Senior Product Designer - Fresh Sous Vide

Location: St. Louis, MO

Department: DESIGN, Platform & Process R&D

Reports to: CEO/Chief Science & Innovation Officer, Justin Siegel

The Opportunity

Help shape the future of fresh food. Deli Star is building a world-class Fresh Sous Vide™ system to make safe, nutritious, high-quality protein fresh and accessible. Our patent-pending Fresh Sous Vide process opens new possibilities for proteins and a broad range of fresh prepared foods, and we're looking for a designer who can bring them to life.

You will combine culinary imagination, scientific rigor, and first-principles thinking to create exceptional protein products and fresh prepared foods people want to eat again. Working directly with our CEO and Chief Science & Innovation Officer and the DESIGN team, you will formulate, make, taste, measure, and refine products for REVEL, our retail brand, and customer innovation programs.

This is a hands-on role with meaningful influence. The products you create and the possibilities you uncover will help shape Deli Star's product and business strategy for many years to come, expanding what Fresh Sous Vide can offer and making eating more nutritious, convenient, and enjoyable.

Our DESIGN Team

DESIGN connects food science and product design with technical expertise, Supply Chain-including Commercialization, Purchasing, and Logistics-and Technology systems.

The Senior Product Designer focuses on the food itself, collaborating across these disciplines to understand how ingredients, processing, and manufacturing capabilities can improve the product experience. You will partner closely with the Sr. Development Scientist, who leads commercialization trials, scale-up readiness, and technical transfer to Manufacturing.

Key Responsibilities

1. Own the Product Experience

• Design sous vide protein products and fresh prepared foods for REVEL and customer innovation programs.
• Translate customer and consumer needs into clear goals for flavor, texture, appearance, nutrition, convenience, and value.
• Create formulations and bench prototypes, refining the details that matter when someone prepares and eats the food.
• Explore new applications and product formats enabled by Fresh Sous Vide, establishing measurable quality targets and clear technical intent.

2. Discover Through Making

• Work from first principles: question assumptions, identify the underlying problem, and test what improves the product.
• Conduct focused experiments, combining sensory judgment with scientific measurement.
• Understand how ingredients, cooking, chilling, packaging, and reheating affect product quality and the eating experience.
• Simplify formulations and methods where possible, maintaining accurate records of findings and design decisions.

3. Partner Through Scale-Up

• Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Product Management on customer discovery, samples, and technical feasibility.
• Provide formulations, product specifications, quality targets, and technical intent to the Sr. Development Scientist, who leads commercialization trials and scale-up.
• Participate in pilot and plant trials, assess results against the intended product experience, and refine formulations with the development team.
• Collaborate with Purchasing, Logistics, Technical Services, Technology, Manufacturing, and Food Safety & Quality to preserve product intent through production and support required evaluations and approvals.

Ownership and Collaboration

This role owns product science, formulation, bench design, and technical intent, with direction from the CEO and Chief Science & Innovation Officer. You remain engaged through scale-up to assess product performance and guide formulation refinements.

You will work closely with:

• Sales, Marketing, and Product Management, which lead customer relationships, market opportunities, and customer requirements.
• The Sr. Development Scientist within Supply Chain's Commercialization function, who leads development trials, scale-up coordination, manufacturing-readiness evidence, and technical transfer to Manufacturing.
• Purchasing and Logistics, which support material sourcing and supply readiness.
• Technical Services and Technology, which contribute technical expertise, systems, and data capabilities.
• Manufacturing and Engineering, which participate in development and lead production validation and ongoing execution.
• Food Safety & Quality, which provide required safety and quality review, validation, and approval.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Meat Science, Food Engineering, or a related discipline.
• A clear passion for designing food products, supported by examples from professional, academic, or independent projects.
• First-principles thinking and the ability to explain why a product behaves as it does.
• Understanding of protein and ingredient functionality, thermal processing, and refrigerated food quality.
• Ability to plan and conduct bench experiments, assess results, and refine formulations.
• Strong sensory judgment, analytical skills, and disciplined technical documentation.
• The ability to communicate a design clearly, welcome critique, and solve problems collaboratively across functions.

Preferred Experience

• Three or more years of experience with sous vide, cooked proteins, vacuum packaging, or refrigerated prepared foods.
• Prepared meals, home meal replacement, entrées, sauces, sides, or meal components.
• Supporting pilot or plant trials and translating culinary concepts into repeatable formulations and manufacturing specifications.
• Designing for reheating performance, component compatibility, texture, moisture retention, and shelf-life quality.

What Success Looks Like

You create food people want to eat again. You can explain why it works, document how to make it, and partner with Commercialization and Manufacturing to reproduce the intended product experience consistently. Your work expands what Deli Star's Fresh Sous Vide system can offer.

We value curiosity, thoughtful challenge, careful execution, and the willingness to keep improving.