This role focuses on building technical expertise in cocoa materials and chocolate technologies, translating science into commercially scalable products and breakthrough solutions within a non-traditional NPD context.