Senior Data & Modelling Scientist

Our Hectar Laing Development Centre site is the beating heart of innovation at pladis, a dynamic hub where creativity, science, and consumer insight come together to shape the future of snacking. Home to our Innovation, R&D, Regulatory, and Technical Insights teams, this site supports both pladis Global and UK&I, driving progress across our sweet and savoury portfolios. With a state-of-the-art pilot plant and a culture of collaboration, High Wycombe is our centre of excellence for research and development. From the first spark of an idea to the final product on shelf, our teams work side by side to deliver exciting, high-quality snacks that delight consumers everywhere. It’s a place where every voice matters, and every innovation is powered by the passion and expertise of our people.

This is a critical role responsible for building analytical tools and models that translate technical results into innovative and sustainable systems that help to accelerate the idea to product process. This role will work closely with peers in the global Innovation & Technology team to ensure an agile flow of information from insights to industrial relevant outcomes. This role sits in the Global Innovation and Technology Team under the Breakthrough Product Director to ensure direct translation of opportunities against an ambitious and transformational breakthrough innovation strategy that is aligned to the growth ambition and sustainability aspirations of the company.

The role requires an individual who is competent and skilled at working across cultures and functions and collaborating to deliver with others. They need to be able to work effectively with external partners to identify appropriate opportunities and drive development of innovative solutions, best practice approaches and systems.

• Development and application of advanced modelling, statistical methods to accelerate product innovation.
• Improve ingredient and formulation understanding.
• Own design of experiments, predictive models, and learning cycles.
• Drive data governance, data quality, and modelling infrastructure.
• Ensure insights translate into faster, smarter technical decision-making.
• Develop solutions to technical hurdles.

Specifically on Innovation and Technology Data Modelling, we need to:

• Define and deliver a medium to long term roadmap and align an agenda to drive innovation sustainability and productivity – build the internal cross-functional expertise and relationships to deliver that agenda.
• Support the Global Procurement team as we build strong and mid-term Sourcing Strategies.
• Build strong collaborative relationships with Suppliers to capture the best practices on the market and monitor project implementation.

The role will report to the Global R&D Head of Cocoa Innovation. It is expected that the incumbent will work very closely with their counterparts across the Central Innovation & Technology team to effectively deliver the joint growth and transformation agenda and sustainability deliverables.

• Build and apply predictive models to understand ingredient interactions, product functionality, and clean-label substitution pathways—addressing rising consumer demand for healthier and sustainable products.
• Develop formulation optimization models that reduce physical experimentation and accelerate R&D cycle time.
• Partner with product developers to translate modelling outputs into actionable formulation and processing guidance.
• Develop machine learning models for forecasting, optimization, and scenario simulation across the Innovation and Technology breakthrough programs.
• Lead application of AI/ML tools in areas such as product and process prediction with primary focus in Cocoa and Chocolate.
• Guide teams on appropriate model governance, validation, and robustness.
• Design experiments (DoE) and multivariate studies to generate high-value datasets for modelling and scientific discovery.
• Build hybrid mechanistic + data-driven models to support shelf-life prediction, process optimization, and stability studies.
• Translate complex modelling outputs into visual, decision-ready insights for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Collaborate with external partners (universities, tech providers, suppliers) to bring in cutting-edge modelling capabilities.

Excellent core technical skills and be able to understand the needs of the business, to create exciting data and modelling technology agenda. The individual will be a self-starter and possess a drive for results.

Initial Telephone call with Talent Acquisition, 1st stage interview – 45 minutes competency-based interview based on our company values and your experiences, 2nd stage interview – 60 minutes – a technical interview to understand your skill set/case study or presentation interview, Final interview based on Leadership Success Model Assessment/role competencies. Pladis does also use both Psychometric and Aptitude tests to support our processes so you may be asked to complete these as part of your process. Some processes may differ, but we will keep you updated!

Annual Incentive Plan (AIP) – this is the business’s annual bonus scheme. Opportunity to self-enrol into Health Cash Plan. Private medical Insurance (if eligible). Enhanced parental leave and a supportive phased return-to-work program to help colleagues balance family and career. Life Assurance Cover upon enrolment to Stakeholder Pension Scheme.