R&D Food Scientist

Starting Salary: £40,000 - £45,000 per annum Working Pattern: Monday to Friday | Site-based | Kent A rapidly growing food manufacturing business is looking to appoint an R&D Food Scientist to join its Innovation team. This is a hands-on development role for someone who understands the science behind food formulation but equally enjoys getting into the development kitchen, making products, running trials and solving problems in practice. Working closely with the Innovation Manager, you'll take recipes and product concepts through bench development, pilot-scale trials and factory scale-up, helping to understand how formulations behave as they move from small-scale development into commercial manufacturing. You'll work with ingredients, recipes and processing parameters to understand what is happening within a formulation, troubleshoot when something isn't working and make practical adjustments to improve product quality, consistency, stability and manufacturability. We're looking for a Food Scientist or experienced food development professional who enjoys experimenting, trialling, problem-solving and ultimately seeing a formulation successfully translate into commercial production. What You'll Be Doing • Develop and optimise food formulations and recipes through hands-on bench and pilot-scale development • Take recipes and concepts from initial development through trials, scale-up and commercial manufacture • Plan and carry out practical development work, including preparing, cooking and evaluating products yourself • Run pilot-plant trials to understand how formulations and ingredients behave under different processing conditions • Support factory trials and commercial scale-up, identifying and resolving issues as products move into manufacturing • Assess ingredients and raw materials, understanding their functionality and impact on finished product quality • Investigate formulation challenges and use a structured, scientific approach to identify practical solutions • Evaluate areas including texture, flavour, appearance, stability, consistency and manufacturability • Establish and refine processing parameters required to achieve consistent product performance at scale • Work closely with the Innovation Manager and colleagues across Technical, Quality, Operations, Engineering and Supply Chain • Capture learnings from development and manufacturing trials to continuously improve formulations and development processes • Maintain accurate recipes, formulations, trial records and development documentation • Manage multiple development projects simultaneously while maintaining clear priorities and momentum What's In It for You • Join a business investing massively in its future R&D and manufacturing capability • A genuinely hands-on R&D role where you'll spend time developing, trialling and scaling products rather than purely managing projects • The opportunity to work across the full development journey from early formulation through to commercial manufacturing • Exposure to pilot-scale development and factory scale-up within a growing food manufacturing business • Work closely with an experienced Innovation Manager while having ownership of your own development work • The opportunity to deepen your knowledge of ingredient functionality, formulation science and food processing Your Background • Previous hands-on experience within food product development, R&D, food technology is essential • A degree in Food Science, Food Technology or another relevant scientific discipline is required • Experience running or supporting product trials and taking products through factory scale-up • A good understanding of ingredient functionality and how raw materials influence finished product performance • Comfortable working hands-on in a development kitchen, laboratory, pilot plant or manufacturing environment • Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to investigate formulation or processing issues and identify practical solutions • Experience taking products from development through to commercial manufacture • Strong attention to detail with a structured and scientific approach to development work • Comfortable managing multiple development projects and priorities simultaneously • Proactive and self-sufficient, while equally comfortable working closely with the wider Innovation and manufacturing teams Join a Business That Invests in You This is an opportunity to join a growing food manufacturing business at an exciting stage of investment in its R&D and manufacturing capability. You'll have the opportunity to get genuinely hands-on with food development, working with recipes, ingredients and processing conditions and seeing your work progress from early trials through pilot scale and into commercial production. If you're a Food Scientist or experienced R&D professional who loves understanding why formulations behave the way they do, enjoys solving problems and wants to remain close to the practical side of food innovation, we'd love to hear from you