Position Responsibilities :

The COE Ingredient Specialist is responsible for strengthening technical governance, standards, and decision quality for ingredient-related work across all formats. This role sits within the Regional Product Center of Excellence (COE) and acts as the technical reviewer and custodian for ingredient-related work delivered by Squads. The role is expected to review, recommend, challenge, and progressively strengthen technical gatekeeping across ingredient selection, ingredient systems, and formulation-enabling decisions. The role requires strong scientific understanding of how ingredients behave chemically, physically, and biologically within finished product systems. This includes syrups, powders, sauces, inclusions, plant-based ingredients, dairy-related ingredients, and functional ingredients. The individual must connect raw ingredient science to sensory, texture, stability, processing, and final cup performance. This is not a pure execution role. It is a technicalgovernance role designed to improve pilot success rate, reduce technical rework, strengthenformulation decision quality, and ensure ingredient choices translate properly into scalablefinished products.

• Review and recommend on ingredient-related proposals, validations, pilots, and deliverables submitted by Squads.
• Assess whether ingredient-related recommendations are technically sound, suitable for intended application, and commercially practical.
• Support the development of stronger COE governance mechanisms, including future technical sign-off or veto authority where required.
• Ensure ingredient decisions are not based only on supplier narratives, trend pressure, or cost-first logic without sufficient technical grounding.

• Build and maintain strong technical understanding of ingredient behavior in finished product systems.
• Evaluate how ingredient composition and interaction influence flavor and aroma expression, sweetness profile, mouthfeel and texture, stability and separation risk, visual presentation, compatibility with other ingredients, process tolerance, shelf-life implications, and consistency in finished application.
• Cover ingredient systems across syrups, powders, sauces, inclusions, plant-based, dairy-related, and functional ingredients.

• Translate raw ingredient understanding into practical beverage and finished product application.
• Act as the bridge between ingredient science and end-cup product performance.
• Ensure ingredients selected can deliver intended sensory profile, operational practicality, and repeatability at commercial scale.
• Support stronger alignment between formulation logic and customer-facing product outcome.

• Build and maintain ingredient evaluation frameworks and technical review criteria.
• Ensure frameworks cover technical suitability, functional performance, sensory contribution, compatibility within finished systems, operational practicality, scalability, stability, and technical risk.
• Support ingredient validation, reformulation reviews, vendor submissions, and technical assessment processes.

• Identify and assess ingredient-related risks such as instability, incompatibility, inconsistent performance, and formulation failure.
• Support root cause analysis when ingredient behavior contributes to pilot failure, product inconsistency, or customer complaints.
• Recommend preventive actions and technical improvements to improve first-time-right outcomes.

• Work closely with Squad, R&D, QA, Supply Chain, Operations, and suppliers to align ingredient-related decisions with business and technical realities.
• Contribute to stronger ways of working between sourcing, product development, and final application quality.
• Support capability-building and future team development within COE.

• Improvement in pilot success rate for ingredient-related projects.
• Reduction in ingredient-related complaints, technical failures, and reformulation rework
• Improvement in finished product consistency and end-cup performance.
• Improvement in governance quality for ingredient-related reviews and recommendations.
• Strength of technical standards, evaluation frameworks, and institutional knowledge built

Qualification and Experience :

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Dairy Science, Ingredient Science, or related field.
• 3‒6 years of relevant working experience, suitable for Senior Executive / Assistant Manager level.
• Experience in ingredient application, beverage formulation, food science, dairy systems, plant-based systems, flavor systems, or technical ingredient roles.
• Strong understanding of how ingredients function within finished beverage or food systems.
• Ability to translate scientific understanding into practical commercial application.
• Experience in café, beverage, dairy, RTD, foodservice, or related categories is an advantage.

• Strong scientific discipline and technical rigor• Strong pattern recognition across formulation, sensory, and finished application.
• Ability to challenge assumptions with sound technical reasoning.
• Practical mindset with commercial awareness.
• Strong stakeholder management across technical and non-technical teams.
• Ability to simplify technical science into clear business recommendations