Job Description

About the Company

For over 125 years, our client has put customers first, delivering top-quality ingredients with great pricing and dependable lead times, all backed by outstanding service. While the company has grown, their commitment to small-town service hasn’t changed. Whether supporting clients in baking, snack food, or beverage ensuring smooth operations is their top priority.

From simple wheat flours to complex custom blends, every ingredient they deliver is marked by superior quality and exceptional value. Sourced globally from manufacturers who share a commitment to quality and sustainability, their products meet the highest standards — including precise customer specifications.

Headquartered in Southern California, with manufacturing and distribution facilities across multiple U.S. regions, our client is positioned to serve customers nationwide with consistency and care.

About the Role

Reports to: R&D Manager

Our client is seeking a Senior Food Scientist with strong leadership skills and hands-on bakery expertise to join their R&D team. This position will play a key role in developing and executing projects across bakery mixes, breadings, batters, and drink mixes. The ideal candidate will have experience formulating bakery products and leading small teams, with the ability to work cross-functionally to take projects from concept to commercialization.

As the Senior Food Scientist, you’ll be responsible for managing and mentoring two R&D Technicians while driving product innovation, experimentation, and technical documentation. You must be detail-oriented, self-motivated, and comfortable leading complex projects in both lab and plant environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead new product development and process improvement initiatives, primarily in the bakery category.
• Mentor and oversee two R&D Technicians, providing direction, support, and training.
• Manage projects and individual tasks with minimal supervision.
• Design, execute, and analyze experiments with clear documentation of findings.
• Develop prototypes and technical proposals to support innovation and category expansion.
• Coordinate plant trials for new products or processes, ensuring smooth execution and scalability.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Quality, Production, Purchasing, and Sales to ensure successful commercialization.
• Maintain thorough knowledge of industry trends, ingredients, processes, and regulatory requirements.
• Provide technical support to internal teams and external manufacturing partners.
• Review and validate documentation from junior staff using ESHA Genesis for nutritional labeling.
• Maintain a strong food safety mindset, incorporating GMP, HACCP, Organic standards, and other compliance frameworks.
• Test and evaluate ingredient and finished good expiration and when possible, advise on shelf-life extension.
• Update batch records and host preproduction scheduling meeting.
• Provide clear direction on what ingredients are allowed as substitutes or replacements.
• Required to approve and place product on hold.
• Required to provide instructions on how to rework product that have been placed on hold.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Food Science or a related scientific discipline (M.S. preferred).
• 5+ years of food industry experience with a focus on R&D and manufacturing.
• Minimum 2 years of experience in bakery product development, including formulation.
• Prior experience leading or mentoring team members.
• Strong project management, communication, and organizational skills.
• Solid technical understanding of product formulation, sensory evaluation, and processing.
• Working knowledge of regulatory and quality systems including HACCP and GMP.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office; ESHA Genesis software experience preferred.
• Bilingual English/Spanish is a plus.
• Must be able to taste products including those with allergens.
• Willingness to travel up to 15% to support plant trials and customer needs.

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