Group Leader - Sweet Goods

Sweet Goods Technical Team Lead – Cincinnati, Ohio

Reporting to a Technical Director in this Cincinnati, Ohio based onsite role, you will assist the director to set strategy and business direction while leading a team of 4–6 technical professionals specializing in flavor creation and application. You will ensure team performance aligns with technical and commercial goals while driving project excellence and innovation. You will assist to grow the segment by achieving new wins with current customers and new business opportunities.

Our Sweet Goods segment covers a vast range of product types, from baked goods such as biscuits, crackers and cereals, to confectionery such as chewing gum, chocolate, and sweets. Even within such a broad segment offering, our focus remains constant co‑creating with customers and external partners to delight consumers with irresistible products.

• Customer Relationship and Technical Engagement:
  Use insight and relationship understanding to uncover new business opportunities and identify solutions. Translate customer needs into potential project briefs or proposals. Build trust‑based relationships with technical counterparts at customer organizations to position us as a long‑term innovation partner. Coordinate insights from customer interactions with both the technical team and account managers to help prioritize opportunities with the highest return.
  
  Strategically align with customers processing capabilities to create proactive presentations.
• Collaboration and Partnership:
  Collaborate with account managers to create proactive business development plans for strategic accounts. Be the technical contact at strategic customer accounts and promote our value proposition through expertise rather than purely commercial negotiation. Engage customers in technical discussions to uncover deeper process pain points or innovation opportunities. Be the credible "technical translator" between the customer's R&D/production teams and our technical team.
  
  Work with marketing team to gather industry intelligence and competitor activities.
• Team Leadership and Project Preparedness:
  Contribute to internal training or toolkits for broader team understanding of technical customer needs. Provide applicable insights to application teams to develop relevant product demonstrations. Advise and lead validation of selected technologies in applications replicating customers processing conditions. Oversee Sweet Goods application labs within approved capital budgets. Ensure equipment capability, process reliability, and technical preparedness for successful project execution.

• Bachelor's Degree in Food Science, Biology, or Business with relevant experience (advanced education helpful)
• 10+ years' experience in Food Flavors
• 4+ years' experience in Leadership within Sweet Goods (helpful)
• Able to travel up to 30%

Benefits include Major Medical, Dental, Vision, Life and Disability Insurance, Parental Leave and a High Matching 401k.

Target base pay is $120k – $140k per year. Compensation includes an annual base salary and a bonus based on performance.