Bakery R&D Manager: Lead Innovation & Team

corbion; Lenexa (KS); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Corbion seeks an RD&A Manager to lead a team of bakery and food scientists in Lenexa, KS. You will partner with Sales, Marketing, Product Management, and Procurement to drive innovation and customer-focused projects that support the bakery business strategy.

You will steer development, validation, and commercialization of bakery ingredient solutions, prioritizing strategic priorities and delivering high-quality results for internal teams and customers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Food Science or related field.
• 5+ years of experience as broadly trained food/bakery scientist with experience related to new product development and ingredient functionality.
• Deep knowledge of bakery processing and formulations of various bakery products (bread, buns, bagels, tortillas, cake, donuts, etc.).
• Experience leading a team of food scientist or technologists, with proven track record of project management and delivery.
• Strong people skills related to leading a team, working with peers, and upper management. Open and easy communicator.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of scientists and technologists to deliver innovation, customer, and renovation projects, ensuring the timely execution of product development activities and the generation of accurate, high-quality results
• Manage resource allocation across project portfolios to ensure efficient utilization
• Lead ingredient and bakery application product development
• Ensure effective project scoping, resource planning, risk management, and stakeholder communication.
• Lead complex projects independently including but not limited to ingredient research, product optimization projects, and new product development
• Actively build open and collaborative teamwork between global RDA teams
• Flag priority clashes on time for decision within leadership team
• Secure data reporting and management of application knowledge, provide written reports for use by internal teams and customers
• Ability to build trusted relationships with customers and internal business partners as an expert in the field
• Cultivate a team atmosphere with peer groups and upper management
• Manage, motivate and develop laboratory staff
• Work collaboratively across the research and application department to assess and prioritize needs of the broader RDA team
• Communicates with clients regularly to understand needs, as well as answer questions and provide information on product functionality and troubleshooting
• Maintain project timelines and prioritize daily work
• Oversee all people management for the designated team including hours’ management, hiring, personnel development, performance evaluation and training
• Assist in maintaining a lab environment that is clean, organized, and work ready
• Contribute to ideation, review and identification of new projects, developing and executing technical plans, collecting and analyzing data, communicating results and project status, generating reports, and making presentations
• Participate effectively on cross functional project teams, which may include colleagues from RDA, Sales, Technical Services, Business, Marketing, Operations, etc.
• Utilize strong project management skills to develop and execute project plans, develop value propositions, and commercial launch packages
• Provide technical training on new technology and solutions
• Possess problem solving skills, understanding of experimental design, and statistical analysis

Skills

Team leadership

Bakery science

Project management

Strong communication

Data interpretation

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Food Science or related scientific field

Master's Degree can substitute portion of required work experience

Job description

Corbion seeks an RD&A Manager to lead a team of bakery and food scientists in Lenexa, KS. You will partner with Sales, Marketing, Product Management, and Procurement to drive innovation and customer-focused projects that support the bakery business strategy.

You will steer development, validation, and commercialization of bakery ingredient solutions, prioritizing strategic priorities and delivering high-quality results for internal teams and customers.