About this role

Are you interested in turning better-for-you ingredients into snacks and meals people actually want to eat again? We are recruiting on behalf of our client, an international food company that has opened a new Research & Development hub in Wageningen to expand its work on plant-based ingredients and functional food products. The team is building out its taste and flavour capability alongside a wider R&D roadmap, with a focus on healthier, more functional food solutions.

Your role in a nutshell:

As Food Technologist for Taste and Flavour, you will run both lab and kitchen-based experiments to understand how flavour behaves and interacts within snack and meal matrices, then use that understanding to develop plant-based, minimally processed, and nutritionally balanced products. The role centres on making better-for-you snacks genuinely enjoyable to eat, drawing on the science of taste compounds and mouthfeel formation, including how to suppress or mask off-notes.
You will also work directly with external partners such as universities, startups, and flavour houses to track new developments and bring solutions to current taste challenges. It is a hands-on, technical role that calls for close collaboration with marketing and production colleagues to bring scalable, high-quality products to market.

Key Responsibilities

Clean-Label Snack & Meal Innovation

Contribute to flavour component generation and flavour or masking solutions, from early concept through to commercial launch
Optimise the taste of plant-based, high-protein, and functional snacks, including bars, bites, and convenient meal formats
Support the development of better-for-you formulations that combine strong taste and mouthfeel with clean-label requirements
Safeguard sensory appeal throughout the development process

Ingredient Functionality & Sourcing

Work with natural ingredients to build label-friendly formulations
Liaise closely with flavour houses to evaluate new developments in line with the R&D roadmap

Consumer Insight & Market Trends

Work with the consumer insights team to ensure formulations match flavour and health expectations
Track emerging trends in plant-based, health-focused, and functional snacking

Regulatory Compliance & Labelling

Ensure formulations meet clean-label claims, nutrition labelling, and relevant food regulations

Qualifications & Skills

Master's or PhD in Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, or a related field
At least 3 years of experience in food R&D, ideally within plant-based foods
Strong knowledge of natural flavour component generation
Experience optimising flavour in plant-based products and masking off-notes
Experience working with flavour houses
Familiarity with current flavour and mouthfeel modulation technologies
Comfortable running sensory evaluations and interpreting the resulting data
Able to work cross-functionally with teams such as marketing and operations to bring products to market

Preferred

Experience designing and developing plant-based food products, particularly around flavour compound generation, targeted taste enhancement such as umami or kokumi, and off-note masking
Experience with clean-label product development

Nice to have

Experience with functional snacks and meals, such as protein bars, superfood blends, or prebiotic-rich snacks
Experience coordinating an internal sensory panel

What's On Offer

Salary range of 65.000 to 95.000 EUR annually, including the 8% holiday allowance, depending on the level of education (Master/PhD degree) and the years of experience
25 vacation days per year, on a full-time basis
Hybrid working: 4 days on-site, 1 day from home
1-year contract directly with our client
The chance to help shape taste and flavour strategy within a growing R&D team
A multidisciplinary, international working environment

Interested? Apply directly and we are looking forward to speaking with you!

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