Chemical Downstream Process Development Lead

Job Category: Research and Development

Work Location: Hybrid

Office Location:

Gorinchem, NL

Job Type: Full Time

Job ID: 4982

At Corbion, we exist to champion preservation in all its forms, preserving food and food production, health, and our planet.

As a Chemical Downstream Process Development Lead you will be improving and developing innovative new downstream (bio)chemical processes as part of the Process Technology department of Corbion’s Innovation Center, at our location in Gorinchem. This is the largest R&D site of Corbion with labs, offices, and a pilot plant, supporting manufacturing facilities worldwide.

Corbion Innovation Center’s Process Technology department is a team of around 20 scientists and technicians. We create value by providing innovative solutions for process design, development and optimization activities and taking responsibility for scale-up and process demonstration, from bench-top to industrial scale, including technology transfer and implementation support.

The Role

As a Senior Process Development Scientist, you collaborate and lead technical activities to develop, scale-up and transfer processes and know-how between R&D and Operations. You combine a solid scientific background with a hands-on approach and drive to deliver. You are familiar with working in innovative, multi-disciplinary project teams, forming and maintaining connections to business and operations as well as colleagues from other Innovation Center groups (Industrial Fermentation, Product Development, Microbiology, etc.

Leading and supporting process development, scale-up, implementation and optimization of new or existing processes and products at Corbion's locations or at third parties.
Troubleshooting of production by adequately translating the technology challenges to lab, pilot scale and production scale trials.
Preparing, leading, and executing pilot and demo-scale production runs.
Analyzing results and providing data based recommendations to stakeholders.
Ensuring documentation and reporting of procedures and results according to Corbion standards.
Supporting intellectual property, regulatory affairs, marketing, and sales departments with relevant expertise, including signaling IP opportunities.
Building insight, know-how and skills on different downstream processing technologies for both food and non-food products.
Assisting in development and mentoring of junior specialists, technicians.

In this role, you will be travelling worldwide up to 30%, mostly to Thailand & Brazil. This is mandatory. Travelling will also depend on the project you will be working on.

About you

Educational background at the M.Sc or Ph.D. level in a relevant discipline e.g. (bio) chemical engineering, food technology or relevant studies.
Theoretical background and a couple of years' experience as a specialist, scientist, engineer or equivalent in development, scale-up and implementation of specific unit operations used in downstream processing (DSP).
Experience with innovation projects, preferably experience with coordinating R&D project teams in a multi-functional project environment.
Willingness and able to work in an operations environment as well as R&D.
Translated cases between R&D, engineering and operations.
Contribute to identify potential safety risks when preparing lab/pilot and production trials.
Affinity in bringing science and innovation to production environments, by combining critical thinking, process know-how, and a pragmatic mindset.
Fluency in English (oral and written).

About Corbion

Corbion is the global market leader in lactic acid and its derivatives, and a leading supplier of emulsifiers, functional enzyme blends, minerals, vitamins, and algae ingredients. We use our unique expertise in fermentation and other processes to deliver sustainable solutions for the preservation of food and food production, health, and our planet. For over 100 years, we have been uncompromising in our commitment to safety, quality, innovation and performance. Drawing on our deep application and product knowledge, we work side-by-side with customers to make our cutting-edge technologies work for them. Our solutions help differentiate products in markets such as food, home & personal care, animal nutrition, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and bioplastics. In 2023, Corbion generated annual sales of €1,443.8 million and had a workforce of 2,727 FTE. Corbion is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. For more information: www.corbion.com

Corbion does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to our hiring managers. All candidates must be submitted by approved Corbion vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission by our Talent Acquisition team for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless such a request has been made by the Corbion Talent Acquisition team and such candidate was submitted to the Corbion Talent Acquisition Team.