RD&A Food Technologist

About zolvia

We’re not your typical ingredients company - and we’re proud of it. Zolvia has built a proprietary ingredient technology platform that tackles the hard problems in functional nutrition: poor bioavailability, unstable actives, and ingredients that simply don’t survive long enough to do their job. Our incredible R&D team has developed three distinct technology pillars targeting bioavailability enhancement, ingredient solubility & stabilisation, and extended release — unlocking the full potential of functional ingredients across health, wellness, and performance sectors.

We’re growing fast, our pipeline is full, and now we need someone who can take what our technology team creates and ask the most important question of all: “but can it survive in a gummy, or beverage?”

Role Context

Here’s the challenge: our core R&D team are exceptional at what they do — they build technologies that make ingredients perform better. But once a stable creatine or a highly bioavailable curcumin leaves their hands, someone needs to figure out how it behaves in the real world: in an energy drink loaded with electrolytes, in a gummy full of sugar and citric acid, in a bar that’s been through a heat tunnel.

This is the role. At the intersection of advanced ingredient science and applied food formulation. You’ll join a tight-knit team of technology specialists and become the essential bridge between what we build in our labs and what ends up on shelf. Your work will directly shape our product development roadmap, strengthen our commercial partnerships, and prove — format by format — that Zolvia’s technologies are the real deal.

What You’ll Be Doing

Application Development & Formulation Testing

– Take Zolvia's actives and lead their integration into targeted food, beverage, and supplement matrices — think RTD/energy drinks, functional gummies, powder blends, and bars.

– Design and run structured formulation trials, rigorously evaluating compatibility, stability, and performance across each format.

– Put our ingredients through their paces: pH swings, heat, osmotic stress, co-ingredients like electrolytes, sugars, sweeteners, and acids. If it breaks down, you’ll find it before anyone else does.

– Troubleshoot formulation challenges — stability failures, sensory problems, processing incompatibilities — and come back with solutions, not just findings.

Specifications, Protocols & Documentation

– Build and maintain detailed application testing protocols, product specifications, and critical quality parameters for each matrix under evaluation.

– Define stability and shelf-life validation requirements aligned to specific product formats and target markets.

– Keep meticulous lab records and produce sharp technical reports that translate data into clear, actionable recommendations.

– Contribute to regulatory dossiers, IP documentation, and technical submissions where needed.

Scale-Up & External Collaboration

– Develop proof-of-concept prototypes for pilot trials, clients, and internal validation

– Get hands-on with pilot batches and first commercial runs, spotting and solving formulation and scale-up risks before they become expensive problems.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Innovation

– Work shoulder-to-shoulder with the delivery technology team, feeding real-world application data back into the ingredient development cycle — closing the loop between the lab and the market.

– Partner with commercial and regulatory on ingredient feasibility, claims, and market-specific requirements.

What We’re Looking For

Essential

– Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition Science, Applied Chemistry, or a related discipline.

– 3–5 years of hands-on formulation experience in food/nutrition manufacturing, ingredient solutions, or a B2B food applications environment.

– A background in ingredient solutions companies, contract food manufacturers, or large-scale food and dairy processing organisations — the kind of place where you’ve worked across multiple product categories and learned to move fast without cutting corners.

– Strong practical knowledge of food matrices: RTD and functional beverages, gummies, supplement formats, capsules, and soft-gels.

– A solid grasp of ingredient interactions, stability science, and the physicochemical realities of formulating with sensitive or encapsulated bioactives.

– Experience with stability and shelf-life testing — accelerated, real-time, and challenge — and the ability to design a test programme from scratch.

– A sharp analytical mind that enjoys a puzzle: you can read data, identify root causes, and translate results into decisions that move things forward.

Desirable

– Experience working alongside brand or contract manufacturing partners in a technical applications or NPD capacity.

– Familiarity with US, EU, UK, and international regulatory frameworks for novel ingredients, nutrition claims, and food supplements.

– An entrepreneurial streak — you’re comfortable with ambiguity, energised by ownership, and you thrive when there’s no one telling you exactly how to do it.

The Opportunity

– A rare chance to work at the frontier of ingredient science and food technology — not just talking about innovation, but actually doing it.

– A small, expert team where your work genuinely matters and your ideas get heard — no bureaucracy, just great people solving difficult problems.

– Real career progression in a company that’s growing quickly and investing in the people who help it get there.

– The satisfaction of seeing your work in finished products on shelves — knowing you’re the reason they work.

Please email your CV and short cover letter to [email protected] - must be sent via email or will not be considered.

Pay: €50,000.00-€70,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Flexitime
• On-site parking
• Private medical insurance
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person