R&D Food Scientist

R&D Food Scientist – Bakery Product Development

New Jersey | Relocation Assistance Available | $110K–$130K + Benefits

Ready to turn your bakery science expertise into products people actually eat?

Gpac is partnering with a growing food ingredients company seeking an R&D Food Scientist to join its New Jersey team. This is an exciting opportunity for a hands-on food scientist who enjoys formulating, experimenting, troubleshooting, and taking products from the bench to full-scale production.

If you have a background in bakery product development, baking ingredients, or food ingredients and want to play a key role in bringing new products to market, this could be a great next step.

What You’ll Do

You’ll have a hands-on role in developing and improving bakery products and ingredient systems while working closely with R&D, Operations, Quality, Regulatory, and Procurement.

• Develop and optimize bakery products including breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, tortillas, and other baked goods
• Create and modify formulations based on product performance, cost, quality, and customer requirements
• Take products from bench-top development → pilot trials → full-scale commercialization
• Troubleshoot manufacturing challenges involving mixing, dough performance, color, texture, variability, and ingredient functionality
• Evaluate ingredients such as flours, starches, enzymes, emulsifiers, hydrocolloids, leavening systems, colors, and natural additives
• Design and execute experiments to improve texture, flavor, shelf life, consistency, and performance
• Conduct sensory evaluations, shelf-life studies, stability testing, and plant trials
• Partner with Operations and QA to successfully launch new formulations into production
• Support ingredient optimization, reformulation, and cost-reduction initiatives
• Develop product specifications, batch sheets, SOPs, and processing parameters
• Support supplier qualification and validation of new ingredients
• Train Production and QA teams on new products, processes, and best practices
• Lead and support continuous improvement projects using data-driven approaches
• Ensure products meet food safety, regulatory, customer, and quality requirements

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Baking Science, Food Technology, Food Engineering, or related field
• 3–5+ years of food science/product development experience, ideally within bakery ingredients, food ingredients, or CPG
• Strong knowledge of bakery ingredient functionality and formulation
• Hands-on understanding of mixing, fermentation, proofing, baking, and cooling
• Experience taking products through scale-up, plant trials, and commercialization
• Knowledge of dough rheology, texture analysis, and shelf-life optimization
• Experience troubleshooting bakery production issues
• Working knowledge of GMPs, HACCP, food safety, and regulatory requirements
• Clean-label formulation or ingredient replacement experience is a plus
• A hands-on, collaborative approach and the ability to manage multiple projects

What’s in It for You?

• $110,000–$130,000 salary
• Relocation assistance to New Jersey
• Comprehensive benefits package
• Advancement and career growth opportunities
• Opportunity to work on new product development and commercialization
• A highly collaborative role with visibility across R&D, Operations, Quality, Regulatory, and Procurement
• The chance to make a direct impact on products and processes from concept through commercialization

Ready to Make Your Mark in Bakery R&D?

If you're a food scientist who loves formulation, innovation, problem-solving, and seeing your work move from the lab into production, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply today or reach out to Brittany at brittany.hamilton@gogpac.com for more information! 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, age, color, sex (including pregnancy), religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, military status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable laws or regulations.

GPAC (Growing People and Companies) is an award-winning search firm specializing in placing quality professionals within multiple industries across the United States since 1990. We are extremely competitive, client-focused and realize that our value is in our ability to deliver the right solutions at the right time.