Lead Product Development Scientist

Job Title: Lead Product Development Scientist (M/F/d) full time
- Location: Berlin, Germany (remote not possible)
- Starting Date: As early as possible
- Duration: Unlimited

**Company Description**:
At Bosque Foods, our vision is to accelerate the world’s transition to an environmentally sustainable, equitable, and animal-free food system.

Our mission is to create the next generation of meat alternatives, starting with whole-cut meat products grown naturally from fungal mycelium. We aim to create better-than-meat products that deliver on the entire taste experience, nutrition, and price of traditional meat without compromise.

Founded in 2020, Bosque Foods is the first European fungi-based meat alternative company focusing entirely on the whole-cut meat segment. After graduating from the world’s leading biotech accelerator program, IndieBio in New York City, we are now opening our lab in Berlin, Germany.

Tasks

We are looking for an experienced and mission-aligned scientist to join Bosque Foods as Lead Product Development Scientist.

The core responsibility for this role is to research and develop innovative solutions to creating our whole-cut fungi-based meat-alternatives. We are looking for someone with a proven track record in new food product development, in particular with experience in developing meat alternatives (bonus points if mycelium-based).

Ideally you combine a strong food technology/science/chemistry background with scientific expertise in the development of innovative meat alternatives and profound knowledge of texture technology and sensory science. You should be a leader who can inspire, generate ideas, manage a team, and drive our novel products forward.

You would be joining a very ambitious, hard-working, and mission-driven team that likes to have fun while developing something game-changing. Today, we are pushing to accelerate the speed of our product development. We are now looking for someone who can thrive in this demanding startup environment, work well under pressure, and is willing to put in the time and energy to bring our products to the next level

**Role & Responsibilities**:

- Lead applied research projects to develop new, delicious and nutritious fungi-based whole-cut meat alternatives
- Work in close relationships with internal and external R&D teams
- Research and develop new food technologies and product building blocks, including flavor & texture interactions
- Design, conduct, and analyze sensory and analytical experiments
- Proactively collaborate cross-functionally and manage multiple projects that adhere to fast timelines

**Requirements**:
**Must-Have**:

- Masters / PhD in Food Chemistry, Food Biotechnology, Food Science, Food Process Engineering or related branches
- 2-5 years of experience in food product development or food manufacturing, ideally with min. 1 year of experience in the development of meat alternatives
- Strong technical competency (texture optimisation, flavor reaction chemistry, sensory analysis) along with hands-on experience in the formulation of meat alternatives
- Excellent understanding of interactions between different food ingredients or ingredient systems
- Proven skills to analyze and report test results from trials to extract and effectively share new insights with the wider technical team
- Creative and collaborative problem solver
- Excellent communications skills with the ability to link with internal and external stakeholders
- Growth mindset: Self-starter with the capacity to thrive in a fast-paced and challenging startup environment, doing what needs to be done for the business regardless of your title
- English language skills required

**Great-to-Have**:

- Experience in HACCP
- Experience in converting filamentous fungi into meat-alternatives
- Experience in developing off-flavor remediation technology
- Experience in scaling up products through pilot production (bonus points if experienced in scaling up to demo or commercial production)

**Benefits**:

- Opportunity to join a dynamic and diverse mission-driven team with sky-high ambitions to build the future of food
- Chance to shape and co-create scientific strategy at an early-stage
- Work in our brand new lab in the centre of Berlin within walking distance of tons of cafes, restaurants, bars and parks
- Last but not least, the opportunity to work in an innovative, high-impact environment with flexible working hours, mínimal hierarchy and endless growth opportunities