Plant Manager - Research and Development Pasta Specialist, Mount Edgecombe

Pasta Specialist : Research and Development Manager

The Ideal Research and Development Specialist should have previous experience from a Pasta Factory with a demonstrated history of working as the Plant or Factory Manager .
Must be Skilled in Sensory Evaluation, Management, Continuous Improvement, Product Development, and Research and Development (R&D).

Education:

Bachelor's degree (B.S.) or equivalent combination of education and experience.
B.S. degree in nutrition, food science, or food technology is preferred.
Minimum 5-7 years related experience in Research and Development or related field.
Ability to read, analyze in English, French/ Portuguese / Spanish would be an advantage
Travel is essential , as the candidate must be willing to travel through Africa, Middle East and the world - at least 30-40 % of your time will be spent travelling.

Role and Responsibilities:

• Understand raw materials, packages, and finished goods and processing, technical function of each material and effectiveness threshold in order to assess regulatory compliance.
• Perform activities relevant to the product development process, which may include but not limited to conceptualization, formulation and prototype evaluation, optimization and standardization, cost calculation, commercial translation and product launch.
• Select new materials and negotiate prices for new materials and current materials, updating material list or vendors as needed with the goal of reducing the cost of the current materials.
• Design and test products to ensure shelf life stability and all aspects of product (flavor, color and texture, nutritional content etc.).
• Conduct variety of applicable tests and analyses on products to determine inherent properties and present analysis of results to the department for further product development and improvement.
• Research consumer awareness or trends, relating to product development (including legal issues). Execution of research on consumer taste preference through validation internally and/or externally.
• Collaborate with process engineers, plant management, marketing specialists and external customers in order insure projects remain on schedule and within budget.
• Conduct production trials to ensure successful launch of new and revised products.
• Monitor production to confirm plant capability and conformance to design criteria and train plant operation.
• Understand and apply knowledge of federal, state, local and international government and industry regulations pertaining to standards on food safety, nutrition, food preparation and processing in the design and development of products to ensure compliance.
• Report and present oral and written updates including product demonstrations to team and customers.
• Prepare all necessary document such as, but not limited to, test report, Standard Formulation, Standard Process, any other necessary standard/process in commercialization and ensuring food safety.