Research & Development Chef - DTU Biosustain

We are looking for a Research & Development Chef to continue our work on product development for sustainability, bringing a culinary and flavour-forward approach to food systems transformation.

The R&D Chef will be part of the Sustainable Food Innovation Group (SFI). We were founded in 2021 to address interconnected food systems challenges—diminishing diversity, inequitable production and distribution, knowledge privatisation, nutritional depletion, blandness—through interdisciplinary research, product development, and knowledge-sharing.

The job
As R&D Chef of the Sustainable Food Innovation Group you will:

• Manage the group’s Food Lab
• Plan, carry out, and lead culinary R&D projects, and support other members of the Center in their culinary projects
• Explore novel fermentations, byproduct upcycling, and plant-based deliciousness
• Work closely with the group leader and the group scientist to develop new research questions, project proposals and grant applications
• Develop collaborations with partners across the food, hospitality, and agriculture industries
• Engage the public around culinary innovation and its potential for addressing global sustainability and food systems challenges

There will be ample opportunities for professional development and continuing education as part of the position.

Our expectations of you
The successful candidate will be:

• Able to demonstrate their track record of developing their own culinary innovation agenda in a cutting-edge research environment
• Experienced in ambitious restaurant kitchens and culinary R&D
• Knowledgeable about fermentation and have experience making fermentations, traditional and novel
• Experienced working with a range of products and ingredients, from rarities to industrial by-products
• Experienced in leading others, in the kitchen and/or another context
• Having a basic knowledge of science and technology, food systems and sustainability
• Able to work well independently as well as with others
• Comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty
• Curious about and excited by unfamiliar knowledges
• Patient, charitable and playful with others

What we offer in return
DTU is a leading technical university globally recognized for the excellence of its research, education, innovation and scientific advice. We offer an engaging and rewarding job in an international, cutting-edge research environment. We place great emphasis on personal and professional development, so there will be ample opportunities for skills development and continuing education as part of the position, according to your career goals.

Salary and appointment terms
The appointment will be as a ‘Senior Officer’, and will be based on the collective agreement with the Confederation of Professional Associations. The salary will be agreed upon with the relevant union.

The position is full-time and is based at DTU’s Lyngby campus.

The position is available from 1.1.2024 until 31.12.2025.

Application and contact
Please submit your online application no later than Wednesday 20 September 2023. Open the “Apply now” link, fill out the form, and attach your cover letter and CV. 

You can read more about DTU Biosustain at www.biosustain.dtu.dk  

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, race, disability, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply.

Sustainable Food Innovation Group (SFI)
The Sustainable Food Innovation Group uses culinary research & development to make flavourful sustainable foods, open scientific research to study how they work, and social science and artistic practice to understand and experiment with how they can fit into food culture. We develop products for implementation and as design interventions that can help better understand food systems problems—encouraging thinking about edibility, food diversity, and flavour in more complex, just, ecologically resonant ways.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU Biosustain)
Recent progress in our ability to read and write genomic code, combined with advances in automation, analytics and data science, has fundamentally changed the scope and ambition of harnessing the potential of biological systems. Big data approaches and analysis of biological systems are key research instruments at the Center. DTU Biosustain utilizes these advances for microbial cell factory design to foster sustainable lifestyles in relation to three application areas: Sustainable Chemicals, Natural Products, and Microbial Foods.

Technology for people
DTU develops technology for people. With our international elite research and study programmes, we are helping to create a better world and to solve the global challenges formulated in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU in 1829 with a clear mission to develop and create value using science and engineering to benefit society. That mission lives on today. DTU has 13,500 students and 6,000 employees. We work in an international atmosphere and have an inclusive, evolving, and informal working environment. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland, and we collaborate with the best universities around the world.