Customer R&D Specialist

Overview

As part of the R&D team, you lead technical product development and share deep product expertise across the organization. You act as a trusted partner to customers, guiding product selection, applications, and chocolate handling optimization to boost manufacturing efficiency. You will deliver technical support, troubleshoot on-site issues, and run training sessions to improve product performance. This role centers on building strong customer partnerships and driving continuous improvement, with a focus on scalable solutions and practical application.

Responsibilities

• Define recipe requirements from customer specs in collaboration with product experts and process engineers
• Communicate project status and content with customers and stakeholders
• Be on customer sites to support new product implementations and advise on business development
• Maintain customer relations and provide market and capability insights
• Overview customers’ capabilities, product portfolios, and upcoming launches
• Conduct application tests in the lab and with customers on chocolate, compounds, and fillings
• Provide on-site technical advice during trials and support smooth industrial scale-up
• Organize project teams and meetings for innovations or large projects
• Ensure regulatory compliance for new products
• Deliver application training to customers and internal teams
• Assess existing technology/equipment and stay informed on state-of-the-art possibilities
• Log trials and results in SFDC or other systems
• Promote new products through innovation days and customer visits
• Translate customer briefs into new or existing solutions
• Balance time/resource trade-offs, assess feasibility and risks, ensure business-standard compliance
• Collect customer feedback on samples/tests and define next steps in product creation
• With QA, make go/no-go decisions for production in case of out-of-spec (OOS) issues and report specifics to customers
• Drive continuous improvement in processes, technologies, and organization
• Own and autonomously manage the account

Key requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Food Science or similar field
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in the food industry
• Experience in Project Management
• Outstanding presentation skills
• Proven track record in continuous improvement management
• Experience in product development with strong application knowledge
• Experience in sales or client interaction
• Good knowledge of working tools (MS Office, Salesforce, SAP…)
• Fluent Business English
• Willingness to travel within the UK

• strong communication
• customer focus
• stakeholder management
• product development
• application testing and optimization
• trials management

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