ASSOCIATE FOOD TECHNOLOGIST

Trident Seafoods is the largest vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company in North America. Trident is a privately held, 100 percent USA-owned company with primary seafood processing operations and fleet support in twelve Alaska communities. Trident's global operations produce finished wild Alaska seafood products in 6 countries and its sales teams serve customers in over 50 countries. Trident employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide each year and partners with over 5,400 independent fishermen and crewmembers. Species harvested and processed by Trident include virtually every commercial species of salmon, whitefish, and crab harvested in the North Pacific and Alaska. The global supply chain also includes cultured and wild species from a network of trusted sources worldwide.

Summary:The Food Technologist will work with world-class Food Scientists developing new product formulations and improvements to existing products. This individual will be part of the Research and Development (R&D) team working with other food technologists, scientists, and a culinary team specializing in Alaskan Seafood. This role is heavily focused on product development in related areas and shares related work experience and problem-solving ideas in a collaborative team environment. This role is responsible for collaborating with project teams on prototype development through full commercialization and finalizing product attributes and specifications following successful commercialization.

Essential functions (responsibilities, tasks, supervisory needs)

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

• Initiates, produces, and supplies existing or prototype product samples designed to meet target account needs. Drafts provisional specifications on prototype products prepared for target customer sampling.
• Participates and provides guidance in bench top research and evaluation of new ingredients and product formulations, planning lab experiments, shelf-life testing and production trials.
• Evaluates feasibility of various ingredient/recipe components in terms of functionality, formula and availability of company manufacturing, acceptability to target customer/geographic region of account, cost verification and Trident manufacturing capability.
• Ensures new ingredient opportunities are properly vetted and approved prior to preparing customer samples
• Prepares and ships out hand samples of new products for internal and external sampling/ evaluation.
• Designs methods to improve ingredient qualities and food production in areas of flavor, color, texture, nutritional value, convenience, and/or physical, chemical, and microbiological composition of foods.
• Creates R&D preliminary processing spec and documents all tests (lab and plant trials) results. Assists regulatory department on product audits when necessary.
• Participates in sensory evaluations, product cuttings / presentations to various vendors and customer groups introducing or re-acquainting them to specific products, ingredient features, benefits, requirements and application techniques. Retains adequate supply of 1st production samples and bench control for cook validation, product cuttings, shelf-life tests etc.
• Participates with FSQA in the development of new product food standards, safety, and sanitary regulations.

This is a full-time, non-exempt position with a hourly pay rate range of $33 to $43 per hour.

Trident Seafoods offers a comprehensive and quality benefits package. Full time employees may be eligible for discretionary/performance-based incentives, medical, dental and vision insurance plans, optional HRA/HSA, telemedicine, employee assistance and wellness programs, long-term disability, basic life and AD&D, and 401(k) with a company match, paid time off, 10 paid holidays each year, and paid parental leave. For full-time employees, the initial paid time off benefit starts at 20 days per year, adjusted commensurate with relevant experience. Commuter and transit programs are also available.

Required Qualifications (education, years of experience, KSAs)

• A minimum of two years of experience in food science or a related field
• A bachelor's degree in food science or related field, or the equivalent combination of education and years of experience
• The ability to travel between the R&D Center in Seattle and Trident's value-added plants and occasionally to customers, up to 30%.
• General understanding of food laws and regulations
• Solid understanding of mathematics, scientific weights, and measurements.
• Basic working knowledge of MS Office, PowerPoint, Database Management and other computer applications to access information, analyze data and solve problems.

Preferred education and experience

• Effectively organize and execute work assignments.
• Self-directed with minimal supervision.

Work authorizations

• This position is not eligible for immigration sponsorship