Location: Bridgewater, NJ
Workplace type: On-Site/Hybrid (4 days/week on-site & 1 day/week remote)
Ingredion is seeking a passionate and innovative Senior Food Scientist - Cheese Formulator to join our Global Dairy and Alternative Dairy Applications team. In this role, you will lead and execute innovation projects focused on cheese making, applying your expertise across the full product development lifecycle, from ideation to commercialization. This position requires a hands-on approach to food design, a strong foundation in food science, and technical curiosity in a collaborative, cross-functional environment.
This role reports to the Manager – Global Dairy and Alternative Dairy Applications
Join us to innovate and lead in the cheese category!
What You’ll Do:
Lead cheese product development initiatives, collaborating and partnering with cross-functional teams (Marketing, Region Technical Services, and customers) to identify and deliver differentiated product solutions.
Translate voice of customer and key customer value propositions from regional teams into technical solutions, enabling breakthroughs.
Formulate and optimize dairy and alternative dairy cheese in laboratory and pilot settings.
Design and conduct experiments, analyze data, and apply advanced expertise to optimize protein, fat, and carbohydrate interactions for consumer liking and process efficiency. Identify and evaluate novel ingredients or enzymes to enhance cheese properties & yields.
Serve as the cheese applications expert, providing innovative solutions and supporting commercialization.
Evaluate new ingredients, formulation structures, and technologies to improve performance and functionality and consumer liking.
Manage project timelines and deliverables, communicating progress, findings and recommendation to stakeholders.
Coordinate sensory and consumer testing activities, manage sample production, and monitor product quality and organoleptic attributes throughout shelf life through analytical measurements (e.g. pH, viscosity, brix, solids, etc.) and routine tasting sessions. Collaborate with Sensory, Rheology and Texture teams for in-depth product evaluations.
Support scale-up and industrialization with global/regional teams and customers.
Maintain technical and experimental documentation and ensure compliance with nutrition, regulatory, and food labeling standards.
Stay informed on industry trends and participate in relevant associations and conferences. Collaborate with dairy research centers and leverage insights from academia to ensure innovations translate into production.
Deliver internal and external presentations, trainings and technical documentation.
Collaborate Dairy/Alt. Dairy Application community to share knowledge, best practices, and technical insights.
Drive intellectual property development and contribute to patents.
What you will bring:
Degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Engineering or related field with strong progressive experience.
Proven knowledge of dairy proteins and cheese-making technologies, with hands-on experience in developing and commercializing products.
Expertise in experimental design, process development, troubleshooting and technical data analysis.
Strong ability to translate dairy scientific research into scalable manufacturing solutions and customer-focused innovation
Experience across both traditional dairy cheese and alternative dairy cheese applications is highly desirable.
Strong project management and communication skills including technical reporting and impactful presentations.
Ability to collaborate effectively and influence stakeholders
Willingness to travel up to 20% for customer visits, facility trials and conferences.
Who You Are:
A creative problem solver with strong scientific rigor and a passion for food innovation in the cheese space. You must be willing to play a part in developing new effective cheese technologies.
A collaborative team player with proven industry experience, including exposure to pilot and plant manufacturing environments, and capable of scaling up products while troubleshooting processing challenges.
A clear communicator committed to commercial excellence, with the ability to translate technical findings into business impact.
Curious, proactive and eager to stay at the forefront of industry trends and emerging technologies.
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Relocation Available:
Yes, Within Country
Pay Range:
This pay range is not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Final base salary will be determined based on several factors which may include but are not limited to responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data and applicable bargaining agreement (if any).
Incentive Compensation:
As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Ingredion Annual Incentive Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus.
Benefits:
Full-time roles are eligible for our comprehensive benefits package which includes medical, dental and vision coverage as well as a 401(k) plan with an competitive company match.
