Senior Sensory & Product Experience Specialist

Nestlé’s Research & Development Center is our regional powerhouse driving innovation in food, beverage, and pharmaceutical science. Backed by our global Nestlé R&D organization, we lead breakthrough discoveries that are both good for consumers and the planet. Our team of experts range from product developers to engineers, working across our portfolio of food, beverage, infant nutrition, and health science to create leading-edge products and services.

As part of our organization, you will use your entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to excellence to unlock the power of food and provide premium value.
This position is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship.

Position Summary:

The Nestlé Development Center in Marysville is responsible for the ideation, renovation, and development of new and existing coffee and coffee enhancing products, business models, and services for the world’s biggest coffee brands. Our mission is to delight the consumer wherever, whenever, and however by delivering moments of genuine pleasure and indulgence - to achieve this we are committed to our talented, creative, and motivated team.

If you are excited and passionate about coffee and its potential, come join us and help create the future. We are on the lookout for a Senior Specialist in Sensory & Product Experience to collaborate with project teams to lead sensory product research in support of Nestlé brands and R&D programs to drive consumer-centricity and guide decision-making. The Senior Specialist demonstrates thought leadership for the function and knowledge to ensure success in product innovation and renovation in a dynamic, international environment.

Primary Responsibilities:

Provide consumer & sensory insights to innovation and renovation projects:
Assure early-phase collaboration between R&D and business to leverage existing category consumer knowledge. Operate as a promoter of consumer perspective throughout the innovation / renovation development process. Be a key consumer/sensory business partner to R&D and Business Category Leads and help define questions and outcomes from a consumer and sensory insight perspective to add value and influence project success. Provide guidance on choice and use of sensory and consumer research methodologies.

Lead design, execution, statistical analysis, and visual storytelling to generate actionable insights for product design. Play an active part in cross-functional project teams, from front-end innovation until launch. Ensure sensory & consumer knowledge is transferred effectively to industrialization, acting as an advisor in the setup of consumer-centric sensory specifications. Build sensory & consumer preference knowledge on product experience:

Build and cultivate foundational knowledge of the product category and target consumers with a focus on how/why consumer perceive and interact with products to generate relevant insights. Develop knowledge and promote best practices for delivering taste preferences, sensory cues, and benefits to ensure effective product and package design. Uncover learnings and understanding from internal and external sources (trends, competitive benchmarking, preferences, sensory mapping, etc.)

to inform product and packaging design to maximize the consumer experience.  Apply strong analytical knowledge (i.e., design of experiment, statistics) and understanding to translate consumer responses into key drivers of liking and key sensory attributes to delight consumers. Manage and execute consumer and sensory research studies with excellence:  Lead complex projects of strategic importance, by designing fit-to-purpose sensory science, consumer research methodologies (quantitative and qualitative), procedures, and processes to provide key insights to…