Senior Scientist- UFS Cooking Aids

ABOUT FOOD SOLUTIONS (UFS)
Act like a founder, be part of a Winning team, accelerate your growth, stay ahead of the curve, enjoy the journey: JOIN UFS

Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) is the the 2nd largest Business Unit of Unilever, is one of the 3 Power brands of the Foods Business Group, and a global market leader in Food Service. We are an independent Global Business Unit that operates in over 76 countries, generating ~€3 Billion in Turnover, and employing ~4000 employees. We have a unique B2B business model focused on serving chefs and our purpose is to free them to love what they do.

We at UFS have a bold and clear ambition and strategy in place to reach €5bn by 2030 with accretive profitability, by being the best solution provider to our 5 million operators. We plan to do this via a product first focus on superiority, by becoming the leader in AI powered Customer experience and by nurturing a Winning culture. We have had a history of delivering with excellence and resilient performance in the past few years. We also strive to stay 3 steps ahead in the industry. For example, our Future Menus Report identifies emerging culinary trends, making us a trendsetter for inspiring innovative solutions for chefs worldwide.

We have a culture of caring deeply not just for our business but also for our people. We foster an entrepreneurial culture built on speed, simplicity, trust, and a deep hunger to grow. Our people thrive on their roles being empowered and end to end - across all functions. We also invest heavily in building future skills and leaders. Our People agenda of Accelerate-Grow-Thrive consistently helps us lead in employee engagement, with Univoice scores exceeding Unilever scores across all dimensions and being one of the most engaged teams at Unilever.

Here, you will continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn, challenging yourself to accelerate your development in an end-to-end business and in end-to-end roles. If you're dreaming of contributing to Unilever’s 2nd largest Business unit, a fast-growing business, where you're empowered so you can play to win and thrive as part of One Team with One Goal, then come and join us!

JOB PURPOSE
As a member of UFS R&D Cooking Aids team you will be working to develop relevant products under Knorr Brand for menus to local guests, whether that is meeting the need for healthy, delicious, guilt-free dining experiences, localizing a global offering, or bringing the world’s most exciting cuisines to our North America market.

• Partnership with Marketing, Culinary, Quality, and Supply Chain teams supporting business objectives.
• Lead technical development (recipe development, specifications, risk management) for North America Cooking Aids products.
• Support R&D initiatives of quality, nutrition, cost savings, complexity reduction and sustainability by design.
• Works as a leader and member of a cross functional project team to deliver projects on time and in full.

WHO YOU ARE & WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• You’re a born leader: Pro-active self-direction with a high level of initiative and persistence and a very hands-on approach to results delivery.
• You’re a dot connector: Ability to manage complex relationships and solve complex problems.
• You love to win and have fun doing it: Passion for product development and extremely customer/consumer focus.
• You’re a changemaker: Ability to identify and address emerging issues as well as set and manage priorities and continuously improve processes and practices.
• You’re a culture & change champion: Comfort with multi-tasking and operating in a fast paced, multi-faceted, and multi-cultural environment.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE?

• Lead and coordinate the R&D activities to deliver the brand’s program, ranging from innovation, renovation, quality and nutrition improvement and cost savings initiatives.
• Lead the technical discussions in cross functional meetings and represent the R&D view for the project team to technical and non-technical audiences.  
• Conduct technical risk assessments and provide recommendations on risk mitigation plans.
• Demonstrate flexibility to manage multiple priorities by adapting to daily challenges and priority changes within business environment.
• Define the technical project brief and targets against which products can be designed (performance and attributes), developed and measured. Translate the brand philosophy, culinary and operator insights into superior new products.
• Demonstrate strong formulation expertise in Cooking Aids to lead new product design and renovations with speed.
• Design and execute test protocols for the various technical aspects of projects as required (e.g., prototype development and scale-up, shelf-life testing, analytical testing, performance testing, etc.).
• Lead the process of specification/label creation in SAP PLM from initial request through approved status including lower order specifications/new ingredient specifications and artwork brief generation.
• Organize and participate in trials, providing onsite monitoring and technical assistance, while providing formulation adjustment recommendations as needed.
• Analyze and interpret data with guidance on final conclusions incl the ability to prepare comprehensive trial/lab reports and presentations, including recommendations and next steps.
• Support cost savings (5S) initiatives and supply chain efficiency projects to support quality, cost savings, and complexity reduction initiatives.
• Assess feasibility of new ideas and troubleshoot activities where formulation knowledge is essential.
• Lead/support technical investigations using root-cause analysis and problem-solving techniques as required for existing and new products.
• Provide product expertise and insights into innovation and activation strategies. Be a product ambassador internally and externally, demonstrate awareness of operator insights and needs/behavior.
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships and communicate effectively across R&D and non-R&D functions (with key business and strategic vendor partners) to support business initiatives.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Minimum Bachelor of Science Degree in Food Science or equivalent degree.
• Relevant Experience: 5-7 years of experience in the food industry, preferably in product development, processing, and/or project management. Experience with SAP, specification creation and approval process, demonstrated knowledge/experience in emulsion esp. dressings technology, and good understanding of Supply Chain. Food Service business preferred. 10-20% travel required.

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