Application Lead - Savory (Food Ingredients R&D), Zoetermeer

About Us As a leading provider of high‑quality food and beverage ingredients, we work with farming communities across the globe to grow, source and produce ingredients that are good for consumers, farmers, and the world around us. We supply household food brands and manufacturers worldwide with cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts and spices ingredients which are often grown on our own farms and estates and sourced from hundreds of thousands of farmers across ~50 countries. Along with our diverse manufacturing and innovation capabilities, this means we can provide ingredients for a range of products, from a plant‑based latte mix to an almond based snack bar or a dairy‑free ice cream. Making a positive impact on people and planet is a core component of our Purpose, to be the change for good food and a healthy future. With a deep‑rooted presence in the countries where our ingredients are grown, we are closer to farmers, enablingbetter quality, and more reliable, traceable, and transparent supply.

Food&Beverage Solutions We have launched a new platform called Food and Beverage solutions, part of our ingredients and solutions reporting unit. This platform consolidates our current category solutions capabilities and innovation infrastructure. We support customers in developing new consumer concepts and application solutions at our four customer solution centres in Amsterdam, Bangalore, Chicago, and Singapore. Food and Beverage solutions leverages the strengths of our five product platforms, including their global and sustainable supply chain capabilities, a complementary portfolio of high‑quality food and ingredients, and extensive ingredient expertise. This enables us to address a diverse range of customer requirements in the rapidly evolving Food and Beverage industry.

Job Description Job Title:

Application Lead– Savoury

Location:

Singapore

Function:

Innovation

Reporting manager:

Customer Solutions Centre (CSC) Head Singapore/APAC

Position Overview The Savoury Lead is responsible for defining and driving the Savoury&Culinary application strategy within CSC Singapore, overseeing end‑to‑end product development, customer solutioning, and technical capability building. This role extends beyond execution to provide technical leadership across all savoury dry, wet, and emulsified systems, ensuring scalable, high‑impact solutions across QSR, Foodservice, and B2B segments.

Key Responsibilities

Product Development&Technical Leadership Define formulation strategies across categories and applications.

Ensure integration of ingredient functionality (e.g. flavours, extracts, hydrocolloids, starches) into robust formulations.

Guide development of multifunctional systems adaptable across applications.

Drive standardisation and development of base formulations and modular systems.

Translate concepts across formats (e.g. snack seasoning to meat systems, wet to dry platforms).

Sensory&Reverse Engineering Excellence Establish structured sensory frameworks and evaluation protocols.

Lead product benchmarking and reverse engineering into scalable formats.

Translate sensory gaps into formulation strategies and system improvements.

Build sensory guidance across team to ensure consistent product delivery.

Customer Solutioning&Business Impact Lead technical engagement with key customers across QSR, Foodservice, and B2B.

Translate customer briefs, issues, and challenges into innovation opportunities.

Drive co‑creation sessions, prototypes, and demonstrations.

Partner with commercial teams to support customer conversion and growth.

Team Leadership&Capability Building Manage and develop a team of 2–3 Solution Specialists.

Provide technical mentorship and coaching on product design and scale‑up.

Ensure adherence to development SOPs, documentation, and best practices.

Align and guide senior specialists and category managers under broader savoury agenda.

Scale‑Up&Manufacturing Integration Oversee translation from lab to pilot and plant scale.

Ensure formulations meet processing, cost, and manufacturability requirements.

Guide troubleshooting of scale‑up challenges across internal and external manufacturing.

Drive alignment between R&D, Quality, Regulatory, Operations, and supply teams.

Ingredient&System Strategy Define and optimise ingredient selection for performance and scalability.

Develop platform systems for reuse across multiple applications.

Evaluate supplier capabilities and ingredient alternatives.

Drive standardisation of blends and systems for efficiency.

Innovation&Knowledge Management Lead development of application knowledge and formulation databases.

Capture learnings from projects to accelerate future development.

Identify trends and translate into innovation pipeline.

Support regional projects and cross‑market initiatives.

Quality, Compliance&Governance Ensure all developments meet regulatory, food safety, and customer requirements.

Maintain documentation of formulations, specifications, and test results.

Ensure compliance with internal SOPs and development processes.

Requirements

Experience&Qualifications Minimum Degree in Food Science, Food Technology or related field.

15+ years experience in savoury and culinary product development.

Strong experience in culinary premixes, solutions, sauces, marinades, seasonings, etc.

Experience across QSR, Foodservice, and B2B applications.

Proven leadership of technical teams.

Technical Skills Deep understanding of ingredient functionality across systems.

Expertise in powders, emulsions, and liquid applications.

Strong capability in reverse engineering and sensory‑led development.

Experience in scale‑up and commercialization.

Leadership&Functional Skills Strong leadership and stakeholder management capability.

Ability to operate in fast‑paced, multi‑project environments.

Strong customer‑facing and communication skills.

Ability to translate technical outcomes into business value.

Other Requirements Willingness to travel (20–25%).

Able to adapt to fast paced working environment and new systems.

Reliable, proactive, and highly initiative.

Equal Opportunity Statement ofi is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to racial or ethnic origin, color, age, religion or belief, sex, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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