Senior Food Technologist, Research & Development Data Analyst

International Dairy Queen•Bloomington, MN

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Technologist, R&D Data Analyst serves as the technical and analytical lead for the Research & Development department leading data management, reporting, and insights. This position is responsible for transforming complex information into actionable business intelligence that supports trends, sensory evaluation, risk management, regulatory compliance, supplier performance, product quality, and operational excellence. The role partners across R&D (FSQR & Product Development), Supply Chain, Operations, International, Distribution, IT, and supplier partners to develop data-driven solutions that improve decision making and strengthen food safety and quality performance throughout the Dairy Queen system. This position combines technical R&D expertise with advanced analytics capabilities, serving as a subject matter expert for data analytics, regulatory intelligence, emerging risk identification, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in food science, Data Analytics, Statistics, Information Systems, Quality Assurance, Supply Chain, or equivalent related experience in lieu of a degree.
3- 5 years of progressive responsibility experience in food safety, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, analytics, or related disciplines.
Demonstrated experience leading complex projects and cross-functional initiatives.
Experience with Microsoft Office.
Proficiency with Power BI, Domo, Tableau, or similar visualization platforms.
Experience with SQL, databases, data modeling, and reporting automation.
Knowledge of AI-enabled productivity and analytics tools, including Microsoft Copilot.
Experience with food safety, quality, audit, complaint, regulatory, or workflow management systems.
Strong understanding of data governance, validation, and reporting best practices.
Ability to manage and prioritize multiple, complex projects and responsibilities in a fast-changing and deadline-driven environment.
Strong written and verbal communications skills; able to articulate technical information to a variety of audiences.
Relationship building skills with the ability to create mutually beneficial relationships with both internal and external clients.
Knowledge of current industry and technical issues associated with food safety, nutrition, public health, environment and animal rights.
Ability to apply sound technical principles to root cause analyses, problem solving and project management.
Ability to organize collection of data, analyze information and capture conclusions.
Knowledge of quality and associated statistics.
Works full-on with positive energy and accountability.
Take initiative and ensure closure.
Ability to influence through logic, technical credibility and by turning complex issues into easy-to-understand steps and work plans.
Well organized with a high attention to detail and accuracy.
Provide excellent customer service to both internal and external clients.
Ability to work quickly in a fast-paced environment with frequent interruptions.
Ability to work occasionally in the evenings and weekends, as necessary to meet project deadlines.

Nice To Haves

Experience working within restaurants, food service, food manufacturing, franchising, or supply chain environments preferred.
With guidance, deliver challenging/constructive feedback to suppliers or internal personnel in a coaching manner and maintain steady direction yielding right results quickly.

Responsibilities

Serve as R&D Data Steward, establishing data standards, maintaining master data accuracy, overseeing data governance processes, and ensuring the quality, consistency, and reliability of R&D data.
Partner with Information Technology and business stakeholders to define requirements, support system integrations, troubleshoot issues, and ensure ongoing data accuracy and system performance.
Develop AI-assisted tools, automated workflows, and scalable reporting solutions that improve efficiency, visibility, and decision making across R&D business processes.
Build and maintain dashboards, scorecards, recurring reports, and executive summaries across R&D, FSQR, regulatory, supplier, and product development data.
Translate complex datasets into actionable insights, recommendations, presentations, and business cases for R&D leadership and cross-functional partners.
Track key performance indicators including project pipeline health, stage gate progress, turnaround time, supplier responsiveness, quality trends, emerging issues, and key risk indicators.
Analyze food safety, quality, supplier, audit, complaint, regulatory, operational, cold chain, and laboratory testing data to identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
Support predictive and risk-based analytics to proactively identify emerging food safety, supplier quality, product performance, and compliance concerns.
Strengthen data-driven decision making for FSQR leadership by developing clear reporting, trend analysis, and recommendations for cross-functional action.
Analyze sensory evaluation, product benchmark, consumer insight, market performance, and competitive data to improve product success criteria and inform innovation strategy.
Build consolidated product profiles and searchable repositories for current and historical products, LTOs, formulations, product attributes, launch details, market performance, and key learnings.
Identify sensory white spaces, competitive trends, regional signals, product similarities, benchmarking opportunities, and process improvement opportunities to accelerate concept development and product matching efforts.
Maintain regulatory monitoring tools, databases, and automated reporting processes to track federal, state, provincial, and international regulatory developments.
Support FSMA 204 traceability data management, compliance reporting, and restaurant support by collecting, managing, and maintaining accurate regulatory data.
Lead cross-functional R&D data, analytics, reporting, risk assessment, and compliance initiatives across domestic and international business units.
Provide technical guidance, training, and communication support to improve team capability, adoption of data tools, and effective use of analytics.
Build presentations, executive summaries, and business cases that clearly communicate findings, recommendations, and business impact.
Conduct regulatory impact assessments and communicate compliance risks, business implications, and recommended actions to R&D and cross-functional stakeholders.
Build and maintain automated reporting processes related to regulatory changes and compliance initiatives.