Job Description
Job Description: CPG Food Scientist
Location: Commerce, CA
Reports to: Brand Director
About Century Snacks:
Century Snacks, owned by Insignia Capital Group, brings together the heritage and knowledge of two great snacking companies under one roof. For more than thirty-two years our newly combined companies have been crafting Seasoned Nuts and Unique Trail mixes throughout the United States. Today Century Snacks manufactures under our brand SnakClub® for Retail, Convenience, Drug and Club as well as private label for all channels. We operate in the City of Commerce, CA in a 268,000 sq. ft. facility and produce more than 100 seasoned nut varieties and 300 trail mix products as well as gummy candy. For more information please visit www.centurysnacks.com
Summary:
This position plays a major role in the creation of new products and is part of the overall Century Snacks Marketing team – which encompasses Marketing, Innovation, Research and Development, E-Commerce and Consumer & Category Insights. This Individual will be responsible for all aspects of product development including specifications development, prototype building and completing all samples for innovation ideas and customer presentations. He/She will work with the marketing team, procurement, and operations teams who will provide guidance and support as well as training on the formalized processes for product development. This person will also work closely with the Regulatory and Compliance Manager to ensure product development specifications requested are appropriately documented for appropriate compliance and certifications ie. Non-GMO, Kosher, Gluten Free etc.
This person should be able to apply scientific and engineering principles in research, development, production technology, quality control, packaging, processing and utilization of foods to design, develop and produce new and/or optimized products across the Candy, Trail Mix, and Nuts categories. This person will also interact heavily with Brand Marketing Project Leads as well as Sales Teams members to understand product development needs.
Essential Job Functions:
- Be an integral partner in the new product development process, working with cross-functional teams including marketing, procurement, operations, sales, and quality to brainstorm new products and see them through from ideation to commercialization.
- Preparing, making and shipping customer samples on time and in full by project.
- Work with marketing and our external partners to align on formulations. Review consumer feedback to continuously improve formulations to deliver on consumer needs
- Able to be trained on NutriCalc nutritional program, preparation of ingredient statements. Review final packaging to confirm compliance with specification documents
- Drafting, cataloging and updating R&D formula specification documents. Maintaining up to date specifications based on new ingredients and suppliers as needed.
- Maintaining adequate inventories of ingredients needed for projects.
- Project managing your own workload in a busy environment with competing priorities; clear and timely communication and an incredible attention to detail is critical
- Working with cross-functional teams to schedule and supervise plant trials, sensory and shelf life tests.
- Ordering and gathering ingredients from production plant.
- Assisting in prepping samples and setting up for customer and stakeholder presentations.
- Conducting competitive product analyses to look for white space opportunities and trends for future product development. Work with production to understand current equipment capabilities and how those could influence future product pipeline.
Qualifications & Requirements:
• BS and/or Master’s degree in Food Science or related field
• Preferably 3+ years experience in food product development
• Excellent organizational skills
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal)
• Analytical skills (MS Excel)