R&D Baker Specialist
Whitehall, OH
Full Time
Entry Level
Position Profile
The R&D Baker Specialist is tasked with developing and refining bakery products, leading production trials, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality products to market. This role requires expertise to drive product innovation while ensuring the highest standards of taste, quality, and safety are consistently met.
Primary Responsibilities
- Ingredient and Recipe Development: Perform benchtop trials to test ingredients and refine recipes, ensuring optimal quality and consistency.
- Production Trial Oversight: Lead coordination efforts with Operations, Quality, Logistics, Maintenance, and Engineering teams to manage plant trials and oversee initial production runs.
- Formula and Process Improvement: Evaluate trial and production results to suggest formula changes and process improvements, tackling any technical challenges that arise.
- Scale-Up Transition: Guide the transition from bench and pilot-scale production to full-scale manufacturing by developing comprehensive batching procedures and process flows.
- Risk Mitigation: Identify potential technical risks and assist in creating contingency plans to address challenges.
- Product Evaluation and Shelf-Life Testing: Lead sensory evaluations and conduct shelf-life studies to ensure the product’s quality and longevity.
- Data Recording and Trend Analysis: Document test procedures and results, analyze trends, and synthesize findings to support decision-making.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Foster strong communication with all relevant teams to ensure project goals are aligned and met successfully.
- Training and Knowledge Sharing: Educate Quality and Operations teams on new processes and procedures, facilitating knowledge transfer across departments.
- Customer Engagement: Present new and existing products during customer meetings, provide assistance with customer inquiries, and address consumer complaints.
- Lab and Storage Management: Maintain a safe, organized, and clean lab and storage area.
- Compliance and Safety Adherence: Ensure all activities adhere to established programs, policies, and regulations, producing safe, high-quality products that meet SQF, regulatory, company, and customer standards.
- Additional Duties: Perform other tasks as required by management to meet evolving business needs.
Requirements
- Education and Experience: A background in bakery science, food technology, or a related field. At least 3 years of professional baking experience and 1+ year in the food industry is preferred.
- Skills and Expertise:
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a hands-on approach.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- High energy and entrepreneurial spirit with the ability to work collaboratively as part of a team.
- Strong organizational skills and a keen attention to detail.
- Knowledge of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) is essential.
- Work Environment Adaptability: Comfortable working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment with a desire to drive impactful change.
- Personal Traits:
- Exceptional organizational and troubleshooting skills with the ability to prioritize tasks effectively.
- Strong critical thinking skills, especially in high-pressure environments.
- High integrity and professionalism.
Working Environment
- The position requires the ability to work in an office, lab, and production floor setting with a concrete floor.
- Physical demands include extended periods of standing, walking, bending, twisting, and lifting safely.
- Occasional climbing and the ability to lift, stack, and move objects weighing more than 40 lbs.
- Potential hazards include proximity to moving mechanical parts, moving vehicles, electrical current, high heat, and chemicals.
Core Competencies
- Creative Thinking: re-examining traditional strategies and practices, and proactively looking for new ideas and ways to improve products, services, and work processes. A Person with this competency looks at problems and opportunities from a unique perspective, seeing patterns and themes that are not immediately apparent to others and taking time to refine and shape a new idea so it has a higher likelihood of success.
- Listening, Understanding & Responding: Demonstrates the ability to interact effectively with staff, other team members, customers and external contacts. Defers judgment on what someone is saying until they have they have thoroughly investigated; creates opportunities for meaningful discussion; builds rapport, trust and strong working relationships up, down and across organization.
- Information Seeking: Investigates and researches information, digs to resolve discrepancies; obtains information or opinions internally and externally to gain insight or expertise – makes well informed decisions.
- Initiative: Initiates courses of action that will lead to improved performance/effectiveness of the Business Unit Team. Sees a need and takes action to address; questions the way things are done and initiates changes where necessary; sticks with an issue until it is resolved
- Self-confidence: Willing to take on a new challenge or assignment displaying confidence and enthusiasm; emphasizes the positive and upside aspects of difficult situations – every situation provides an opportunity for learning.
- Results Orientated & Can Do Attitude: Strives to beat or meet project deadlines; sets own high standards for quality of work; seeks ways to use time and resources more cost effectively; highly organized with the ability to set priorities and multi-task.
- Team Leadership: Works cooperatively with others promoting team participation as a means to generate more ideas, greater consensus & engagement, and a higher level of commitment to delivering results.
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