R&D Ingredient Application Specialist Bakery Products

Share our taste for life
We want to empower you to achieve this mission with us. We value you as a person and actively support you on your professional journey, while caring about your future. Join our big little family and let’s make products for you and the world to love. Do you share our taste for life?

Your role

As R&D Ingredient Application Specialist,  you act as a the “GO TO” expert on the functionality and quality of key ingredients (like flour, chocolate, compounds and fillings…) for the Bakery products Business of Vandemoortele and you provide technical support to R&D- team colleagues and different departments such as procurement, production, quality etc… and external suppliers. You will own the expertise of specific ingredient technologies. 
In product development, you will be leading specific strategic initiatives in value engineering over all our  categories, to come to cost optimizations, performance improvements in our total range of frozen bakery products
You are an active member of the R&D team in the Bakery Products Division. Our R&D Team’s purpose: You will be part of passionate high performing R&D team, that generates innovative bakery solutions through technological knowledge to create success of our partners and to fulfil consumer needs. For this role you will be working at our R&D centre based in Izegem, Belgium. 

Your key responsibilities:

• You are leading value engineering projects via ingredient optimizations and harmonizations to reduce product formulation and production costs while maintaining or enhancing quality and compliance
  • Analyze ingredients, formulations and production processes to identify opportunities for cost savings and efficiency.
  • Identify opportunities for recipe simplification, substitution of high-cost ingredients, and process improvements using scientific and data-driven approaches.
  • Conduct cost-benefit analyses and present value improvement proposals to stakeholders, ensuring alignment with brand and customer expectations.
  • Support implementation of new processes, ingredients, or materials, including lab and industrial trials, sensory testing, and shelf-life studies.
• Partner with procurement team to evaluate suppliers form a technical standpoint
  
  • Approve alternative suppliers and ingredients to mitigate risk and reduce costs without compromising quality.
  • Perform and report on supplier performance, including benchmarking according to different key variables: Analytics, product quality and performance, capacity ,…
• Incorporate and validate new raw materials/ingredients for Bread, Pastry (sweet and savoury), Sweet Treats and Italian Savoury factories
  
  • Communicate the specific need to the suppliers
  • Coordinate trials and actions between factory, supplier, purchasing, quality and R&D departments
  • Agree on specification and control plan for both supplier and Vandemoortele site 
• Follow up the quality of the raw materials and act as the technical link between supplier and production site 
  
  • Advise on quality control plan on site
  • In case of non-compliance, cooperate together with the local QA teams on action plans
• You actively participate in the improvement of production processes by proposing appropriate solutions in relation to ingredients
• Create a field of expertise in the analytical field within the laboratory in R&D
  
  • Design and execute trials to assess ingredient functionality (e.g., dough rheology, volume, texture, moisture, shelf life).
  • Use lab and pilot-scale equipment to simulate production environments.
  • Analyze results and make data-driven recommendations for raw material adjustments.
• You build up specific technical and scientific knowledge in your specific domain via literature, patents, seminars, institutes, etc. 

Our R&D Team’s purpose: You will be part of passionate high performing R&D team, that generates innovative bakery solutions through technological knowledge to create success of our partners and to fulfil consumer needs.

What’s in for you?

• You will join our big little family: Our associates are the beating heart of our company, they bring the flavour to our organisation. We cherish each member, prioritising their well-being and supporting their professional journey.
• We value you as a person: At Vandemoortele we value each one of our associates and recognise their unique contributions to team successes. You will have flexible working hours.
• We care for your future and we support your professional journey: We believe in the power of our associates and the value of their actions and support their career aspirations by offering internal mobility and promotional opportunities. We embrace individual ambitions and entrust our associates to take ownership.
• We make products for you to love: We are a team of passionate food enthusiasts. In our mission to shape a tasty future we strive to create a wide range of food solutions that connects people, cultures and traditions.
  
  

Are you the one we’re looking for?

• You hold a Master’s degree in food technology or bio-engineering or other related fields and you have at least 3 to 5 years of relevant practical work experience within the food industry . 
• Relevant experiences with food ingredients in bakery: flour, chocolate compounds and filling and/or other bakery ingredients are a strong asset
• You have a solid understanding of bakery formulations, process technologies, ingredient functionality. 
• You dispose of good developed analytical thinking skills and you are open-minded in your thinking and acting. You have a Can Do approach
• Analysing data and processes energise you and you are familiar with statistical analysis of complex data sets
• You apply rigid project management skills
• You have a mature business personality, and you are able to challenge cross functional colleagues and managers
• You’re able to work in a full autonomous way and are an ultimate team player and the same time you can guide virtual project teams
• You are proactive, energetic and dare to challenge others. At the same time, you are pragmatic, problem-solving and looking for initiative
• As a food lover, you are passionate by food and food technology
• You have excellent interpersonal and communication skills in English (written and verbal)
• You are willing to travel 35% of your time 

Join us in making sweet memories
We look forward to welcoming you to our delicious journey
Submit your updated CV and compelling cover letter (optional) highlighting your relevant experience and motivation.
For questions or additional information, mail us: joselien.neyt@vandemoortele.com