R&D Development Scientist

About Sara Lee Frozen Bakery

Sara Lee desserts have always stood for incredible flavor and superior value in the frozen food aisle and away from home markets. The Sara Lee Frozen Bakery collection of top brands includes Sara Lee®, Chef Pierre®, Van’s®, Bistro Collection®, Superior on Main® and Cyrus O’Leary’s®.

Sara Lee Frozen Bakery is proud to take these iconic brands into a new era and to continue the evolution that transformed one small Chicago bakery into an American institution. Using carefully sourced ingredients and time-honored recipes, the company is committed to making life’s moments a little sweeter, putting its customers first and discovering new ways to make everyone’s favorite foods even better.

Working for Sara Lee

Our vision is to be the world’s most beloved bakery by creating irresistible foods, growing with our customers, and delivering value for all. We will achieve success through collaboration and innovation in an environment where employees feel empowered to execute with speed. We believe that each of us has unique points of difference and experience to offer. We believe that there is always a better way, and we will never be satisfied with status quo. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, continually seek process improvements and a strong sense of customer service, then this is the right type of environment for you.

Summary

The Research and Development Scientist plays a critical role in helping us become the world’s most beloved bakery by creating our new product solutions necessary to unlocking added value for our customers. This role has responsibility for developing new product formulations, portfolio renovation and customer product solutions across Foodservice, Retail and In-Store Bakery. The ideal candidate brings key skills, experience and knowledge necessary for the development of high quality bakery products. She/he must work from ideation to commercialization, from benchtop samples to final production, and from raw material to finished product specification. This role requires experience with ingredient functionality, formula design and ability to collaborate with other key internal and external business partners (Project Management, Marketing, Innovation, Supply Chain, Packaging, Food Safety and Quality, Procurement, Sales, and Finance).

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Develop, plan, coordinate and conduct product development initiatives to meet timeline expectations
• Provide technical leadership to prepare formula design and bench development for new or renovated bakery products
• Develop understanding of ingredients, products, processes and packaging to support development of new product platforms
• Utilize ingredient and process knowledge, experimental design and data interpretation tools to make technically sound recommendations
• Lead product cuttings and plant trials to support sales samples, scale-ups, and other needs
• Create, implement and maintain final product specifications, recipes and production guides
• Support the development of capability expansion by recognizing process improvements or equipment needs
• Work closely with Marketing, Project Management (PMO), Innovation, Insights and Sales to problem solve new product solutions
• Build strong relationships and collaborate with suppliers, 3 rd party partnerships, Technical Services, Engineering and other colleagues to optimize new product development processes
  
  
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Food Science or related field with at least 3+ years of relevant product formulation experience
• Previous experience developing and manufacturing bakery products is highly preferred
• A self-starter and doer with a sense of urgency to work fast but not rush while managing multiple projects
• Good working knowledge of experimental design and product development protocols, including formulation, process development, regulatory requirements, systems/data entry, sensory and consumer testing methodology
• Basic computer skills required; competence in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Ability to communicate effectively (verbal and written) and collaborate with teams
• Ability to problem solve development obstacles
• Ability to work in food allergen areas (Nuts, Dairy, Egg, etc.)
• Ability to travel 25-35% of the time
  
  
  

Sara Lee Frozen Bakery provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.