Website:
inaaraneofoods.com
Job details:
About Inaara NeoFoods
Inaara NeoFoods is building India’s first farm-to-formulation platform for plant derived functional nutrients for everyday food by partnering with F&B companies (domestic as well as exports) to develop scalable, clean-label and commercially viable food solutions. Inaara operates at the intersection of agriculture, advanced processing, applied food science and computational nutrition.
The founding team has deep expertise across agriculture, food systems, supply chains, technology and consumer businesses. Having built and scaled successful ventures in the agri-food ecosystem, the founders bring a unique combination of entrepreneurial vision, operational excellence and industry relationships, positioning Inaara to build a globally relevant nutrition platform from India.
Role: Lead – Technical Solutions & Projects
Inaara NeoFoods is creating a category-defining business at the intersection of food, agriculture, nutrition and technology. The opportunity involves collaborating with global experts to pioneer next-generation, nutrient-rich food formulations from ground-up.
We are seeking a first-principles problem solver who is deeply driven by purpose and comfortable navigating a fast-evolving, dynamic environment. If you are inspired by the prospect of shaping the global future of nutrition from India, you will thrive here. We value curiosity, ownership, resilience and a long-term vision over hierarchy and established playbooks.
Role Overview
Reporting to the Head of Applications/R&D and working in close strategic partnership with the Commercial team, the Lead – Technical Solutions & Projects operates across two pillars:
- Technical Core (In the Lab): A hands-on food application scientist who anchors rapid customer prototype development at the bench, runs functional and textural characterization, leverages lab technicians, and validates pilot-to-plant scale-up parameters.
- Customer Interface & Project Management (Market Solutions): A customer-facing technical consultant who translates client briefs into application roadmaps, owns projects end-to-end, drive timelines, demonstrates scientific and cost-in-use advantages to external R&D teams to enable Sales.
Location
Mumbai, India
Qualifications
- Master’s or PhD in Food Technology, Food Science, or related field
- 5-7 years of hands-on formulation and application development experience
- Dual capability in bench-top prototyping and experience managing technical projects
- Hands-on familiarity with functional and textural characterization (texture analysis, colour, rheology)
- Experience running outsourced analytical programs through NABL-accredited labs
- Familiarity with industrial food processing equipment and scale-up workflows.
- Knowledge of FSSAI regulations, global food standards, labelling and nutrient-claim requirements
Key Responsibilities
(a) Technical Core: Bench Formulation, Prototyping & Scale-Up
- Hands-on Bench Prototyping: Formulate finished food prototypes across priority formats (bakery, extruded snacks, functional beverages, ready-to-mix powders, and plant-based matrices)
- Functional & Sensory Characterization: Conduct functional, rheological, and textural characterization (viscosity, emulsion stability, texture profiling, water activity) to optimize sensory benchmarks.
- Trial Iterations: Execute rapid reformulation cycles to troubleshoot technical issues and shortening turnaround times.
- Pilot & Plant Scale-Up: Transition approved bench formulations into pilot and commercial-scale factory trials, partnering with manufacturers to validate process parameters and line runnability.
- Data & Regulatory Compliance: Codify trial and formulations data, ensuring every prototype complies with FSSAI standards, export regulations, and nutritional & clean-label targets.
(b) Technical & Commercial Interface: Market Solutions & Project Delivery
- End-to-End Project Management: Own customer innovation projects across the development lifecycle - orchestrating timelines, trial milestones, cross-functional dependencies and risk resolution from initial brief to plant sign-off.
- Brief Translation & Solution Scoping: Act as the lead technical interface for B2B client briefs; deconstruct brand targets, nutritional benchmarks, and sensory parameters into, time-bound application sprints.
- Client Engagement & Co-Development: Lead technical workshops, customer tasting sessions, and co-creation workshops with brand teams. Articulate the functional advantages with scientific clarity.
- Cost-in-Use & Value Engineering: Model client formulation systems to demonstrate dosage efficiency, functional parity/superiority, and cost-in-use benefits within the customer's target cost envelope.
- Technical Qualification & Win-Rate: Maximize client trial success rates by securing technical validation, sensory clearance, and factory trial approvals, delivering complete application dossiers.
- Proactive Application Concepts: Monitor market shifts in functional foods to build proactive "push" concept kits and demonstration prototypes that enable the commercial team to unlock new clients.
Remuneration
- Market Competitive
- Fixed + Variable
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