R&D Product Development Specialist (Cheese & Dairy), Wageningen, Gelderland

Location: Wageningen, Gelderland  |  Sector: Food  |  Start Date: 6/10/2026  |  Job ref: 58178

Company
Our client is a global food organisation with a strong focus on innovation, quality, and sustainable product development. With an international footprint and well-established brands, they invest heavily in R&D and work closely with production sites to bring new ideas to market at scale.

Job Description
For an innovation centre in Wageningen, we are looking for an R&D Product Development Specialist (Cheese & Dairy). This person will play a key role in developing and improving cheese products, acting as the link between commercial teams and factory implementation. The role involves hands-on development work, cross-functional stakeholder management, and coordinating trials from lab through to production.

Responsibilities
Translate business and commercial needs into clear development plans for new products and product changes
- Develop and implement technical solutions to maintain and improve the quality of existing products
- Plan, set up, execute, and analyse development experiments in line with project goals and food safety standards
- Coordinate product testing at lab, pilot, and production scale, including interpretation of results and writing clear reports
- Present findings and recommendations to stakeholders and peers
- Support scale-up and implementation in the operational environment, following applicable guidelines
- Contribute to continuous improvement and value engineering initiatives where relevant
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with internal teams (e.g., Marketing, Sales, Operations, Technology, QA) and external partners/suppliers

Requirements:
- Master’s degree in food technology, Food Science, (Bio)Chemistry, or Chemical Engineering (dairy-related background is a strong plus)
- At least 2 years of experience in product development project work (preferably in cheese or dairy)
- Experience working in the food industry, ideally with exposure to cheese technology
- Strong communication skills in English (basic Dutch is a plus)
- Able to work in a structured way and manage multiple stakeholders in a dynamic environment
- Comfortable working partly on-site in Wageningen
- Once or twice maximum per month a visit to other NL factory (this is going to be discussed with the HM)
 - Temporary Full Time Contract.

Other Information
This role is based in Wageningen, with a hybrid working setup and occasional travel within the Netherlands depending on project needs.
If you are interested and want to apply, please submit your application via the apply button below and contact me.

58178

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Ayesha Ullah

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