Sr. Food Technologist

Position Summary:

About the Organization:  Ventura Foods is a leading national manufacturer and marketer of branded and custom made shortenings, oils, dressings, sauces, margarines, culinary bases and pan coatings for the foodservice and retail industries. From East to West, Ventura keeps pace with the dynamic food marketplace by delivering high quality products at competitive prices. In fact, our company's growth is fueled by long-lasting profitable partnerships that benefit all parties. We do this by meeting the challenges of an ever-changing world by applying the strengths of our commercial resources, the talents of our employees and the opportunities created by new technologies. Throughout our rich history, one thing hasn't changed: the dedication to our customers and the consumers we are proud to serve.                                                                                                                  

About the Job: The job involves working collaboratively with Ventura’s chefs, R&D, Operations and Quality staff to develop on-trend salad dressings, sauces and mayonnaise from benchtop through plant production that help our customers delight their customers.  Periodically, it also causes grinning from ear to ear and fist-pumping when you are sitting at home watching a TV commercial or driving along in your car and spot a billboard advertising one of our customer’s menu items that contains a product you had a hand in creating.  We can’t promise your unbridled enthusiasm won’t annoy your friends and family but that’s just how you roll.                                                      

The Right Candidate: This person exhibits humility by being self-confident and proposing and implementing solutions to complex technical and creative challenges while being open to other points of view.  The candidate is hungry, meaning they are self-motivated and diligent, but also looking to eat. Finally, this candidate is an interpersonally appropriate and aware individual.

Experience in the development of salad dressings, sauces and mayonnaise for the fast-paced foodservice market along with some back-of-house food preparation experience is a plus but we recognize that everyone hasn’t been lucky enough to live that dream yet.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop formula and bench top prototypes that meet product concept parameters, customer specifications and requirements.
• Work with internal and external customers as needed in new product development and reformulations.
• Reformulate products or update processing protocols for product improvement, cost reduction or manufacturing efficiency improvements.
• Responsible for formula risk assessment review and historical data review for existing formulas, setting performance specifications.
• Responsible for qualifying new ingredients through evaluation of raw materials to ensure compliance with ingredient specification, food safety requirements, employee safety, and finished product quality.
• Responsible for leveraging the process development team for insights on developing process parameters and ingredient handling instructions and evaluating and mitigating risk to our manufacturing sites Plan and execute pilot plant and experimentation work, including analyzing and summarizing results as needed.
• Responsible for manufacturing packet creation and leading minor and major projects from concept to commercialization.
• Utilize Genesis for product development, recipe analysis, nutrition analysis and government compliant labeling.
• Maintain knowledge, understanding and adhere to safety policies, FSMA, GMP’s, QA, HACCP, Sanitation rules and regulations, and company policies.
• Adhering to all safe practices and GMP's for the tests being performed.
• Responsible for overall project management, communication to sales, marketing, operations, senior technical services staff, and customers.
• Keep accurate records of timelines, development work, documentation, formulation modifications, project management tracking software system updates.
• Responsible for managing 15-20 active projects at various stages of commercialization.
• Recommends and/or initiates projects within existing programs and/or business channels.
• Design as well as participate in the coordination, monitoring, testing, and reporting shelf-life stability testing activities.
• Provides in depth theoretical expertise in one or more technical core competency areas.
• Represent Ventura Foods as the subject matter expert with internal and external customers Maintain awareness of current trends in consumer taste preferences and nutrition. Identifies new hypotheses/technology and designs and conducts research program to verify validity.  May recommend patent action. Trains and may supervise others as appropriate.
• Represents supervisor or department as required at meetings.   
• May interview and recommend hiring of technical personnel.
• Other duties as assigned.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science or related fields, and 5+ years of food industry experience which includes formula development and commercialization in a food manufacturing or processing environment is required.  Or an equivalent combination of education and experience.  OR
• Master’s Degree in Food Science or additional degree in related fields, and 3+ years of food industry experience which includes formula development and commercialization in a food manufacturing or processing environment is required. Or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience in emulsion development preferred
• Experience working in culinary, or a culinary degree, or relevant hospitality food production experience preferred

Knowledge and Skills:

• Must have general understanding of food codes and regulatory guidelines and the ability to research regulatory matters as needed.
• Must have the ability to holistically analyze opportunities and risk and formulate well-reasoned recommendations for the business.
• Must have strong project management skills and be able to manage projects from bench to commercialization, with the ability to manage multiple projects concurrently, prioritize, and manage to project timelines.
• Must possess an understanding of ingredient functionality/interactions and sensory evaluation techniques.
• Must have knowledge in one or more technical disciplines
• Must possess organizational skills and the ability to communicate clearly with all levels of personnel through written and verbal communications.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook)                                                                                                                              
• Must have knowledge of lab and pilot processing equipment.     
• An understanding of emulsion science, flavor development, and the basic science of process technology   
• Must be able to perform duties with minimal supervision
• Must possess technical writing and presentation skills
• Understanding of business systems such as JDE, Genesis, AS400.
• Be an adept critical thinker with excellent problem-solving skills.
• Approximately 10% travel required, with flexibility based on business needs.