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Senior R&D Specialist

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Job ID 323058 Date posted 03/09/2026 Location : Vilvoorde, Belgium Category  RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT Job Status  Salaried Full Time

Cargill is a family company committed to providing food and agricultural solutions to nourish the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. We sit at the heart of the supply chain, partnering with producers and customers to source, make and deliver products that are vital for living. By providing customers with life’s essentials, we enable businesses to grow, communities to prosper, and consumers to live well.

This position is in our Food Enterprise where we are committed to serving food manufacturers, food service customers, and retailers with a complete range of innovative ingredients and branded products. Our portfolio includes poultry, beef, egg, alternative protein, salt, oils, starches, sweeteners, cocoa and chocolate.

Job Purpose and Impact

Location: Vilvoorde, Belgium - Position is a Lab/ Pilot plant based position and does not offer remote/ hybrid working. 

The R&D Senior Application Specialist - Sugar Confectionery will work closely with Cargill R&D and business colleagues to execute application trials, producing prototypes, analysing products and ingredients and giving technical advice & training on ingredients and the applications in the Sugar Confectionery category.

You will report into the R&D Director - Sugar Confectionery & Fruit Category

Key Accountabilities

  • Plan, execute, document and present application trials in Sugar Confectionery with minimal supervision 
  • Work closely with the R&D Associate Application Specialist, Sugar Confectionery, to ensure application trials  are professionally executed 
  • Develop and produce prototypes demonstrating the value proposition of Cargill’s ingredient solutions 
  • Expand Cargill’s knowledge and capability in all relevant sub-applications, mostly gum & jellies, chewing candy, chewing gum, hard-boiled candies and aerated candies like marshmallow 
  • Support and advise the Technical Account Managers on their technical services for our customers’ projects, troubleshooting, complaints and general questions 
  • Analysing sugar confectionery products, ingredients and process aids 
  • Travel occasionally with the Technical Account Managers to customers as a Subject Matter Expert 
  • Participate, prepare, present and give training at external and internal events like public and in-house fairs, symposiums and innovation days 
  • Maintain and develop the Sugar Confectionery pilot plant capabilities 
  • Keep our existing training & customer presentation material and recipes up-to-date and develop this content further 
  • Provide ideas and give feedback on the ideas of colleagues on new products, services and solutions 
  • Support the build and execution of category growth plans, and collaborate with Sales, Product Line Management

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

  • Master's degree in Food Science or another relevant discipline 
  • 5 or more years of job experience in Sugar Confectionery Applications; gums & jellies, hard-boiled candies, tablets, chewing candy and gums and the used ingredients and processes - We cannot consider non food based experience
  • Working and documenting at high scientific level 
  • Fluent in English - Other European languages useful but not required 

Preferred Qualifications

  • Solid understanding of ingredients, especially Sweeteners and Texturizers used in Sugar Confectionery 

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Our Offer
We provide a fast paced stimulating international environment, which will stretch your abilities and channel your talents. We also offer competitive salary and benefits combined with outstanding career development opportunities in one of the largest and most solid private companies in the world.

We welcome applications from people with disabilities and are committed to providing an inclusive, accessible recruitment process and workplace. We encourage candidates to let us know if they require any accommodations during the recruitment or interview process so we can support them appropriately.

Interested? Then make sure to send us your CV and cover letter in English today:  
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At Cargill, everyone matters and everyone counts. Cargill is committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive and diverse work environment where all employees are treated with dignity and respect. As such and in alignment with our Guiding Principles, Cargill’s long-standing equal employment opportunity policy prohibits discrimination and harassment against any employee or applicant based on race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, pregnancy, genetic information, marital status, family status, citizenship status, veteran status, military status, union affiliation, or any other status protected by law.

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