Senior R&D Scientist

Senior R&D Scientist

Bel is part of a mission-driven, family-owned company with 160 years of innovation and social purpose, a presence in 120 countries, and a commitment to repositioning the role of snacking to help support a balanced diet. With beloved brands like Babybel®, GoGo squeeZ®, The Laughing Cow®, and Boursin®, Bel U.S. creates delicious fruit, veggie, and dairy portion-sized snacks that bring nourishment, joy, and convenience to everyday life.

Guided by the values of care, dare, and commit, Bel is committed to the Fight for Better Snacking—delivering accessible, portion-sized options while advancing sustainable innovation, healthier snacking, regenerative agriculture, circular economy, and community support.

The company has headquarters in Chicago and New York City and operates 4 manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI;
Brookings, SD;
Traverse City, MI; and Nampa, .

Job Description Summary

The Senior R&D Scientist leads the development, validation, and commercialization of new food products, recipes, processes, and product improvements for Bel's GoGo SqueeZ fruit-based snacking portfolio. This role manages complex local R&D projects with limited direction, partners cross-functionally with internal teams and external suppliers, and applies advanced food science expertise to deliver solutions that meet consumer expectations, business needs, food safety, quality, cost, and manufacturing requirements.

The position also supports continuous improvement, technical documentation, launch readiness, and team capability by serving as a strong technical role model and sharing expertise across projects. This is an on-site role based in Traverse City, MI.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Product and Process Development (35%)

• Lead development, validation, and commercialization of new food products, recipes, processes, and technologies from concept through launch.
• Translate marketing briefs, consumer needs, technical requirements, and business priorities into development plans, prototypes, timelines, and launch-ready solutions.
• Develop recipes and process parameters at bench, pilot, and industrial scale while ensuring alignment with food safety, quality, regulatory, cost, and operational requirements.
• Conduct pilot and industrial trials, write protocols, document results, evaluate product performance, and recommend next steps based on data and risk assessment.
• Evaluate physical, sensory, organoleptic, chemical, and shelf-life performance to confirm products meet expected functionality and consumer expectations.

Project Leadership and Cross-Functional Execution (25%)

• Manage complex local R&D projects with limited direction by defining scope, milestones, communication needs, risks, and delivery expectations.
• Partner with Marketing, Quality, Regulatory, Purchasing, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance, and Packaging Engineering teams to develop and launch commercially viable products.
• Identify and advance development plans and continuous improvement opportunities that support product quality, process reliability, cost optimization, and operational efficiency.
• Anticipate technical and execution risks, recommend practical contingencies, and influence project-level decisions using technical judgment and business awareness.

Technical Expertise and Continuous Improvement (20%)

• Apply advanced knowledge of fruit-based products, ingredients, formulation, processing, and manufacturing systems to resolve complex technical challenges independently.
• Evaluate, develop, and implement new food technologies, ingredients, processing methods, and equipment approaches with limited guidance.
• Maintain and expand ingredient, supplier, process, and competitive product knowledge through technical literature, supplier engagement, benchmarking, trade shows, and industry learning.
• Support optimization of existing products and processes, including quality improvement, cost reduction, production troubleshooting, and customer complaint resolution.

Documentation, Compliance, and Launch Support (15%)

• Create and maintain trial reports, product specifications, process documentation, ingredient documentation, nutritional inputs, label inputs, and…