Master Data Specialist

Company Profile

We are a global leader in food & beverage ingredients. Pioneers at heart, we operate at the forefront of consumer trends to provide food & beverage manufacturers with products and ingredients that will delight their consumers. Making a positive impact on people and planet is part of the delight. With a deep-rooted presence in the countries where our ingredients are grown, we are closer to farmers, enabling better quality, and more reliable, traceable and transparent supply.

Supplying products and ingredients at scale is just the start. We add value through our unique, complementary portfolio of natural, delicious and nutritious products. With our fresh thinking, we help our customers unleash the sensory and functional attributes of cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts and spices so they can create naturally good food & beverage products that meet consumer expectations.

Reporting to the VP Innovation, Head of NA CSC, we are seeking a detail-oriented and systems-savvy Master Data Specialist to bridge between Research & Development (R&D) food product development and Information Technology, ensuring that all ingredient data, recipes, formulations, specifications, and development documentation are accurately captured, structured, and accessible. This role supports the New Product Development (NPD) team by building and maintaining digital systems that organize critical technical information, enabling faster innovation, improved traceability, and better decision‑making across the organization.

This role is critical to ensuring data integrity across systems and supporting cross-functional teams in R&D, Quality, Procurement, and Regulatory Affairs.

Onsite presence 5 days a week is required for this role.

• Build, maintain, and continuously improve a centralized digital repository for ingredients, recipes, formulations, and process documentation.
• Create standardized naming conventions, metadata structures, and version‑control processes for all R&D documents.
• Ensure all ingredient specifications, COAs, nutritional data, allergen information, and regulatory documents are properly stored and linked.
• Maintain accurate version histories for formulas, prototypes, and scale‑up iterations.
• Partner with IT to configure or optimize PLM, ERP, or R&D data systems.
• Work closely with Food Scientists, Product Developers, and culinary teams to capture formulation changes, prototype notes, sensory results, and scale‑up learnings.
• Assist in documenting new ingredients, technologies, and processes evaluated during product development.
• Ensure all product specifications and development records comply with food safety and regulatory requirements.
• Translate R&D insights into structured data usable by Operations, QA, Regulatory, and Supply Chain.
• Serve as the R&D team’s point of contact for IT regarding system improvements, data migration, and digital tool adoption.
• Evaluate and recommend digital tools for recipe management, ingredient tracking, and documentation workflows.
• Train R&D staff on proper use of data systems and documentation standards.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Operations, QA, Regulatory, and Procurement to ensure data accuracy and alignment across departments.
• Support handoff of finalized formulas and specifications to manufacturing and commercialization teams.
• Work with suppliers to collect and maintain up‑to‑date ingredient documentation.
• Maintain and update ingredient and recipe records in systems such as Specright, SAP, Plex, and Genesis.
• Create and manage product and ingredient specifications, including nutritional and allergen information.
• Coordinate and validate Certificates of Analysis (COAs) from suppliers and internal labs.
• Support nutrition labeling by calculating values based on ingredient data and recipe formulations.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain and external partners to gather and validate data for non‑offi ingredients and ensure timely integration of third‑party data into internal systems.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for master data systems, supporting users and troubleshooting issues.
• Participate in data governance initiatives, including defining “done” criteria for…