Senior R&D Food Scientist

About the Company

Our client is a well-established artisan bakery specializing in producing high-quality breads and baked goods for leading retailers, restaurants, and foodservice providers nationwide. With a strong reputation for consistency, craftsmanship, and innovation, they combine traditional baking techniques with modern production standards to deliver exceptional products at scale. The company fosters a collaborative and growth-oriented workplace where employees are valued for their contributions and supported in developing their skills. Relocation may be considered for qualified candidates.

Role Overview:

The R&D Food Scientist will lead end-to-end product development for bakery and dough based items, driving innovation, renovation, prototyping, testing, and commercialization. This role works across R&D, Innovation Engineering, Sales/Marketing, Procurement, Quality, and Operations to bring new products from concept through scale-up. The ideal candidate has strong expertise in bakery formulation, ingredient functionality, and process design, with the ability to collaborate with customers and internal teams while executing hands-on bench work and plant trials.

.Job Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Microbiology, or related field (MS preferred).
• 5+ years in product development within bakery, bread, dough systems, cookies, crackers, tortillas, or similar categories.
• Strong understanding of ingredient functionality, dough rheology, formulation design, and commercialization.
• Knowledge of HACCP, GMP, sanitation, microbial hazards, and food safety programs.
• Familiarity with ISO 17025, SQF, and process capability/quality control principles.
• Experience with formula costing, nutrition labeling, and ingredient statements.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Ability to work across both office and plant settings and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Understanding process capability and the application of process control/quality control within those processes.

Personal Attributes/Skills:

• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail.

Physical Requirements:

• Comfortable working in manufacturing environments with heat, cold, noise, allergens, and wet or slippery conditions.
• Ability to perform sensory evaluations of food products.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in bakery manufacturing, clean-label formulation, or dough-based product development.
• Experience in operations or supply chain is a plus.
• Strong analytical and documentation skills.

Key Responsibilities:

Product Development & Innovation

• Develop new bakery and dough-based products—bread, rolls, doughs, tortillas, cookies, crackers—from concept to commercialization.
• Create prototypes, test ingredient functionality, and optimize formulations for quality, cost, and scalability.
• Conduct plant trials, support production start-ups, and troubleshoot manufacturing challenges.

Customer & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as a technical partner for customer R&D, Culinary, and QA teams.
• Present prototypes, gather feedback, and translate insights into actionable formulation improvements.
• Communicate development progress to internal stakeholders to ensure on-time and on-budget delivery.

Formulation, Documentation & Compliance

• Maintain and update formulas, SOPs, ingredient specs, and documentation.
• Generate Nutrition Facts Panels, ingredient statements, and support regulatory and labeling requirements.
• Execute formulation change management: approved recipes, BOM updates, version control.

Ingredient & Supplier Management

• Collaborate with Procurement to source and evaluate ingredients that meet performance, quality, and marketing requirements.
• Coordinate with corporate teams on supplier verification and raw material feasibility.

Shelf-Life, Quality & Technical Support

• Lead shelf-life studies and performance evaluations for new and existing products.
• Apply knowledge of process capability, QC/QA principles, HACCP, and food safety programs.
• Reverse-engineer bakery products when needed.

Process Improvement & Cost Optimization

• Review formulas for cost savings while maintaining product integrity.
• Consolidate similar raw materials to streamline operations.
• Evaluate emerging processing technologies and functional ingredients relevant to bakery innovation.

Project Management

• Manage development schedules and timelines.
• Partner with Finance to build early-stage cost models for feasibility.
• Support co-manufacturing or third-party development if required.

About Grit Staffing and HR Solutions:

GRIT Staffing & HR Solutions is a boutique recruiting and HR consulting firm founded and led by seasoned Senior HR leaders. We partner with top companies to place high-performing professionals in legal, HR, supply chain, operations and C-Suite corporate roles. Unlike traditional recruiters, we act as strategic partners and extensions of our clients’ teams, leveraging our deep HR expertise to support talent strategy, workforce planning, and organizational growth. By combining hands-on experience with agility and insight, we help companies build strong, high-performing teams that drive business success.

GRIT Staffing & HR Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact us at eoc@gritstaffinghr.com so we can assist you.