Senior Application Scientist

General Summary:
Under minimal supervision, the Senior Application Scientist serves as a technical expert in the formulation, application, and optimization of natural colors across diverse food and beverage systems. This role provides high-level technical guidance, drives complex development projects, and partners with commercial and global innovation teams to deliver customer-focused solu-tions. The Senior Application Scientist is a key contributor to strategic growth initiatives, custom-er success, and cross-functional technical excellence within Oterra.

Principal Duties And Responsibilities:
•    Leads complex, multi-phase application projects, ensuring timely execution, technical accu-racy, and alignment with customer and business objectives.
•    Serves as a senior technical advisor to U.S. and global customers, providing expert-level guidance on the use, stability, processing, and performance of Oterra’s natural color portfolio.
•    Delivers on-site customer support at both laboratory and production-plant levels, including troubleshooting, scale-up support, and commercialization assistance.
•    Partners strategically with Account Managers to retain and grow key business, identify tech-nical opportunities, influence customer decision-making, and support long-term commercial relationships.
•    Champions safety practices, modeling and reinforcing safe laboratory behavior and compli-ance with all corporate and regulatory guidelines.
•    Develops advanced technical presentations, demonstrations, and training materials for in-ternal teams, customers, and industry events.
•    Conducts sophisticated analytical testing—including colorimetric evaluations, formulation trials, and stability assessments—to support data-driven decisions and customer recom-mendations.
•    Provides high-quality technical documentation, including project plans, experimental results, and formal technical reports for internal stakeholders and customer use.
•    Maintains and enhances relevant technical databases, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and efficient knowledge-sharing.
•    Authors, updates, and enforces technical SOPs, best practices, and standardized testing pro-tocols.
•    Collaborates with cross-functional teams—R&D, Product Management, Marketing, Opera-tions, Quality, and Regulatory—to support new product development, application guidelines, and optimized customer solutions.
•    Supports sample preparation activities as required, particularly for high-priority customer or innovation projects.
•    Mentors junior scientists and technicians, providing guidance on experimental design, tech-nical problem-solving, and best practices in application science.
•    Participates in strategic initiatives that shape Oterra’s future product roadmap, application capabilities, and customer experience.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:
1.    MS or PhD in Food Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline; or a BS degree with significant relevant experience.
2.    Minimum of 7–10 years of experience in food and beverage formulation, product develop-ment, application science, or a related technical field.
3.    Deep understanding of food and beverage processing across multiple application categories (e.g., beverages, dairy, snacks, confectionery, prepared foods).
4.    Exceptional color discrimination and visual acuity; strong ability to evaluate color in a wide range of application systems. (Color vision testing required.)
5.    Advanced technical communication skills, with the ability to present complex concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
6.    Strong analytical skills with the ability to design experiments, interpret data, draw conclu-sions, and communicate actionable insights.
7.    Proven ability to lead projects independently while collaborating effectively in cross-functional and global environments.
8.    Customer-centric mindset with the ability to build strong relationships and influence tech-nical decisions.
9.    Highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced setting.
10.    Proficiency with laboratory equipment, formulation tools, colorimetry, and digital documen-tation systems.

Working Conditions: 
Working environment is generally favorable and in an office setting   Lighting, temperature and noise levels are adequate.  Generally sedentary work but may require standing and walking for up to 25% of work time.  On-call work may be required. PPE is required when working in the laboratory.  This includes a lab coat, and if necessary, safety glasses, dust mask or gloves.  When working in the production plant, a hair/beard net, safety glasses and safety shoes are required and GLP/GMP guidelines must be followed. This role is onsite 5 days a week in Mount Pleasant, WI. 

Physical Demands:
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to talk, hear, use hands to finger, handle or touch objects, keyboard and occasionally lift up to 25 lbs.  Occasional-ly required to stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.