Senior Development Specialist
The Development Specialist is part of the Proteins development team of FrieslandCampina Ingredients and oversees complex development projects, coordinating cross-functional teams to ensure successful implementation of new products and processes. With a strong foundation in food science or food technology, the specialist possesses extensive expertise in dairy proteins, combining both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Acting as a project manager, you collaborate effectively with various R&D groups and departments such as supply chain and product management, delivering pragmatic and economically viable solutions. This role also requires providing hands-on support when necessary. Ultimately, the Development Specialist plays a key role in advancing dairy protein innovations from laboratory research to full-scale factory production, enhancing the valorization of dairy streams.
What we ask
- Master’s degree in Food Science or Dairy Technology, or a related field with more than 7 years of experience.
- Demonstrated experience in milk protein development and functionality, particularly within the context of dairy proteins and a B2B innovation environment.
- Proven project management capabilities.
- Proficiency in experimental design, data analysis, and reporting.
- Experience with leading and organizing pilot and factory trials.
- Knowledge of food safety and risk assessment.
- Understands how other disciplines operate on a high level (way of working), e.g. (segment) marketing, product group management, sales, supply chain.
- Basic knowledge of nomenclature of marketing, sales, QA/RA, nutrition, finance, process technology.
- Advanced project management
- Effective and excellent verbal and written communication skills in English
- Resilient and problem solver
- Digitally savvy
What we offer
- Unique company culture of Dutch heritage and international presence.
- We offer great work life balance, and competitive salary & benefits package so you can enjoy it; Workweek of 40 hours, competitive pension scheme, holiday allowance of 8%, bonus scheme, flexible working hours and the ability to work from home.
- Diverse training and mentoring programs to help you grow on your own professional journey; Exceptional support of (cross disciplinary) movement within the company to broaden your knowledge and growth paths.
- A friendly and informal working environment, yet professional team members as sparring partners; Autonomy and trust to create longer term impact that helps bring better nutrition to the world.
Vacancy description
In this position, your tasks and responsibilities include:
- Manage multiple projects and provide coaching to team members, ensuring thorough documentation and alignment with all relevant stakeholders.
- Assume full responsibility for the clearance, validation, and implementation of new products and processes.
- Develop resource and budget plans for projects, delivering results within agreed timelines, budgets, and quality standards in collaboration with the team.
- Independently set up, plan, execute, analyze, and report on experiments, ensuring thorough documentation and data integrity.
- Keep protein product and process know how up to date by making use of knowledge management systems and SAP-PLM together with other disciplines (specification management, process technology, supply chain) including recipe and specification development.
- Work closely with cross-functional teams, including R&D, quality assurance/RA, marketing, product group management, and production, to drive product development initiatives.
- Develop and maintain internal relations and initiates, develops and maintains external relations at a tactical level.
- Stay up to date of trends and advancements in the organization, industry, and science, contributing to continuous improvement and innovation within the team.
Team Details
See all colleagues on LinkedInFor thousands of people every day, we are more than just a dairy company. To our farmers, our employees, the communities we serve, the businesses we work with and the people to whom we bring happiness, FrieslandCampina means something more. For them it's not just about what we do, but who we are.
We value talented people from any background who want to contribute to something bigger than themselves. We encourage all of our employees to make decisions that benefit our entire company. At FrieslandCampina we own our own career and act accordingly. We trust you to make a difference in your job and influence the bigger picture. Working at FrieslandCampina means you are contributing to a better world.
You will be a member of the cluster Proteins within the FrieslandCampina Ingredients development team. The position is based in Wageningen, the Netherlands, in the FrieslandCampina Innovation Centre. The Proteins team comprises a mix of highly skilled experts, project managers and development specialists. The dairy protein ingredients we develop and maintain are targeted at the markets Early Life Nutrition, Medical Nutrition and Performance & Active Nutrition.