Food Scientist

at  Ajinomoto Foods North America

Overview:
Ontario based position is responsible for generating and developing new products and continuous quality improvement from bench top through manufacturing scale up. Position also provides technical support and coordination of product industrialization, production transfers and profit improvements. The Food Scientist is expected to complete various projects under the supervision and support from their manager and actively contribute within the R&D organization.
Reporting to a member of the R&D management team, position will perform the following duties and responsibility.
Responsibilities:

New product development/continuous quality improvement:

• Must have good culinary skills, ability to formulate recipes and to develop and coordinate products from bench top to commercialization.
• Evaluating competitor’s products and conducting market research proactively to learn market trend and design quality target from customer perspective.
• Planning bench work and experiments to verify technical hypothesis and analyzing results to provide next actions to reach quality target.
• Formulating product recipe with appropriate materials and ingredients, and proposing proper production process conditions.
• Documenting required information for product assessment and Executive Gate review.
• Administrate technical information and proper documents in company data base.
• Developing ingredients statement, cooking instructions, serving suggestions and nutritional fact panels.

Product industrialization/production transfers/profit improvement:

• Establishing product controls and procedures to insure that newly developed products meet the customer needs as well as meet established company and regulatory standards (USDA and FDA).
• Proposing plan of Commercial Production Test (CP test) to Operation and Product Introduction (PI) department, then supporting CP test.
• Evaluating quality of samples in CP test and first production, and providing the evaluation report for quality approval with marketing department.
• Supporting CAPEX project by proposing machine test plan, reviewing quality in CP test and providing evaluation report.
• Promoting bench work and quality evaluation to propose solutions for raw material and ingredient replacement.
• Reformulating recipe and consolidating materials to achieve profitable improvement in

Project completion/contribution to R&D organization:

• With supervision supports Sales and Marketing in customer presentations and concept identification.
• With supervision coordinates activities with counterparts in Operations and Quality Assurance during the commercialization phase.
• Oversee the activities of R&D personnel so that quality, R&D procedures, GMP, GSP and safety standards are adhered to.
• Maintains discipline of employees under their jurisdiction in accordance with established rules and regulations. Initiates verbal and written warnings and recommends further disciplinary action as required.
• Promote a positive team oriented attitude.
• Perform all other work as required.

Qualifications:

• B. S. in food science or a related technical degree is required and three years of demonstrated accomplishments in product development, preferably in a multi sales channel environment OR an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Value-added Frozen Foods experience is a plus but not a requirement for the position.
• Good communication skills (verbal and written) with individuals at all levels within the organization and outside the organization.
• Must be computer literate
• Needs to be a self-starter, goal-oriented, focused and flexible
• Possess strong technical skills
• Must be willing to taste food products
• Should be open to travel an average of 25% annually dependent on project needs
• Range of pay is $85,000 to $90,000 dependent on experience

Please refer the Job description for details