Senior Culinary Designer — Flavor Innovation Lead

IFF; Hilversum; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Holiday allowance 8%

Annual bonus (AIP)

LTIP

IKB

Vacation days 25

Transport reimbursement

Pension plan

Wellbeing support

Job summary

IFF is seeking a Senior Culinary Designer to join our Hilversum lab in a full-time role, blending hands-on lab work with culinary applications and processing technologies to translate customer needs into practical IFF solutions.

You will work with pilot-scale equipment, validate technology, contribute to portfolio work, and help turn ideas into customer-ready solutions while collaborating across teams and mentoring junior talent.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Food Science, Chemistry, Biochemistry, or related field.
• 5–10 years in food, ingredients, or flavor industry, with 5+ years in savory/culinary.
• Proven experience developing and commercializing products (soups, sauces, condiments, bouillon).
• Cross-functional teamwork and ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Strong organizational/time management; lead projects end-to-end.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management; influence across functions.
• Travel 10–20% and willingness to travel.
• Fluent English and successful completion of IFF's internal sensory assessment.

Responsibilities

• Build partnerships with regional/global customers delivering application solutions that create value and drive growth.
• Translate successful category innovations into opportunities for local customers.
• Stay ahead of market trends, consumer insights, and emerging technologies to develop differentiated solutions.
• Lead customer engagements, including visits to the Hilversum Creative Center.
• Deliver technical and commercial presentations highlighting flavor technologies and category insights.
• Provide technical leadership for customer projects with high-quality application development and timely issue resolution.
• Collaborate across Creative Centers, Application Teams, Flavorists, Sales, Marketing, and R&D to accelerate innovation.
• Mentor junior talent and improve processes and ways of working.

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Biochemistry, or related field

Tools

Pilot-scale equipment

Sensory assessment tools

Job description

IFF is seeking a Senior Culinary Designer to join our Hilversum lab in a full-time role, blending hands-on lab work with culinary applications and processing technologies to translate customer needs into practical IFF solutions.

You will work with pilot-scale equipment, validate technology, contribute to portfolio work, and help turn ideas into customer-ready solutions while collaborating across teams and mentoring junior talent.