Chilled/Fresh Dairy Expert

Chilled/Fresh Dairy Expert

The Chilled/Fresh Dairy Expert is the primary knowledge holder for fermented and chilled dairy products in R&D for our Business Group Europe, and serves as a business partner for driving innovation, ensuring quality and efficiency, and delivering technical solutions. Acting as the first point of contact, the expert provides specialized support for innovation and renovation projects, up- and down- scaling, and resolving technical challenges. Collaborating closely with the team lead, this role helps translate commercial strategies into a comprehensive technology roadmap, leads technology projects to generate new insights, builds external collaborations (e.g., suppliers and academia), and actively promotes knowledge development within the domain of chilled and fermented dairy.

Wat we vragen

Candidate requirements

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in an R&D environment, with expertise in chilled and fermented dairy product development.
• Master’s degree in food science, dairy technology, or a related field; a PhD is a plus.
• Proven experience in innovation, renovation, value engineering, and troubleshooting for fermented or chilled dairy products.
• Strong understanding of dairy ingredients, processing technologies, and regulatory requirements relevant to fermented dairy.
• Experience with intellectual property development and management.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across multifunctional teams and external stakeholders.

Competencies

Builds strong relationships with key stakeholders, including senior management, internal teams, and external partners, ensuring alignment of technical inputs with strategic goals.

Proactively collaborates with team members by providing technical expertise and key input that yield tangible and meaningful outcomes for their projects.

Effectively brings and translates technical knowledge and insights into actionable contributions to the technology and innovation roadmap.

Identifies root causes of technical challenges, applies strong problem-solving skills, and collaborates with cross-functional teams.

Able to navigate through high complexity assignments, performs effectively in dynamic, fast-paced environments by making clear decisions in ambiguous situations, balancing priorities, and adapting to evolving challenges with a solutions-focused mindset.

Wat we bieden

• A good primary and secondary remuneration package and work life balance.
• A meaningful job, contributing to providing better nutrition for the world.
• Not just a job but a career, starting in a team that highly values your development and growth opportunities.
• Hybrid way of working (good balance of working from home vs from office).
• An international company with strong Dutch heritage.

Vacaturetekst

As a development expert your accountabilities are:

Innovation

Contribute as a trusted business partner to the development and execution of the BG Europe innovation roadmap, Chilled Dairy technology roadmap, and Joint Programs that align with business goals and deliver meaningful results.

Collaborate with product developers to drive innovation and renovation projects, providing technical expertise to create robust and impactful solutions.

Scout external developments (e.g., suppliers, competitors, academic research) to identify opportunities for NPD and value engineering.

Collaboration

Collaborate with Supply Chain and QA teams to optimize processes, improve operational efficiency, address operational challenges, and support troubleshooting (RCA). Actively contribute technical and creative input in VICO ideation sprints, focusing on ideas that improve efficiency and add value across operations and product innovation.

Build relationships with external manufacturers and evaluate their capabilities to identify co-manufacturing opportunities.

Knowledge

Create, secure and share impactful knowledge in the domain of fermented dairy and chilled dairy by creating and delivering internal training programs that provide clear benefits for R&D, Supply Chain and/or marketing teams.

Develop, document, and share best practices for fermented dairy to ensure consistent knowledge transfer and application, ensuring solutions directly address business needs and enhance the Chilled Dairy team’s effectiveness.

Build and maintain strong partnerships with suppliers of fermentation cultures, proactively aligning on challenges and co-developing innovative, business-driven solutions.

Own the IP portfolio for fermented and chilled dairy, identify opportunities to innovate and protect the FC’s competitive advantage.

Bij FrieslandCampina geloven we in een werkomgeving waar iedereen zich hun volledige en authentieke zelf kan voelen en in hun kracht wordt gezet om het beste uit zichzelf te halen. We omarmen elkaars verschillen en ontvangen graag je sollicitatie, ongeacht je geslacht, geloof, afkomst, seksuele voorkeur, leeftijd, beperking, of nationaliteit. Als wie wij zijn bij jou past, moedigen we je aan om te solliciteren, ook als je niet zeker weet of je aan alle eisen voldoet.

Ons team

All employees at FrieslandCampina share a single passion: Nourishing by Nature. With our brands - over 30 - we reach millions of people in more than 100 countries. FrieslandCampina consists of a number of business groups and operating companies with offices all around the world. The Chilled Dairy development team is part of the Food & Beverage business group. The team is located in Wageningen (The Netherlands) and consists of in total 13 colleagues (the broader team consists of more than 40 colleagues) with very diverse and international backgrounds.

Within the Chilled Dairy development team, we are responsible for all fresh dairy products (excluding cheese, butter and meat alternatives) for the European business-to-consumer market. Our main focus is on the development of healthy, nourishing, and indulgent products, such as (high protein) yoghurt, drinking yoghurt, Greek style yoghurt, quark, milks and desserts.

For 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.