R&D Scientist

Impossible Foods•Redwood City, CA

About The Position

Impossible Foods was founded to transform the global food system and reduce the impact of climate change by making the world’s most delicious, nutritious, and sustainable meat, fish, and dairy — from plants. We’re building a rockstar team of brilliant, collaborative, mission-driven individuals who take pride in using their diverse skills to contribute to saving our planet. Want to join the movement? You can help us solve the most urgent, important challenge facing the world today (and have fun doing it). Job Summary: We are seeking a mission-aligned Sr/Scientist, to join the Product Development Team -an interdisciplinary team of food scientists, chemists, designers, and chefs. You will be working on complex future products and be a technical lead on new material integration while creating prototypes with optimal flavors & textures. You are a curious, analytical, collaborative, and creative problem solver that has deep expertise in food ingredient functionality.

Requirements

M.S./Ph.D. in Materials Science, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Food Science, or similar field with 4+ year of product innovation experience
Proven track record of innovative research and development projects
A passion to create delicious plant-based products
Strong chemical intuition, knowledge of flavor chemistry, gums, starches, and proteins, and how to modulate their characteristics with process, synergistic interactions with other materials, and different conditions within a product.
Strong skills in designing experiments, data analysis, data interpretation, and communication results to both researchers and broader audiences
Experience with formulation development
Experience mentoring junior researchers
Self-starter that is naturally curious and enjoys working in a fast-paced environment
Ability to continuously challenge assumptions to seek innovative solutions

Nice To Haves

Experience in designing and conducting sensory testing is a nice to have

Responsibilities

Work as part of a team to deliver complex novel plant-based meat products
Lead efforts on recreating a variety of animal tissue replicas using plant-based materials.
Lead efforts to understand the interaction of ingredients and the effect of process parameters in complex food matrices, optimizing the system to deliver against the desired outcome.
Use meticulous sensory and instrumental assays to guide and validate progress
Use outside-the-box exploration: playful exploration and de novo prototyping
Present experimental and project data to both research team and broader audiences
Proactively collaborate cross-functionally, framing trade-off decisions to balance product targets, timelines, and COGS.
Mentor research associates on technical approaches and best practices
Participate in hands-on prototype creation and experimentation
Participate in team tastings
Voice ideas, concerns and solutions to teammates
Keep a detailed experimental notebook and batch records