Technical Project Lead

About Flora Food Group

We offer consumers a compelling choice in four growing categories: butters and spreads, creams, liquids and cheeses. We hold leadership positions in many of the 100 countries we operate in, with iconic brands including Flora, Becel+ProActiv, Blue Band, Country Crock, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Rama, and Violife, together with our local brands and Professional business.  

Global branded food champion Flora Food Group, offers the next generation of delicious, natural, nutritious food. Our products are more affordable and more sustainable than their dairy equivalents.  

Are you passionate about creating outstanding products that delight consumers? Do you enjoy leading projects from a technical perspective and driving innovation?

About the Role

As Technical Project Lead, you will be the R&D representative in cross-functional teams, owning the technical delivery of both new product development and cost optimization projects. You'll ensure best-in-class product design by leveraging the full breadth of R&D expertise, while collaborating closely with Marketing, Supply Chain, and other key functions.

Product quality is central to consumer satisfaction. In addition to project leadership, you'll also be hands-on in product development—working in the lab, pilot plant, and scaling up in factories.

This role focuses on Emerging Markets, with multi-country projects acrossLATAM. You'll work with both internal factories and third-party manufacturers (3PM), primarily in the ambient and chilled spreads category, with potential expansion into other product areas based on market needs.

You'll be based in Tultitlán, Mexico, working from our Flora Food Mexico offices and manufacturing unit, where projects are upscaled and implemented into the factory and brought to market. Also, you'll be part of the Global R&D Team based at our inspiring Food Science Centre in Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead technical delivery of projects, ensuring timelines, quality, budget, and documentation are met.
• Drive product design and development excellence to create delicious, nutritious, and functional products.
• Lead cross-discipline R&D teams including consumer insights, product and packaging developers, chefs, flavour experts, and microbiologists.
• Lead the optimization, and implementation of manufacturing processes for spreadable products (e.g., margarine, plant-based spreads, nut butters) and creams.
• Manage technical aspects of copacker relationships, ensuring product and pack quality, process alignment, and successful project execution across third-party manufacturing sites in LATAM.
• Plan and execute experiments (lab, pilot, factory) based on technical hypotheses; analyze data and draw conclusions.
• Develop product prototypes at bench, pilot, and factory scale, adhering to GMP, food safety, and quality standards.
• Characterize prototypes for physical-chemical and sensory attributes and assess shelf-life.
• Define product and technical specifications for sourcing and supply chain, ensuring compliance with quality and safety standards.

What You'll Bring

• BSc in Food Technology, Food Process Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or related field, with minimum 3 years of relevant experience.
• Proven experience in technical project leadership and hands-on product development.
• Strong track record of delivering projects on time and in full.
• Experience working across diverse cultures and regions.
• Expertise in emulsion/fat technology and data analysis from factory/pilot trials, including data mining of process parameters.
• Team player with a can-do attitude and practical creativity.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity, dynamic and fast-paced environments.
• Self-starter with the ability to work independently and take ownership.
• Skilled in executing product performance tests and technical analyses.
• Solution-oriented, quality-driven, and proactive.
• Fluent in English (spoken and written).
• Willingness to travel across LATAM as needed.

What You Bring to the Team

• A passion for innovations, new and improved product and process development.
• A hands-on, creative approach to developing and implementing practical solutions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills to engage with diverse stakeholders.
• A results-driven mindset focused on delivering measurable outcomes.

We understand your resume might not be up to date and recommend that you apply with what you have or your LinkedIn Profile. Flora Food Group is dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace, we understand that you might not meet all the requirements stated in the description, but we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this role or other roles.  

Flora Food Group is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias.  

No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Flora Food Group. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics.