Application Specialist – Dairy & Meat Alternatives

Leiden Bio Science Park; Leiden; On-site; EUR 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and benefits package

Collaborative international team

Opportunity to work at the cutting edge of food technology

Job summary

Leiden Bio Science Park is seeking an Application Specialist in Leiden to drive the integration of Nourish ingredients into formulations for dairy, plant-based dairy, and meat. This hands-on role involves developing and optimizing formulations, troubleshooting challenges, and collaborating with customers to deliver tailored solutions.

The ideal candidate holds a degree in food technology and has a minimum of 5 years’ experience in relevant applications. Enjoy the benefits of a competitive salary and a dynamic international team setting.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of experience in relevant food applications.
• Hands-on experience with industrial processing conditions.
• Strong understanding of functional interactions in food matrices.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize formulations using Nourish ingredients.
• Troubleshoot formulation challenges.
• Collaborate with sensory and culinary teams for customer success.

Skills

Experience in dairy, plant-based dairy, or meat applications

Understanding of flavours, fats, proteins

Problem-solving skills

Customer-facing experience

Education

Bachelor's or master's degree in food technology

Job description

We are seeking a highly skilled Application Specialist to drive the successful integration of Nourish ingredients into customer formulations across dairy, plant-based dairy, and meat applications. This role is hands‑on and bridges deep technical expertise with customer collaboration, ensuring formulas are technically designed, enabling our ingredients to deliver optimal performance, stability, and functionality under real‑world manufacturing conditions. The role is at the interface between sensory and culinary capabilities, ensuring technical formulations meet the customers and consumers optimal experience. The ideal candidate has a strong understanding of flavours, protein and fat interactions, emulsion and matrix stability, and end‑product processing requirements. The role involves tasting prototypes and commercial food products, which may contain common allergens. This is an office and lab‑based role in Leiden and includes periodic travel to customer laboratories and manufacturing sites.

What you’ll do

• Develop, optimise, and scale dairy, plant-based dairy, hybrid, and meat formulations using Nourish ingredients in collaboration with customers.
• Define inclusion rates, integration methods, and formulation strategies to achieve target functionality, including addition, replacement, or displacement of existing ingredients.
• Plan and execute application trials, including experimental planning, testing, sensory evaluation, and reporting.
• Troubleshoot formulation and processing challenges using analytical and creative problem‑solving approaches.
• Ensure prototypes and formulations meet end‑product specifications, processing constraints, marketing requirements and customers compliance, such as certifications and labelling.
• Develop and communicate ingredient use and protocols to customers, meeting their needs with customised solutions and application concepts that are easy to reproduce.
• Provide hands‑on support for ingredient integration, manufacturing scale‑up, and quality control considerations.
• Collaborate internally with sensory and culinary teams to ensure customer formulations are fully optimised, delivering an end‑to‑end customised solution that meets taste, texture, and performance expectations.
• Present technical findings, recommendations, and innovations clearly to both internal teams and customers.
• Maintain thorough documentation of formulations, trials, and technical learnings.
• Maintain comprehensive records of formulations, trials, protocols, datasheets, and ingredient performance.
• Organise and update system logs, product databases, and formulation libraries to ensure knowledge accessibility.
• Share technical insights internally to support sales, marketing, and R&D teams in product development and positioning.

What you’ll bring

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in food technology, with Dairy and meat formulations, or related field.
• 5year minimum proven experience in dairy, plant-based dairy, or meat applications with demonstrable formulation and ingredient application expertise.
• Strong understanding of flavours, fats, proteins, starches, emulsions, and functional interactions in complex food matrices.
• Hands‑on experience with industrial processing conditions, scaling formulations, and ensuring stability and performance in finished products.
• Excellent problem‑solving, communication, and project management skills.
• Customer‑facing experience with the ability to translate technical knowledge into actionable, commercial solutions.

What we offer

The opportunity to work at the cutting edge of precision fermentation, specialty fats and sustainable food and playing a pivotal role in revolutionizing the food industry.

A collaborative, fast‑moving international team environment.

Competitive salary and benefits package.