At C16 Biosciences, we believe that palm oil doesn’t have to be a problem. Our team is building a sustainable and environmentally-friendly alternative to “conflict palm oil,” which relies on tropical rainforest deforestation and emits over 1 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. C16 Bio’s technology platform harnesses naturally-occurring biological processes, improved by the latest innovations in strain engineering, fermentation, and low-cost lipid extraction to produce a better kind of palm oil.
We are looking for a rockstar food scientist & product developer who will lead the ingredient development work for our fats & oils in food. You will be the in-house expert on the functionality of fats & oils in various food applications, and serve as the link between our commercial and technical teams regarding the gold standard specifications for our oil. You will build out our first in-house food lab, and create formulations to demonstrate success of our oil across multiple product categories. You will use your learnings to help guide commercial strategy and further iterations of our product. You will be a critical piece of shaping the success of the company’s journey into replacing palm oil in food.
This role will be based in New York, NY. We offer relocation support.
What you’ll do
- Lead build out of a bench scale food science lab, including determining analytics and equipment requirements
- Rapidly and iteratively prototype with C16’s fats & oils across multiple food categories, including emerging categories
- Play a critical role in defining our target oil specifications to ensure success in priority applications
- Understand the structure-function relationship for fats & oils in various product applications, and translate that into feedback to inform desired ingredient specs
- Create novel fat & oil blends as solutions for priority applications
Who you are:
- Intellectually curious – you always ask why, and are quick to put your ideas into practice to test your hypotheses
- Solution oriented – you are always thinking about how we can make things better
- Creative – you can think outside of the box when faced with roadblocks
- Able to roll with the punches – we are a startup, and you’re able to adjust flexibly to the organization’s needs
- Sustainability-driven – we care deeply about sustainability in food, and hope you do too
- Comfortable diving into new territory – you are excited to dive into learning and become an expert in new-to-you food categories
Preferred Qualifications and Experience:
- 3+ years of experience in food science and product development
- Experience working across multiple food categories, such as plant-based meats, confectionary, bakery products
- Experience working with a variety of fats & oils, with specific experience on palm oil and palm oil fractions a big plus
- Degree in Food Science, Masters Degree preferred
