Senior R&D Scientist: Food Innovation & Scale-Up

TH Foods, Inc.; Harlem Township (IL); On-site; USD 95,000 - 116,000; Full time

Job summary

TH Foods, Inc. in Loves Park, IL is seeking a Senior Scientist to lead innovation and development of branded and private label products.

You will guide projects from concept to commercialization, create new formulations, and optimize existing products for quality and cost in pilot and plant settings. The role requires strong cross-functional teamwork with Operations, Quality, Marketing, Sales and FSQA, and may involve off-shift plant work.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in food product development, R&D or related roles.
• Experience with baked and/or fried products preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science or Food Engineering required; Master’s preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic initiatives in the innovation pipeline for new product development.
• Develop formulations and prototypes meeting customer, consumer and business needs.
• Drive product optimization including reformulations for quality, function and cost.
• Deliver technical presentations and trend insights to teams and customers.
• Document experimental data and provide robust technical recommendations.
• Manage projects from ideation to commercialization with minimal supervision.
• Collaborate with Operations, Quality and Process Engineering to troubleshoot.
• Partner with Marketing, Sales, Engineering, FSQA and Procurement to ensure execution.
• Conduct plant trials, scale-ups and startups; may require off-shift hours.

Skills

Project leadership

Cross-functional teamwork

Technical presentation

Quality improvement

Food safety

Scale-up

Education

Bachelor in Food Science/Engineering

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

Pilot plant equipment

Analytical instruments

Job description

TH Foods, Inc. in Loves Park, IL is seeking a Senior Scientist to lead innovation and development of branded and private label products.

You will guide projects from concept to commercialization, create new formulations, and optimize existing products for quality and cost in pilot and plant settings. The role requires strong cross-functional teamwork with Operations, Quality, Marketing, Sales and FSQA, and may involve off-shift plant work.