UFS Senior Scientist - Condiments

Job Title: UFS Senior Scientist – Condiments – Unilever Food Solutions 

Location: Remote - Englewood Cliffs, NJ 

 
Who We Are 
Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) is the €3bn+ foodservice division of Unilever. It leads the dynamic Food Service market across its categories and has ambitious growth objectives, marketing a range of professional food and beverage products and services to operators across 72 countries.  UFS prides itself on creating value for its customers through culinary solutions and improving the food experience for everyone from distributors and operators to diners and consumers.    

UFS is accelerating its digital transformation to fuel growth through data driven and technology enabled Go-to-Market (GtM) capabilities. Our global ambition is to reach 3 million operators by 2030 via an online & off-line contact strategy. Within the US, the focus of UFS Customer Development and Marketing is to engage with customers in unique and specific ways to generate demand for our professional brands and create long term value for our partners.   

Here, you will continuously learn, unlearn, and relearn, challenging yourself to accelerate your development in an end-to-end business and in end-to-end roles. If you're dreaming of contributing to Unilever’s 2nd largest Business unit, a fast-growing business, where you're empowered so you can play to win and thrive as part of One Team with One Goal, then come and join us! 

Pay: The pay range for this position is $86,080 to $129,120. 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. 

Purpose of the Job 

If you have a passion for food and product development and are extremely operator/customer focused, then this role is just for you! Unilever Food Solutions is an inspiring global company made up of talented, entrepreneurial professionals working closely with chefs and distributive partners daily. We are proud to be part of Unilever, one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast-moving consumer goods, with sales in 180 different countries. As the dedicated foodservice business of Unilever, we lead the industry in providing innovative and high-quality professional food ingredients and value adding services created by 300 professional chefs, covering 50 cuisines, in 200 million dishes a day.  

As a member of UFS R&D Dressings team you will be working to develop relevant products under Hellmann’s, Sir Kensington’s, and Maille brands for menus to local guests, whether that is meeting the need for healthy, delicious, guilt-free dining experiences, localizing a global offering, or bringing the world’s most exciting cuisines to our North America market. 

• Partnership with Marketing, Culinary, Quality, and Supply Chain teams supporting business objectives. 

• Lead technical development (recipe development, specifications, risk management) for North America Dressings products. 

• Support R&D initiatives of quality, nutrition, cost savings, complexity reduction and sustainability by design. 

• Works as a leader and member of a cross functional project team to deliver projects on time and in full. 

Who You Are and What You’ll Do 

• 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’re a dot connector: Ability to manage complex relationships and solve complex problems. 

• You’re a changemaker: Ability to identify and address emerging issues as well as set and manage priorities and continuously improve processes and practices. 

• You love to win and have fun doing it: Passion for product development and extremely customer/consumer focus. 

• You’re a storyteller: The position requires adapting technical information to communicate results with other cross-functional team members including marketing, quality, planning, procurement, and customer development as well as others. 

• You’re a paradox navigator: The position requires application of technical knowledge and scientific methodologies including bench top formulation, experimental design, analytical methods, statistical procedures as well as data analysis 

• You’re a culture & change champion: Comfort with multi-tasking and operating in a fast paced, multi-faceted, and multi-cultural environment. 

Lead pillars & projects:  

• Lead and coordinate the R&D activities across one key technology or channel pillar to both shape and deliver the brand’s program 

• Deliver total business agenda encompassing innovation, renovation, quality and nutrition improvement, regulatory compliance, and cost savings initiatives. 

• Lead the technical discussions in cross functional meetings and represent the R&D + technical views and paths forward to drive agility and speed within the project team.  

• Conduct technical risk assessments and provide recommendations on risk mitigation plans to balance speed and execution. 

• Demonstrate flexibility to manage multiple priorities by adapting to daily challenges and priority changes within business environment. 

Develop products:  

• Define the technical project brief and targets against which products can be designed (performance and attributes), developed and measured. Translate brand philosophy, culinary and operator insights into superior new products. 

• Demonstrate strong formulation expertise in dressings to lead new product design and renovations with speed. 

• 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, performance testing, etc.). 

• Lead the process of specification/label creation in SAP PLM from initial request through approved status including lower order specifications/new ingredient specifications and artwork brief generation. 

• Organize and participate in trials, providing onsite monitoring and technical assistance, while providing formulation adjustment recommendations as needed. 

• Own bench and pilot-scale product development and execute proper handoff and primary support for full-scale commercialization. 

• Ability to prepare comprehensive trial/lab reports and presentations, including recommendations and next steps. 

• Support cost savings (5S) initiatives and supply chain efficiency projects to support quality, cost savings, and complexity reduction initiatives. 

• Drive and coordinate all technical aspects with the support of subject matter experts to fully commercialize new products and product changes. 

Provide technical and product guidance: 

• Lead the technical discussions in cross functional meetings and present the R&D view for the project team to technical and non-technical audiences. 

• Assess feasibility of new ideas and troubleshoot activities where product development knowledge is essential.  

• Lead/support technical investigations using root-cause analysis and problem-solving techniques as required for existing and new products. 

• Analyze and interpret data with guidance on final conclusions. 

• Provide product expertise and recommendations into innovation and activation strategies. Being a product ambassador internally and externally, demonstrate awareness of operator insights and needs/behavior. 

Establish and maintain internal and external working relationships: 

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships and communicate effectively across R&D and non-R&D functions to support business initiatives. 

• Develop and maintain strong communication and effective working relationships with key business and strategic vendor partners.  

• Identify and drive key stakeholder decision moments by clarifying options and tradeoffs, with expert recommendations 

What You’ll Need to Succeed 

• Education: Bachelor of Science Degree in Food Science or equivalent degree. 

• Relevant Experience: 5-7 years of experience in the food industry, preferably in product development, processing, and/or project management. Experience with SAP PLM/Minerva, specification creation and approval process, demonstrated knowledge/experience in emulsion esp. dressings technology, and good understanding of Supply Chain. Food Service business preferred. 

• Job requirements: Follow company policy for minimum days/week, with flexibility to work on-site as needed per project phase. 10-20% of travel is required. 

• Leadership 

• You are energized by delivering fantastic results. You are an example to others – both your results and your resilience. You are constantly on the lookout for better ways to do things, engaging and collaborating with others along the way. 

• As an individual you are the one responsible for your own wellbeing and delivering high standards of work. You must also focus on the Consumer and what they need. You are humble and have your head up, looking around to interpret evidence and data smartly, spot issues and opportunities to make things better. 

Our Culture  

• Caring Deeply   

• Positive Tensions for Bigger Outcomes, Fairness and Transparency, Performance AND care   

• Staying Three Steps Ahead of the Market   

• Build Future While Delivering today, Think Big simplify, commit, Lead Shape Disrupt Mkt    

• Delivering with Excellence   

• Pride in our Execution, Best in Reality, Developing Breakthrough solutions  

• Focusing on What Matters Most   

• Fewer Bigger Things, Fight for What matters most, Challenging and Debating Right Choices  

What We Can Offer You  

Culture for Growth | Top Notch Employee Health & Well Being Benefits | Every Voice Matters | Global Reach | Life at Unilever | Careers with Purpose | World Class Career Development Programs | Check Out Our Space | Focus On Sustainability