Flavour Technologist

Food and Markets

Location: Medway Campus
Salary: £29,762 to £35,308
Contract Type: Fixed Term
Release Date: Wednesday 24 May 2023
Closing Date: Wednesday 07 June 2023
Interview Date: To be confirmed
Reference: 3902

The Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich is offering an exciting position for a flavour technologist to manage state-of-the-art flavour and sensory analysis capability at the Medway Food Innovation Centre (MFIC).

The Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich is part of a consortium called Growing Kent and Medway (GK&M), which is led by NIAB EMR and won a £17.8 million UKRI Strength in Places grant. The ambition of GK&M is to develop a world-class agri-food innovation cluster that supports growth in technology-driven horticultural production, food & drink processing, and manufacturing. Besides, NIAB EMR and the University of Greenwich, the other research partners of this world-class consortium include the University of Kent. The industry partners include a range of significant local agri-food companies (APS Produce, Berry Gardens Growers, Chapel Down, Gusbourne Estate, Richard Hochfeld Group, Thanet Earth, Worldwide Fruit); an innovative technology integration business that operates across supply chains (Geku Automation); and a world-leading packaging company (Smurfit Kappa). GK&M is backed by strong civic and business support with partners from the Kent & Medway Economic Partnership and Locate in Kent. GK&M will drive innovation and wealth creation by stimulating a vibrant and collaborative network that enables new and existing food enterprises to develop and thrive. It connects industry with technologists and researchers to co-creatively address the innovation challenges faced by the agri-food sector and its supply chains. Over the 5-year project, a total of £5M has been allocated to a Research and Innovation Fund to support collaborative bids that would typically include commercial and research partners.

As part of the GK&M project, the University of Greenwich is setting up the Medway Food Innovation Centre (MFIC) – an advanced facility to deliver step-changing R&D solutions for the food industries through cutting edge research as well as excellent training and courses on new product technologies and food process development for student cohorts. 

The flavour and sensory analysis capability will be established within MFIC at Natural Resources Institute, to deliver advanced food technology and innovation programme as well as facilitate the enterprise activities with the focus on knowledge exchange. The Flavour Technologist will have the managing responsibilities for the upkeep and troubleshooting of the recently purchased a state-of-the-art 2D gas chromatography coupled with Time of Flight mass spectrometer. Responsibilities of this role include developing SOPs, training students and project fellows with instrument operation and help with flavour analysis methodologies as well as support designing CPDs. There are several interests from businesses including companies under our Food Accelerator programme to collaborate with MFIC to solve their technical challenges where the flavour technologist will also play a key role by delivering these contract services on time in full. The appointed Flavour Technologist will also have the responsibility to support internal research by performing required flavour and volatile analysis for grant-funded projects (e.g. for UKRI/KTP/Innovate SMART grant etc.). This will provide the candidate future career progression to further expand the flavour research and science horizon. 

 The ideal candidate will have proven experience of working with GC-MS/GCxGC-ToF MS facility (and in-depth knowledge of the flavour volatile analysis is essential) with at least MSc level in food/flavour science and some prior experience of enterprise support. 

For an informal discussion about the post please contact Parag Acharya, Senior Fellow in Food Innovation on [email protected] . 

Should you have any queries please contact the HR Recruitment Team on [email protected]

We are looking for people who can help us deliver our mission of transforming lives through inspired teaching and research, through our values.

The university welcomes people from diverse and underrepresented communities who can help the university to achieve its mission. 

We do this through taking positive action such as encouraging applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, disabled and LGBT+ people. As part of our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Time to Change Employer Pledge /Mentally Healthy Universities , we are committed to promoting and supporting the physical and mental health of all our staff, and removing barriers to improve inclusion. 

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