Senior Research Associate - Materials & Texture

Company: Impossible Foods
Location: Redwood City
Posted on: February 23, 2021

Job Description:

Impossible Foods is addressing the most catastrophic threats facing humanity: climate change and biodiversity collapse. A global transition to a plant-based food system will turn back the clock on atmospheric CO2 levels, restore natural ecosystems and reverse meltdown in wildlife biomass. The easiest -- if not only -- way to make our civilization sustainable is to eliminate livestock, the most dangerous technology on Earth. But humans won't give up meat. So we need to make meat better -- more delicious and more nutritious, without animals as the underlying production technology. That means that making meat sustainably is the most important and urgent problem for the global scientific community. Impossible Foods' mission is to completely replace the use of animals as a food-production technology by offering consumers everything they currently value about animal products -- and making products that are vastly superior to their animal analogues. To do this, we are taking a revolutionary scientific and market-based approach. We are inventing efficient, sustainable ways to transform ingredients from plants into meat, fish and dairy foods that deliver all the pleasures and nutritional benefits consumers demand, without the destructive environmental or public health impact. Our world-class R&D team has been building the know-how and technology platform to produce meat, fish and dairy foods from plants. Impossible Foods is experiencing rapid growth and is resolutely committed to leading all aspects of the plant-based food revolution-from discovery to commercial production. The only thing that will separate Impossible Foods from success and failure is our ability to recruit more world-class experts. Want to join? Check out the job opening and requirements below: Impossible Foods is looking for a motivated, mission-aligned person to join the Materials & Texture team. The overarching goal of the group is to create an arsenal of plant-based materials that enable the re-creation of any animal-based food products. We are looking for people who can contribute highly developed experimentalist skills, analytical thinking, and creative ideation to help us make daily progress towards that goal. As a Senior Research Associate, she/he will be expected to spend most of their time as an experimentalist, performing hands-on experiments at the lab bench, or at the pilot plant. Good organization and data recording skills are as essential for this position, as curiosity and self-starting. She/he will be working closely with a scientist/manager on the team who would serve as her/his scientific & career mentor. The scientist will take the lead in defining research directions and designing experiments, and rely on the prospective Associate scientist for the design of experiment execution and data analysis. At the same time, the Senior Research Associate is expected to take an active part in discussing hypotheses and texture related theory. We take the professional development of scientists in the group seriously and aim for them to eventually develop into fully independent scientists. You Will:

• Use material science approaches to develop plant-based products that mimic the specific texture and flavor of meat.
• Collaborate with the discovery team to integrate upstream technologies into prototypes.
• Develop bench and pilot plant processes to generate high-quality product reproducibly.
• Research approaches that can improve food prototypes with respect to target values of juiciness, tenderness, density, and other mechanical and sensory properties.
• Characterize materials using a wide array of techniques including mechanical testing, thermal analysis, texture analysis, rheology, microscopy, and spectroscopy.
• Work closely with our Sensory and Perceptual research team to understand the sensory response of the prototypes created.
• Write detailed experimental records and maintain an electronic lab notebook. You Have:
  • MSc. or B.S. in Material Science/Engineering, Chemistry, Food Science, Chemical Engineering, or related fields.
  • 2 to 3 years of experimental research experience with biomaterials or food.
  • Experience with materials testing, texture analysis, and kitchen work.
  • Good verbal and written communication skills.
  • Solid understanding of statistical methods.
  • Experience with tissue assembly, encapsulation, and fiber spinning is a plus. Impossible Foods Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

Keywords: Impossible Foods, Redwood City , Senior Research Associate - Materials & Texture, Other , Redwood City, California