We are a global leader in food & beverage ingredients. Pioneers at heart, we operate at the forefront of consumer trends to provide food & beverage manufacturers with products and ingredients that will delight their consumers. Making a positive impact on people and planet is all part of the delight. With a deep-rooted presence in the countries where our ingredients are grown, we are closer to farmers, enabling better quality, and more reliable, traceable and transparent supply. Supplying products and ingredients at scale is just the start. We add value through our unique, complementary portfolio of natural, delicious and nutritious products. With our fresh thinking, we help our customers unleash the sensory and functional attributes of cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts and spices so they can create naturally good food & beverage products that meet consumer expectations. And whoever we're with, whatever we're doing, we always make it real.

Position Summary:

Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Innovation, the Sr. Manager, R&D - Product Development, Innovation will assume the role as a Scientist and Manager and will work directly with the coffee Innovation and Research and Development (R&D) Team at Olam Food Ingredients. The role will design, develop, and commercialize a portfolio novel food and beverage ingredients for the business. They will work in both laboratory and field or plant settings to undertake experiments on selected projects. The Sr. Manager, R&D - Product Development will need a deep understanding of product and process development process for food ingredients from raw material, intermediate processing, commercialization, and development of applications and solutions for potential customers. The position will play a key role in managing project portfolio and pipeline working with Sales, Innovation & Marketing (SIM) team.

The ideal candidate will take calculated risks with R&D projects and will be outcome oriented. They will be self-aware and eager to lead a group of associates across several geographies.

Position Responsibilities:

• Writes briefs, technical specifications, creates technical documentation, for development of novel food ingredients for the business.
• Manage the innovation program with stage gate approach, develop a project plan for each of the projects and undertake critical activities toward making progress on each of the projects.
• Work with the origins/copackers where required to ensure that ingredient develop meet the specifications which will meet the customer requirements.
• Create product applications and prototypes with novel ingredients from Olam and present to customers to work collaboratively with business development teams for commercialization.
• Understanding and expertise in design of functional beverages such as bioactive (ex. antioxidant) and or gut health claims such as Prebiotic/probiotic and Natural energy beverages.
• Develop protocols/SOPs for undertaking laboratory prototyping and scale up of applications to pilot scale or work with 3rd parties or customers to scale up and commercialize products.
• Plan and execute experiments using sound measurement techniques which will enable data generation for customers in product quality and or usage requirements.
• Develop sensory evaluation methods and generate data that will be reliable and replicable from prototyping to scale up.
• Manage product catalog, sampling and manage an inventory and safety of product sample to customers.
• Maintain laboratory equipment critical to application work within the laboratory. Work with analytical chemistry, microbiology, and other teams to generate required data for product commercialization with customers.
• Undertake shelf-life studies as required for ingredients or for product applications, use the shelf-life data to decide on shelf-life declarations during commercialization.
• Develop product labels which will meet the regulatory and nutritional declarations using Genesis or other systems meeting product specifications.
• Collaborate with origin teams, marketing and sales teams to create collaterals for product marketing and customer centric sales opportunities.
• Listen and engage with customers to understand their jobs to be done and collaborate efficiently.
• Hands on working is required in laboratory, co-packers, field settings and project management.
• Develop a team of food scientists, technologists through leading by example with hands on engagement.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Position Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Biology, Chemical Engineering, or related field is required.
• Ten (10) years of experience in product development for food ingredients and application across multiple categories with expertise in beverage as a leading category.
• Experience in product development in novel beverages and functional beverages is highly preferred.
• Must have an understanding of basic and advanced food analytical techniques required for product development.
• Working knowledge in statistical analysis as used in design of experiments, hypothesis testing and data analysis and measuring process capabilities are required.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and excellent analytical and problem-solving skills are required.
• Familiarity with Business to Business (B2B) customer interaction cross functionally with Sales and origin operations is required.
• Must be creative, pro-active, “think outside the box,” and have a desire to accept or create new ideas and take calculated risks on new products and process development.
• Excellent presentation and articulation skills are required. Must be able to effectively interact with ofi Management and customers in Europe, US and Asia/Pacific region.
• Comfort around higher management through excellence in articulation is required.
• Experience with scientific literature and publications and intellectual property is required.

Note: This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employee may perform other related duties as negotiated to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.

ofi provides equality of opportunity for all persons with respect to hiring without discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, veteran status, or sexual orientation. All employment will be decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us for support at: US-Talent.Acquisition@olamnet.com

At ofi, we celebrate our diversity. Olam Americas Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.