Job Description
Job Title: R&D Food Scientist (Bi-Lingual English & Spanish)
Location: Chicago, IL
Hire Type: Direct Hire
Shift: 1st Shift | Monday–Friday
Compensation: $26.00/hour
Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), PTO
Language Requirement: Must be bilingual in English and Spanish
Must Have Experience: Research & Development within a food manufacturing environment
Job Summary:
Seeking a Bilingual Quality R&D Technician to support new product development, quality initiatives, and documentation management within a food manufacturing environment. This cross-functional role collaborates with Production, Quality, Operations, and suppliers to help launch new products while ensuring compliance with food safety and quality standards. Ideal candidates are organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable working in both lab and manufacturing settings.
Job Duties:
- Assist in new product development projects, supporting items such as snack products, flatbreads, and customer-branded formulations from concept through commercialization
- Perform bench-top, lab, and pilot plant trials, making formulation adjustments to achieve targeted taste, texture, nutrition, shelf life, and cost objectives
- Maintain and update technical documentation, including formulations, testing data, SOPs, product specifications, and change documentation
- Partner with Production, Quality Assurance, Packaging, and Operations teams to ensure successful product scale-up and manufacturability
- Support food safety, regulatory, and labeling compliance in accordance with company standards and customer requirements
- Conduct sensory testing, shelf-life analysis, and competitive product evaluations to support product improvements and development initiatives
- Communicate with ingredient and packaging suppliers regarding specifications, quality concerns, and corrective actions when needed
- Assist with supplier quality investigations, documentation reviews, and follow-up communication
- Provide bilingual communication support with vendors and suppliers in both English and Spanish
- Contribute to supplier qualification efforts, ingredient sourcing, and continuous improvement projects
Qualifications:
- 1–3 years of experience in food product development, R&D, or a similar role within a food manufacturing environment
- Bachelor’s degree preferred in Food Science, Food Technology, Chemistry, Nutrition, or a related discipline
- Bilingual in English and Spanish (written and verbal)
- Strong documentation, organization, and attention-to-detail skills
- Ability to communicate professionally with cross-functional teams and external suppliers
- Comfortable working in a hands-on, fast-paced manufacturing and R&D environment
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information.
Numbers & Facts
| Location | Chicago, IL |
| Industry | Staffing/Employment Agencies |
| Company Size | 500 to 999 employees |
| Year Founded | 1969 |
| Website | http://www.sterling-engineering.com |
About Company
Sterling Engineering has been a trusted partner for engineering, project management, and staffing solutions for over five decades. We provide exceptional engineering/technical recruitment and engineering project services to clients nationwide:
- Engineering & Technical Recruitment - With our focus on engineering, technical, and IT, Sterling has the in-depth knowledge, industry expertise, and robust employee pipeline it takes to rapidly find talent for even the most difficult to fill positions. Sterling’s extensive recruitment methodology allows us to engage the most talented employees in the marketplace. We offer exciting work and career-building opportunities for our candidates, along with expert support at every step of the process.
- Engineering Project Services – Our experienced, multi-disciplined team of project managers, engineers, and designers, led by licensed Professional Engineers (PE), provide project management, engineering, design, and Commissioning, Qualification, and Validation (CQV) to manufacturing, OEM, and R&D customers. We work on complex, highly technical projects across a number of industry sectors, and our ability to scale and seamlessly integrate at multiple levels of your organization is what differentiates us.
Sterling offers a unique combination of engineering solutions and Best of Staffing level service to help our clients and talent achieve their goals.
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