Sr. Scientist I - Flavor

Job Description

It’s an exciting time to be part of IFF’s Food Biotech team. As a research scientist, you will play a pivotal role in our cutting-edge research and development of natural flavors and taste modulation ingredients in line with corporate strategies and business targets.

The primary responsibility of this position is to develop upstream process of natural and sustainable flavor ingredients with a focus on target discovery and bio-based process development.  

This position will be in Union Beach, New Jersey at IFF’s R&D facility. 
 

Key Responsibilities:

• Advance innovative technologies that transform sustainable raw materials to high value ingredients that modulate tastes and enhance authentic flavors through microbial fermentation and biocatalysts.
• Design and conduct lab scale process development to implement upstream discovery into pipeline. 
• Conduct instrumental analysis (GC-MS & HPLC) of flavor components in samples to establish an in-depth knowledge of flavor chemistry, pathways, and molecular mechanisms.
• Work with flavorists, sensory and application scientists to validate new ingredients performance.
• Support scale-up process to production and assist in supply chain management and regulatory review.
• Interact with regional and global internal and external customers to identify market needs and criteria for product success.
• Write organized reports and present findings to leadership teams and stakeholders.
• Keep abreast of new advances in modulation and taste science and technologies and propose research initiatives aligned with corporate and divisional strategies.
   

Required Experience and Skills:

• Ph.D. in Food Science, Microbiology, Biochemistry or related fields with 1-3 years research post PhD or MS in Biochemistry, Food Science, Microbiology, or related fields with 7+ years in industrial flavor research experience
• Strong knowledge of flavor chemistry including mechanism, biosynthesis, and interaction
• A proven ability to develop bio-based processing (microbial fermentation and/or biotransformation) of food materials. 
• Skills of microbial strain improvement and screening (HTS format) 
• Understanding of bioreactor principles and metabolic pathways 
• Experience in flavor isolation, extraction, and instrumental analysis (HPLC, GCMS)
• Experience in sensory science 
• Ability to taste samples as required.
• Proficiency in statistical data analysis
• Experience in assessing process economics in relation to commercial feasibility.
• Self-motivated and act like an owner with agility and teamwork
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills
• Strong ability to work in a cross-functional team environment.

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Industrial R&D experience
• Understanding of fermentation scale-up and downstream process
• Knowledge of pathway engineering
• Experience in High throughput experimentation for strain and metabolite screening
• Experience in flavor fractionation and reconstitution that lead to target flavor profiles.
• Experience calculating statistics and advanced knowledge of statistical software.