Senior Data Scientist

The Nestlé Development Center in Solon uses science and technology to enhance new and existing frozen and chilled meals, pizza and snacking product experiences. Our mission is to leverage our diverse expertise to unlock innovative solutions, creating food people love. To achieve this, we are committed to attracting and developing the right people. Come join us and help create the future.

POSITION SUMMARY: 

• Champion the role and value of statistics and data science to unlock innovative solutions, such as predictive modeling, for R&D and business partners.
• Drive improvement in product and process performance and understanding using advanced statistics and data analysis.
• Enable smarter manufacturing and sensory/product experience controls.

 

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

 

• Support project teams by providing results-driven statistical, data science or mathematical expertise.
• Lead and embed statistical thinking and variability awareness across Solon R&D and Operations.
  • Ensure efficient transfer of appropriate statistical knowledge/skills in R&D (regular update of statistical approach, develop training, train/coach other R&D specialists and PMs).
  • Provide technical assistance to Operations (factories, PD groups, etc.) on application of different statistical methods.
  • Promote manufacturing excellence by providing expertise in Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Measurement System Analysis (MSA) as well as supporting the harmonization of process capability assessment.
• Provide support and expertise in Statistics (DoE, MVA) to gain knowledge within our projects:
  • Design experiments: define the optimal set of experiments for a given set of experimental parameters taking into account the research questions and resource constraints.
  • Analyze data: Perform complex mathematical optimization of food processing conditions and recipes that match consumer and business expectations (sensory quality, nutritional value, sustainability, affordability etc.) for all product categories.
  • Application of advanced statistical methods to relate product parameters to consumer liking.
• Apply statistical modelling techniques to visualize data, modelling the relation between input (e.g., production settings) and output (e.g., sensory) variables, and translate findings into user-friendly tools that are helpful to accelerate product development.
• Interpret results and translate them into relevant information for product development activities, and communicate through technical papers, reports and presentations (internal/external).
• Develop and use statistical/analytical tools to provide Technical Assistance as per market / SBU request (provide services & solutions to ensure Manufacturing Excellence)
• Actively participate in networks or expert communities and events, i.e. Nestlé DATAnalytics Knowledge Network, to leverage cross-business knowledge and exchange best practices.
• Communicate effectively with key business stakeholders to identfy business needs and promote added value of data-driven approaches.

 

JOB QUALIFICATIONS (Education, Experience, and Knowledge):

 

• Master’s Degree or PhD in the field of Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Data Science or related fields.
• Minimum 3 years working experience in statistics for product design (food or related consumer products is a plus).
• Working experience in data science for product design (food or related consumer products) is a plus.
• Practical experience building highly effective Design of Experiments to drive product and process mastership.
• Detailed understanding of statistics. Should understand the theoretical foundation of statistical methods and how to properly apply these methods, what are the underlying assumptions and limitations.
  • Has practical knowledge of statistical tools such as Q-stat, Statitistical Process Control (SPC), Statistical Power Analysis and Liner Least Squares Regression, Measurement System Analysis (MSA).
• Mastership of Data Visualization Tools such as Excel, Power BI, and MiniTab.
• Has practical experience leveraging hypothesis tests to drive decision making in support of product development.
• Has practical/hands on experience distilling information (via uni/multivariate analysis methods, data visualization tools, and numerical optimization methods such as high dimentional data analysis, multi variante statistics, omics data analysis, feature extraction) and building a story to effectively convey/communicate the meaning of the data.
• Leadership capabilities and a strong ability to coach and train others.
• Highly developed problem solving mindset and analytical thinking skills.
• Excellent communication