Sr. Food Scientist

Sr. Food Scientist

At The Marzetti Company, we empower our people and nourish their potential. Find community, be appreciated, experience growth and make an impact as part of our team!

We offer competitive benefits including:

• Health and life insurance plans
• Retirement savings benefits
• Paid parental leave and paid time off
• Tuition assistance
• Well-being incentives and on-site health care screenings
• Mental health benefits

A full list of benefits can be found here

Role Overview

A Sr. Food Scientist has a strong background in emulsions, flavor development and product commercialization to lead the development of salad dressings, sauces, and condiments. This role requires demonstrated technical expertise in ingredient functionality, formulation, process optimization, and functional leadership in project management. The ideal candidate will play a key role in driving new product development, improving product performance, and mentoring junior scientists while collaborating with cross-functional teams to bring new products to the market.

Responsibilities → What You'll Do

• Product & Process Development:
  • Lead the development of innovative salad dressings, sauces, and condiments that align with market trends, customer strategies, regulatory changes, and sustainability initiatives.
  • Optimize formulations for taste, texture, stability, nutrition, and cost-effectiveness while ensuring scalability for mass production.
  • Explore emerging ingredient technologies (e.g., next-generation emulsifiers, natural preservatives, and plant-based alternatives) to enhance product performance.
• Technical Leadership & Expertise:
  • Serve as the technical resource on developing emulsions, flavor, use of stabilizer systems to enhance product functionality.
  • Troubleshoot complex formulation and processing challenges such as separation, viscosity inconsistencies, and flavor matching.
  • Guide formulation strategy, experimental design, technical risk assessment, and decision-making for assigned projects.
  • Provide technical leadership and mentorship to food scientists and technologists.
• Regulatory & Quality Compliance:
  • Ensure formulations comply with applicable FDA, FSMA, food safety, labeling, and customer requirements.
  • Partner with regulatory affairs to support ingredient statements, nutrition information, allergen reviews, claims, and label compliance.
  • Collaborate with quality assurance and manufacturing teams to define product specifications and ensure consistent execution across production batches.
• Commercialization & Process Optimization:
  • Lead plant trials and start up production process and execution; troubleshoot processing challenges in batch and continuous production environments.
  • Partner with operations and engineering teams to seamlessly transition formulations from lab-scale to commercial production.
  • Optimize processing parameters (e.g., shear rates, homogenization, and order of addition) to enhance product texture and stability.
• Cross Functional Collaboration & Industry Engagement:
  • Collaborate with culinary, consumer insights, marketing, sales, procurement, packaging, quality, regulatory, operations, and engineering to deliver business objectives.
  • Work directly with ingredient suppliers and external partners to evaluate new technologies, troubleshoot issues, and identify innovation opportunities.
  • Communicate technical recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Stay current on ingredient innovation, processing technologies, consumer trends, competitive products, and industry developments in dressings, sauces, condiments, and adjacent categories.

#TMZ23

The successful candidate will put our values into practice every day:

Hunger. I come ready, pay attention, and refuse to settle for getting by when getting better is possible.

Respect. I know my people by name, show up for them as humans, and never make anyone feel small.

Courage. I say the hard thing, own my mistakes, and carry my team's voice forward.

Humility. I ask before I assume, learn from those around me, and lead with curiosity over ego.

Qualifications → What You'll Bring

A Sr. Food Scientist has a strong background in emulsions, flavor development and product commercialization to lead the development of salad dressings, sauces, and condiments. This role requires demonstrated technical expertise in ingredient functionality, formulation, process optimization, and functional leadership in project management. The ideal candidate will play a key role in driving new product development, improving product performance, and mentoring junior scientists while collaborating with cross-functional teams to bring new products to the market.

Competencies

• Strategic Mindset
• Decision Quality
• Customer Focus
• Collaborates
• Cultivates Innovation
• Manages Ambiguity

Who We Are

The Marzetti Company manufactures and sells specialty food products. Our retail brands include Marzetti, New York Bakery, Sister Schubert's and Bachan's, in addition to exclusive license agreements with Olive Garden, Chick-fil-A, Buffalo Wild Wings and Texas Roadhouse. Our foodservice business supplies sauces, dressings, breads, and pasta to many of the top restaurant chains in the United States.

At Marzetti, our mission is to Make Every Meal Better. We are a spirited blend of tradition and innovation—real people crafting real flavor. We're not just a team; we're a promise—a commitment to craft, care, and create a legacy.