Technical Service Principal Technician

About Ingredion:

Join Ingredion, where innovation impacts lives worldwide! Without even realizing it, you’ve experienced our work in your favorite chocolate, your pet’s food, the paper you write on, and your everyday snacks. As a global powerhouse across more than 60 industries, we harness the potential of natural ingredients to transform lives. Whether you’re just starting your career or bringing years of experience, there's a place for you here to make a real difference. Be part of our team that values a wide range of perspectives and is committed to shaping a better world with every product we create.

Location: Bridgewater, NJ

Workplace type: Hybrid- 4 days/week on-site & 1 day/week remote

Ingredion Incorporated is seeking a Technical Service Principal Technician to deliver technical support across a wide range of food and beverage applications, with a primary focus on driving growth within Ingredion’s Texture & Healthful Solutions business segment. This role collaborates closely with Technical Service, Sales, and Marketing teams throughout the US and Canada to develop innovative, customer-focused solutions and enable new product development.

The Principal Technician will be responsible for creating and preparing food formulations and prototypes for customer and business initiatives at both pilot plant and bench-top scale, adhering to Good Manufacturing Practices. Additional responsibilities include conducting research as needed, responding to internal and external customer requests, supporting new business development opportunities, performing analytical and application testing, and preparing technical reports and documentation for customers under the guidance of the manager. This role offers potential for future growth into advanced technical or leadership positions within the Technical Service team.

What you will do:

• Perform bench-top and pilot plant project support for customer initiatives and opportunities aligned with our Texture and Healthful Solutions Go-To-Market strategy, working under the guidance of your manager and team.
• Work across diverse range of food application categories - Beverage, Dairy, Bakery, Confectionery, Savory - to provide hands-on support and identify innovative solutions and opportunities.
• Support development of demos, prototypes, and application validations to showcase our products and capabilities during trainings, webinars, customer visits, and tradeshows.
• Conduct qualification and application testing to assist with product management of existing product line and new product launches.
• Support pilot and production-scale trials for internal and external customers and events.
• Build knowledge of the company’s technologies, product functionalities, and their applications across various food categories to deliver value-added solution(s) for customers.
• Deliver and generate technical information for product promotion and communication to our Go-To-Market team and customers.
• Apply project planning, food science skills and creativity to support projects efficiently and ensure timely delivery of results.
• Develop understanding internal and external customers’ technical and innovation needs in order to provide relevant project ideas and solutions support; provide direct and indirect support to internal and external customers with guidance from manager and team.
• Interact with technical service team, research/category leads, key technology functions, manufacturing, sales and marketing functions in US/Canada.

What you will bring:

• B.S in Food Science or equivalent technical field.
• Knowledge of common food processes, food ingredient functionality, and ingredient interactions.
• Prior laboratory experience and basic knowledge of food lab protocols and lab safety is a plus.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. Document findings and prepare technical reports, presentations, and data summaries for customer and internal stakeholders, with guidance from manager.
• Experience working with technical information such as food formulations, processing specifications, and pilot plant procedures. Strong attention to detail and demonstrated ability to learn and adapt quickly.
• Knowledge working with a range of carbohydrates highly desired.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and ability to learn other platforms as needed.
• Ability to travel 10-15% domestically.

Who you are:

• Team player who thrives in a cross-functional dynamic work environment and can work with limited supervision
• Creative problem solver, and a self-starter with an ability to deal with ambiguity
• Highly organized