Food Scientist

The Irca Group is an International Leader in high quality finished and semi-finished ingredients for the bakery, pastry, and ice cream markets. With a solid history of over 100 years in the industry, the Group has its headquarters in Italy (Gallarate) and a strong global footprint with 23 production sites and over 2000 employees in Europe, the United States and Vietnam.

Our core product categories include chocolate, compounds, chocolate decorations, sprinkles, creams, pastry mixes, gelato ingredients, nuts and candied fruit. The most recent acquisition of Kerry Sweet complements our existing categories with the addition of sweet particulates, chocolate confections, inclusions, variegates and frozen fruit purees.

Through its 8 key brands (IRCA, Dobla®, in2food, Via Degli Orsini, JoyGelato, RaviFruit, Cesarin and Anastasi®) the IRCA Group offers an unparalleled "one-stop shop" approach for delivering quality solutions to all ingredients needs, through a broad range of innovative products. We offer every day and seasonal solutions to 3 macro channels: Gourmet, Food Manufacturing and Consumer Product (Retail). “Extraordinary made simple”

We are seeking an experienced Food Scientist to work onsite at our lab located in Affton, MO. The ideal candidate may travel to Beloit, WI for a period of time to train but will be based in Affton, MO and work at our lab there.

The focus will be to consistently improve food quality including flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, convenience, as well as the physical, chemical, and microbiological composition of food. Support production of customer projects by working collaboratively with the production plant(s) during start up through scaling and commercialization processes. Understand competitive market to meet and exceed customer project expectations and production requirements for commercialization of products. Visit our website here www.Irca.eu and see our products

Essential Job Duties And Responsibilities Include

• Complete project requests within the time frame required by the customer
• Work in pilot plant, and support production scale ups and commercialization
• Development of new and improved methods and systems for food processing, production, quality control and packaging
• Field customer requests both internal and external to satisfy project needs from a conceptual phase through commercialization and troubleshooting
• Optimize formulations and work with cross functional groups to optimize the strength of Irca and deliver the best experience for our customers.
• Concept to Commercialization
• Formulation Optimization
• Match competitive products
• Ability of understand and troubleshoot customer processes
• Collaborate effectively and efficiently with culinary and subject matter experts across the organization
• Advanced formulation skills
• Tactfully troubleshoot problems and mediate losses
• Possess effective presentation skills
• Develop intellectual property in area of responsibility.
• Ability to taste and smell chemical, flavors, and other food products
• Quickly synthesis technical challenges and translate into business opportunities.
• Excellent organization, teamwork, communication skills (verbal and written) and follow through.
  
  

Professional And Personal Skills

• BS in food science or a science-related field.
• 3-5 + years’ experience in related industry.
• Working and collaborating with global teams.
• Exemplify expertise through teaching and mentoring others.
• Experience with Chocolate is a plus
• Lift up to 50 pounds unassisted. Must be able to stand for long periods of time in a laboratory setting.
• Domestic travel to customers and production plants as necessary to meet objectives of the role.
  
  

Why Join Us

Irca Group offers career growth opportunities as well as competitive compensation and benefits: Medical, Dental, & Vision, 401(k) matching, Paid Vacation, and Holidays, Employee Education Tuition Reimbursement Program