Senior Food Technologist

About the Company
Our client is a rapidly growing frozen food manufacturer with a strong portfolio of branded products and robust in-house manufacturing capabilities. The organization is committed to innovation, operational excellence, and delivering high-quality frozen foods to consumers nationwide.
Position Overview

The Senior Food Technologist will be responsible for the development, optimization, and commercialization of frozen food products from concept through launch. This role plays a key part in driving innovation, improving existing products, and supporting manufacturing scale-up efforts while ensuring quality, food safety, sensory performance, and cost objectives are achieved.

The ideal candidate brings deep technical expertise in frozen food systems, ingredient functionality, commercialization, and plant support within a high-volume food manufacturing environment.
Key Responsibilities
Product Development & Commercialization

• Develop and optimize formulations for frozen foods including entrees, sauces, vegetables, snacks, and ready meals
• Conduct bench-top development, pilot plant trials, and plant-scale validations
• Lead commercialization activities from lab through full-scale manufacturing
• Ensure products achieve targeted taste, texture, appearance, nutritional, and shelf-life requirements
• Support innovation initiatives as well as renovation and optimization of existing products

Frozen Food Technical Expertise

• Apply knowledge of freezing technologies including IQF and blast freezing systems
• Optimize formulations to reduce ice crystal formation, freezer burn, moisture migration, and texture degradation
• Troubleshoot product performance challenges related to frozen storage and reheating conditions
• Evaluate ingredient functionality and processing interactions within frozen food applications

Manufacturing & Plant Support

• Partner closely with Operations teams during production startup and commercialization activities
• Troubleshoot plant-related processing and formulation challenges
• Develop and maintain detailed product specifications, process parameters, and manufacturing documentation
• Ensure consistency and manufacturability across production environments

Cost Optimization & Continuous Improvement

• Identify cost-saving opportunities through ingredient optimization and process improvements
• Support productivity and value engineering initiatives without compromising product quality
• Analyze formulation and production data to recommend technical improvements

Quality & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with FDA, USDA, HACCP, GMP, SQF, and internal food safety standards
• Support shelf-life studies and frozen product stability validation
• Work cross-functionally with Packaging, Quality, Procurement, and Marketing teams to support business objectives
• Interface with ingredient and packaging suppliers to evaluate new technologies and materials

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, or related technical field
• 5-10+ years of food R&D experience with strong frozen food expertise preferred
• Experience commercializing products from bench development through plant-scale production
• Strong understanding of frozen food systems, ingredient functionality, and thermal processing
• Experience with frozen entrees, ready meals, snacks, vegetables, sauces, or related categories preferred
• Strong project management and organizational skills
• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving capabilities
• Ability to balance quality, speed-to-market, and cost objectives
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills

Preferred Experience

• Frozen CPG manufacturing
• USDA/FDA regulated food manufacturing environments
• Commercialization and plant startup support
• Shelf-life and sensory evaluation work
• Value engineering and cost reduction projects
• Multi-functional collaboration within high-volume manufacturing operations