Natural Development is a small team of multi-talented food scientists, chefs, quality assurance experts, and operations specialists dedicated to helping companies develop and launch innovative food and beverage products from start to finish. Our main competency is food and beverage recipe development, so this position is located in a fully outfitted food lab in Boulder, CO.

Never heard of us? We’re not surprised. We're a small-and-mighty team of food scientists, chefs, quality-assurance experts, operations specialists, and marketers dedicated to helping food companies develop and launch innovative food products from start to finish. We love working in the background ensuring that our clients get all of the credit. We have helped some of the largest companies in the natural food and beverage space, as well as several rising stars. Our efforts have resulted in multiple awards for our clients and we pride ourselves on a stellar experience from start to finish.

We are looking to fill a truly unique position combining technical, culinary, and market research. You will work with an excellent team of creative, supportive and enthusiastic individuals in a relaxed environment. You’ll have the best of both worlds, working with an incredible team as well as an individual contributor. This role will directly impact and shape our projects and creative front-end process. 

The Job:

This role will have you working 50% on creative culinary and sensory science support, and 50% on product development for client projects. 

• Work collaboratively with a team of food scientists and chefs on evaluation and development of new, innovative natural products.
• Utilize culinary and scientific approaches regarding R&D technical functions such as benchtop development, sensory science, food safety and shelf life testing.
• Ideate and develop new recipes and concepts, using a range of research methods including trend-mapping and utilizing consumer 
• Conduct internal testing and validation of recipes and product formulations using sensory methods, consumer research and culinary expertise. 
• Lead sensory tastings and product cuttings for internal team, clients, and vendor partners. 
• Source quality ingredients and qualify new ingredient suppliers.
• Act as a technical resource to support project culinary needs. 
• Utilize computer formulation software to create, document and update formulations.
• Assist in developing comprehensive product specifications, including formulation data, nutritional guidelines, food safety and sensory details. 
• Communicate clearly and efficiently with our clients and project manager about timelines and project changes.

About you:

• ​​Education: Culinary Degree or Culinary Degree in progress
• Proficient and creative knowledge in food chemistry, formulation, and sensory. Understanding of statistical sensory methods is a plus. 
• Excellent interpersonal and team communication skills for working with internal and external teams.
• Ability to manage project workload to balance changing priorities and drive key projects to completion.
• Self-starter, who takes initiative and embodies critical attention to detail, project timelines and documentation
• Strong interest in staying up-to-date about new technologies, ingredients, processes and trends.
• Passion for food, innovation and making an impact through the work we do for our clients. 
• Ability to travel to production runs or client meetings up to 15%.

Bonus if you have:

• Majority of experience in the Natural category
• Beyond basic knowledge of Google office (Drive, Docs, Sheets)