Senior Scientist - Scratch Cooking

Background and purpose:

Scratch Cooking is a fun, exciting and competitive category within Unilever’s Nutrition Business Group which houses the iconic Knorr and Lipton Recipe Secrets brands. The team is driven by a powerful purpose, to provide accessible and affordable nutrition to the many Americans and Canadians. As a member of the team, you will lead and coordinate the R&D activities required to deliver the Brand’s business objectives. You will function as a Technical Project Leader for innovation and renovation initiatives while driving smart product value within the Scratch Cooking category.

Who you are:

• You’re a born leader: Pro-active self-direction with a high level of initiative and persistence and a very hands-on approach to results delivery.

• You love to win and have fun doing it: You are passionate about product development and extremely customer/consumer focused. You are comfortable with multi-tasking and operating in a fast paced, multi-faceted, and multi-cultural environment
• You’re a dot connector: Ability to manage complex relationships and solve complex problems You build strong relationships and influence with cross-functional teams, key stakeholders, and strategic vendor partners to enable progress.
• You’re a changemaker: You can identify and address emerging issues as well as set and manage priorities and continuously improve processes and practices.

What you’ll do:

Lead projects:

• Lead and coordinate the R&D activities to deliver the brand’s program, ranging from innovation, renovation, quality improvement and margin enhancement.

Develop products:

• Define the technical project brief and targets against which products can be designed (performance and attributes), developed and measured. Translate the brand philosophy, culinary and consumer insights into superior new products.
• Design and execute test protocols for the various technical aspects of projects as required (e.g., prototype development and scale-up, shelf-life testing, analytical testing, etc.)
• Lead the process of specification creation and maintenance in SAP PLM from the request to the approved status.
• Conduct technical risk assessments and provide recommendations on risk mitigation plans.
• Organize and participate in pilot plant and factory trials while providing formulation adjustment recommendations to determine feasibility and capability.

Provide technical and product guidance:

• Lead technical discussion in cross functional meetings and represent the technical views for the project team. Develop and maintain effective working relationships across R&D and non-R&D functions to support business initiatives.

• Assess feasibility of new ideas and troubleshoot activities where formulation knowledge is essential.
• Lead / support technical investigations using root-cause analysis and problem-solving techniques as required for existing and new products.
• Provide product expertise and insights into innovation and activation strategies. Be a product ambassador internally and externally, demonstrate awareness of local and regional trends, developments, customer insights and consumer needs/behavior.

What you’ll need to succeed:

• Bachelor of Science in Food Science or equivalent degree.
• Minimum 5+ years of experience in the food industry with project management experience and sound product development skills, preferably on dry technologies with a combined 10 years work experience between product development and project management.

Technical Capability (Fully Operational):

• Use of ingredients, formulation, process, and product design principles, with ability to design products against advanced technical briefs.
• Lab and pilot work execution via experimental design, leading factory trials to determine manufacturing capability, full understanding of project financials and E2E SAP PLM- LOS and PIRD
• Ability to analyze and interpret analytical data with full ability to implement results and provide next steps recommendations. Working knowledge on complex data with guidance on final conclusions.
• Root cause analysis and problem-solving techniques, and application to existing and new products.

Project Management:

• Ability to independently execute projects with moderate to high complexity and coordinate R&D activities.
• Working knowledge of senior stakeholder management and confidence in data-based decision making
• Fully operational of the roles the various functional areas outside of R&D in product development process
• Fully operational of Technical Risk Assessment and Quality Risk Management Plan. Working Knowledge in Level 3 risk assessment
• Operational knowledge of the Innoflex process, follows the process with the support of line manager.
• Actively represents/leads R&D meetings with Supply Chain (SC) & Marketing
• Prepares comprehensive reports and electronic communication, including technical recommendations and next steps. Ensures record keeping and sharing of learnings

Communication:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to prepare comprehensive trial/lab reports and presentations, including recommendations and next steps.
• Ability to present information to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Work Level 1C: Pay: The pay range for this position is $83,200 to $124,700. Unilever takes into consideration a wide range of factors that are utilized in making compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, qualifications and education, and other business and organizational needs. Bonus: This position is bonus eligible. Long-Term Incentive (LTI): This position is LTI eligible. Benefits: Unilever employees are eligible to participate in our benefits plan. Should the employee choose to participate, they can choose from a range of benefits to include, but is not limited to, health insurance (including prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage), retirement savings benefits, life insurance and disability benefits, parental leave, sick leave, paid vacation and holidays, as well as access to numerous voluntary benefits. Any coverages for health insurance and retirement benefits will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans and associated governing plan documents.

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