Research & Development Technologist

Department: Production

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Nottingham, PA

Description

• SCHEDULE: Monday-Friday 40+ hours a week
• BENEFITS: This position is full-time benefit eligible, elective benefits include:
  • Medical, dental, hearing and vision insurance. 
  • Marathon Health Clinic - a premier on-site healthcare provider. A separate entity from Herr's, located at our Nottingham, PA facility. This facility ensures easy access to tailored healthcare services, preventative care, wellness programs, for employees on any medical plan 
  • Opportunity to contribute to a 401k, with a company match. 
  • Paid vacation, holiday and sick time.
  • Paid Employee referral program. 

Key Responsibilities

• Develops new and improved methods and systems for food processing, production, quality control, packaging and distribution. 
• Develops methods to create and improve food product attributes such as flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, and convenience.
• Conducts sensory evaluations of prototype samples and competitive products.
• Conducts research to assess consumer trends and industry innovation.   
• Reviews changes in industry regulations and makes formal recommendations to appropriate teams regarding product revisions or development. 
• Develops finished product and process specifications. 
• Conducts research on quality improvements, cost optimization, process improvement, ingredient innovation and process technologies. 
• Assists with internal and external customer technical issues regarding ingredients, formulation and manufacturing. 

• Initiates new product testing, then develops specific processing methods when scaling project to a manufacturing process line. 
• Collaboration with Marketing Department for alignment on project details/requirements and co-management of timelines
• Confers with process engineers, flavor experts, packaging and marketing specialists to address any concerns. 
• Facilitates technical expertise and training for operations, management, quality, sales and marketing to ensure completion of company objectives. 
• Leads customer testing /sensory evaluation of product developments.

• Responsible for creating and managing technical documents.
• Reviews packaging film for accuracy
• Reviews nutrition fact panels and ingredient statements for compliance.
• Initiates and manages third party testing and laboratory data when needed.

• Complete detailed documentation of all projects. 
• Develops reports and presentations that clearly and concisely communicate conclusions and recommendations for product development. 

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Arts/Science degree in Food Science, or related field preferred.
• 3-5 years related experience or training; food related research and development experience highly preferred. 
• Can work independently or as a team, to include cross departmental collaboration
• Recognized as one who can use problem-solving and analytical skills to work toward creative solutions. 
• Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to internal/external customers. 
• Demonstrated experience with attention to detail, time management and excellent organization skills.
• Working knowledge of product commercialization and food & manufacturing processes highly preferred. 
• Previous experience working in Safe Quality Food (SQF) environment preferred. 
• Previous experience working with software and/or web-based portal systems (e.g.: OU direct, Genesis, Food Chain ID, etc.) preferred.
• Microsoft Office Suite experience required; advanced computing skills preferred.

• Performs work required for this position in a laboratory and manufacturing environment.
• Required to work in factory environment (running trials) for extended periods of time.
• Required to use a computer monitor, keyboard, and mouse for extended periods of time.
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds on occasion.