Sr Executive Research & Development (Natural Colors Food Ingredients)

K. Patel Phyto Extractions Pvt Ltd.; Bhilad, Vapi; On-site; INR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

K. Patel Phyto Extractions Pvt Ltd. is seeking a hands-on Natural Colour Developer to lead from concept to commercialization. You will develop colours from botanical sources, optimize stability, and design delivery systems for beverages, bakery, and nutrition products.

The role requires independent project management, strong problem-solving, and collaboration with Production, QA/QC, Sales, and Regulatory teams to ensure scalable, quality colour solutions.

Qualifications

• Hands-on R&D and formulation experience.
• Expertise in natural colour chemistry and stability.
• Knowledge of pH, heat, light and oxidation stability.
• Strong food and beverage application knowledge.
• Able to independently manage R&D projects.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize natural colours from botanical, fruit, vegetable and other natural sources.
• Develop natural colours for beverages, bakery, dairy, confectionery, sauces, snacks and nutraceutical applications.
• Develop and optimize emulsions, encapsulated colours, spray-dried powders and other delivery systems.
• Conduct laboratory trials, formulation development and product optimization.

Skills

R&D & formulation

Natural colour chemistry

Stability knowledge

Food & beverage knowledge

Analytical skills

Innovation mindset

Project management

Cross-functional communication

Job description

KEY POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

Natural Colour Development

• Develop and optimize natural colours from botanical, fruit, vegetable and other natural sources.
• Work on natural colours such as Paprika, Turmeric/Curcumin, Beetroot, Anthocyanins, Butterfly Pea, Chlorophyll, Carotenoids and other natural colour systems.
• Develop both water-soluble and oil-dispersible natural colour solutions.
• Improve colour strength, stability, solubility, dispersibility and application performance.
• Develop low-odour/low-taste colour solutions wherever required.

2. Application & Stability Development

• Develop natural colours for beverages, bakery, dairy, confectionery, sauces, snacks and nutraceutical applications.
• Conduct heat, light, pH, oxidation and storage stability studies.
• Optimize colours for challenging processing conditions such as baking, pasteurization and high-temperature processing.
• Conduct application trials and determine optimum dosage and formulation.

3. Encapsulation & Delivery Systems

• Develop and optimize emulsions, encapsulated colours, spray-dried powders and other delivery systems.

4. R&D and Analytical Evaluation

• Conduct laboratory trials, formulation development and product optimization.
• Maintain proper R&D records, specifications, trial reports and development documentation.

5. Scale-Up & Commercialization

• Take products from laboratory development pilot trials plant scale-up commercial production.
• Work closely with Production, QA/QC, Sales and Regulatory teams.
• Troubleshoot production and customer application issues.
• Ensure batch-to-batch consistency and commercial scalability.

6. Customer & Technical Support

• Understand customer requirements and convert them into technical solutions.
• Conduct competitor and product benchmarking.
• Support customer trials and application development.
• Provide technical inputs to Sales and Business Development teams.

KEY SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

• Strong hands-on R&D and formulation skills
• Good understanding of natural colour chemistry and stability
• Knowledge of pH, heat, light and oxidation stability
• Strong food and beverage application knowledge
• Analytical and problem-solving skills
• Innovation and product-development mindset
• Ability to independently manage R&D projects
• Good communication and cross-functional coordination
• Ability to develop commercially viable and scalable products

IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate should be a hands-on natural colour developer who can independently take a product from concept laboratory formulation application testing scale-up commercialization.

Natural Colour R&D experience is mandatory.