Research & Development Specialist - Esbjerg, Denmark

C&D Foods is one of Europe's leading Own Label Pet food manufacturers producing a range of Wet and Dry Pet foods. Founded in 1969, and now part of The APB Food Group, C&D Foods has grown to become one of the industry's leading pet food producers. C&D Foods has 7 production facilities across 6 Countries (Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Spain, The Netherlands and the UK) and 2 sales offices (Germany and Italy). C&D Foods' Head Office is in Mullingar, County Westmeath. Turnover is in excess of €300 million.

The primary focus of the R&D Specialist will be to develop new products from initial concept to plant approval in conjunction with Group R&D teams ensuring it is aligned to the brief and Customer expectations.

Internal relationships: Development & Innovation Mangers, Site General Manager, Group Head of R&D

Key responsibilities:

• Ensure all NPD products run efficiently in production and there is a formal handover of new products to site operational teams.
• Participate in site and Group NPI.
• Attend production trials where required and co-ordinate sample dispatch to customers and group for approval.
• Trial of new or alternative ingredients.
• Develop detailed reports on trials and circulate to site and group teams where relevant.
• Validate recipes developed by group to ensure they are nutritionally complete, of required palatability, legally compliant and efficient on site.
• Develop ambitious value engineering and continuous improvement plans with Group Manager to ensure cost effective options are continuously challenged, tested, and implemented.
• Support Group teams with recipe amendments based on raw material availability.
• Participate in site audits to cover clauses specific to R&D function and responsibility.
• Co-ordinate raw materials and finished product for analysis against site, customer, and group plan.
• Participate in customer visits and presentations where required.
• Management of site product portfolio.
• Support customer queries relevant to Recipe Design
• Ensure thorough knowledge of relevant legislation within the R&D remit
• Weekly plans and reports

Personal Competencies and Qualifications:

Food Science degree or related degree

Key Competencies:

• Newly graduated or few years of experience in a food manufacturing environment. Relevant training will be offered.
• Experience in Nutritional recipe design and compliance desirable but not required.
• Experience in Constraints and opportunities and how to approach value engineering desirable but not required.
• Through a high level of computer literacy and competency (Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project), you demonstrate numerical ability to record, interpret and analyze key process data.
• You have excellent interpersonal skills and a desire to drive continuous improvement.

More Information

For more information about the position you are welcome to contact hiring manager Group Head of R&D, James Platt, [email protected], Mobile +353 87 1487944. We kindly request that you do not send applications by any means other than via our website.

At C&D Foods we are convinced that diversity contributes to building a more profitable and attractive company and we strive to be a good role model regarding diversity. C&D Foods works actively for all employees to have the same opportunities and rights regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, transgender identity or expression, religion or other belief, disability or sexual orientation.