Food Developer

Fifth Season is creating a new category of fresh foods. Our cutting-edge indoor farms deliver a whole new experience of freshness and quality made possible by robotics and AI. We grow exclusively in local communities because we’re on a mission to create a new season where people are reconnected to their food and those who grew it.

Fifth Season is looking for a passionate fresh food lover to support our expanding business as a Food Developer. This individual is responsible for developing and executing product strategies to help drive the business forward across multiple channels. This position will interface across marketing, operations, engineering, culinary, supply chain, and grow science.

Fifth Season is changing fresh food with flavorful products that last weeks longer than the flavorless, slimy products typically found in the market. We need someone who understands the needs of our business and is excited to dig into the details and data. You will be the first hire on the food products team, and we expect that you will play an integral role in shaping our rapidly expanding organization.

What you'll work on:

Drive New Product Development and Launch

• Lead technical delivery of projects from ideation through launch with cross-functional leadership of timeline and deliverables (e.g. formulation development, prototypes, shelf life testing, and analytical testing).
• Design and execute products against technical briefs, safety requirements, and consumer test proposals.
• Support of product claims and risk management process by ensuring compliance with legal, food safety, and regulatory.
• Partner with procurement on selection of vendors/suppliers to optimize cost and quality of materials and ingredients by providing strategic insights and recommendations.
• Efficiently plan and coordinate trials using scientific experimental design, document trial data and make recommendations.
• Carry out shelf life validation studies, including the sensory evaluation and sending samples for microbiological/sensory evaluation at the third-party labs/sensory labs.
• Interface cross-functionally with marketing, SCM, and operations to support new product roll-outs with excellence.

Support Consumer Research and Insights

• Design consumer tests and sample production to validate/invalidate hypotheses on consumer behavior/acceptability
• Analyze industry trends and market conditions to develop product improvement and innovation initiatives

Enable Strategic Initiatives in Supply Chain Management and Operations

• Establish scalable processes that can help to unlock capacity for existing product platforms
• Lead initiatives with external co-manufacturers to scale ingredients from test kitchen to commercialization
• Identify process improvements via product manipulation to help operations gain efficiencies 

What we’re looking for:

• Minimum B.S. Food Science or related degree. Advanced degree strongly preferred 3-5 years of food industry experience with fresh produce and deli items (salad kits, salad bowls, parfaits, RTE meal kits) is preferred. Understanding of  ingredient , stabilizer,  Clean label , flavor development, and product stability knowledge
•  Background in process and product development and commercialization of food processes is required.
• Proven track record of launching new food products
• Advanced analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to translate consumer data into insights that drive product formulation and development
• Results-driven mentality, with a bias for speed and action
• Continuous improvement mindset with strong intuition for "launch and iterate" and “wait and perfect” strategies
• Planning and conducting validation projects with scientific data trending for all food products, primarily fresh produce and deli items (salad kits, salad bowls, parfaits, RTE meal kits)
• Work closely with procurement team & packaging experts to establish and reinforce new and existing relationships with suppliers and vendors; establishing the framework for evaluating contingency suppliers and raw materials
• Comfort in a startup environment where we move quickly and wear many hats
• Exceptional cross functional collaboration mindset
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to present to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to lead cross-functional projects, plan out roadmaps, and execute against timelines
• Obvious passion for fresh food, eating healthy, and the Fifth Season brand
• A self-starter mindset to own your success and adapt to evolving situations
• Ability to flex & reprioritize as Fifth Season “pivots” with the ability to manage multiple initiatives
• Proficiency with Microsoft Suite & Google Docs and a willingness to learn new software

Our preferred, but not required, qualifications are that you have:

• Project management experience with exposure to PCM/timeline management projects
• Knowledge or experience in Packaging, Fresh-Cut, Deli products and MAP (Modified Atmosphere Packaging) a plus
• Understanding of Nutritional, labeling  software  ( Genesis /ESHA) 
• Experience in both renovation of existing products (productivity, quality improvement) as well as innovation development of new products
• Experience with perishable food products/development
• Demonstrated understanding of the product development lifecycle and the complexities of food safety and regulatory requirements

Fifth Season’s Mission – Your impact:

Fifth Season is revitalizing people, communities, and the world by bringing healthier, higher quality, hyper local food to market – truly ushering in a new era of fresh foods. Our unique, patented technology platform is fully autonomous and allows us to produce much more efficiently, all while using 95% less water, avoiding top-soil degradation, and never causing runoff pollution. Our chemical-free produce is sold to supermarkets, regional distributors, and select restaurants under the brand name Fifth Season.

This is an opportunity to have a substantive impact and help make the world a better place than we found it. We’re excited for you to work alongside the researchers building technology at Fifth Season.

This full-time position includes competitive pay, valuable stock options, and benefits.