Description

Workplace type: Hybrid – 4 days onsite /1 day remote from home

As the Senior Sensory Scientist, you will be responsible for designing sensory experiments to answer business questions. You will consult with key stakeholders to understand research needs, manage project execution, conduct statistical analysis, generate reports, and share findings with stakeholders. You will develop new sensory protocols and train sensory team members on these protocols to ensure high quality actionable data. This role reports to the Director of Global Sensory with a responsibility to support the Differentiated Services business unit.

What you will do:
Cross-Functional Consulting & Influence (40%)

• Act as a strategic thought partner to key stakeholders, shaping sensory vision and driving high-impact interpretation across Differentiated Services.
• Serve as the subject matter expert for Ingredion’s Differentiated Services, influencing key customer relationships and representing the company at high-level technical and industry forums.
• Provide sensory insights to customers and internal stakeholders though written reports and presentations.
• Interface with customer product development teams, being a trusted advisor on integrating sensory into the product development cycle.

Strategic Sensory Leadership (30%)

• Work with key stakeholders to develop new technical initiatives aimed at improving our predictive formulation capabilities.
• Oversee the development of new sensory methodologies.
• Work with the sensory laureate to integrate next generation technologies into the sensory team.
• Sit on cross functional working groups to ensure sensory is integrated into the Differentiated Services strategy.

Innovation & Thought Leadership (20%)

• Demonstrate scientific and technical leadership in sensory research to internal partners and external customers.
• Promote innovative approaches to integrating sensory science into predictive formulation workflows.
• Identify insights and trends from metadata analysis, build predictive model, and create interactive toolkits

Capability Building (10%)

• Lead the Differentiated Services mentorship program, focusing on building technical and career guidance with geographical sensory team members.
• Lead internal training programs and knowledge-sharing initiatives.

Requirements

What you will bring:

• Ph.D or M.S. degree in Food Science or relevant sensory coursework, graduate degree 
  preferred.
• 8+ years of relevant sensory and consumer research experience.
• Strong statistical understanding with the ability to interpret results in a business context.
• Ability to independently design experiments to answer research questions.
• Panel leadership experience, including training and mentoring panelists.
• Comfortable pivoting quickly between business priorities and projects.
• Highly detail-oriented with strong organizational and planning skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrates consumer empathy and applies insights to research outcomes.

Who you are:

• A deep interest in understanding the human perception of food and beverage
• Strong quantitative reasoning skills
• Ability to work collaboratively with peers and others
• Creative problem-solver with a continuous improvement mindset
• Desire to create research with impact