Flavorist (Taste)

Role Overview

Senior Flavorist (Taste) at IFF, located in Dubai. You will create, develop, and optimize flavor profiles for food and beverage products, blending scientific expertise with creative innovation across dairy, sweets, and beverages categories.

Company Overview

IFF is a global leader in flavors, fragrances, food ingredients and health & biosciences. The Taste division crafts unique, technology-enabled flavor designs that define the identity of food and beverage brands, shape trends in flavor building and fuel market success.

Role Purpose

To design and formulate market-leading, consumer-preferred flavors that transform everyday food and beverage products into extraordinary consumer experiences. This role requires deep knowledge of flavor chemistry, sensory science, and regulatory compliance, executed through cross-functional collaboration and technical leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Flavor Design & Development

• Design and formulate innovative, market-leading flavors for food and beverage applications, including compounded liquids, spray-dried powders, plated flavors, reaction flavors, emulsions and extracts, using Generally Recognized as Safe and U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved materials.
• Create, develop and optimize consumer-preferred flavor profiles across beverage, sweet goods and dairy applications.
• Apply analytical data, sensory science and technical expertise to develop, characterize and match flavor materials.
• Develop flavors that meet U.S. and international flavor regulations, including specific regulatory requirements for alcoholic beverages.

Project Leadership & Execution

• Lead creative development projects from concept through launch, building customer intimacy while ensuring timelines, specifications and quality standards are achieved.
• Manage multiple customer and internal development projects while maintaining quality, accuracy and agreed-upon timelines.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with Applications, Research & Development, Marketing, Sales and Operations teams to support seamless project execution, commercialization and successful scale-up.
• Partner with account managers to understand customer needs, provide technical support and develop practical solutions to complex flavor challenges.
• Collaborate with global innovation teams to leverage new technologies, support strategic priorities and identify opportunities for flavor development.

Mentorship & Knowledge Transfer

• Mentor and train junior colleagues by sharing technical knowledge, creative approaches and industry expertise.
• Develop your leadership capabilities through the mentorship and development of junior colleagues.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Chemistry or a related scientific discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive, hands-on flavor creation and development experience, with demonstrated expertise across sweet, dairy and beverage categories.
• Fully certified flavor chemist credentials, such as certification from the Society of Flavor Chemists, or an equivalent recognized qualification.
• Working knowledge of U.S. and international flavor regulations and experience formulating with approved flavor materials.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong scientific knowledge of food science, chemistry, aroma molecules, natural extracts and flavor manufacturing processes.
• Demonstrated ability to identify, characterize, formulate and match flavor materials using analytical and sensory evaluation techniques.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to explain technical information clearly to internal colleagues and external customers.
• Foundational leadership capabilities with experience mentoring, guiding or developing junior flavor professionals.

Additional Information

Preferred Qualifications

• An advanced degree, such as a master's degree or doctorate, in Food Science, Chemistry or a related field.
• Experience developing clean label and natural flavors while navigating the related technical and regulatory requirements.
• A strong record of combining consumer insights, sensory science and emerging technologies to deliver differentiated flavor solutions.

Why Join IFF

• Create flavors that help shape the identity and market success of food and beverage brands.
• Work across a diverse portfolio of beverage, sweet goods and dairy applications.
• Collaborate with experienced colleagues across Creative & Design, Applications, Research & Development, Marketing, Sales and Operations.
• Access global innovation capabilities and emerging flavor technologies.
• Contribute your scientific expertise and creativity to solutions designed around evolving consumer preferences.
• IFF is committed to an inclusive workplace that values diverse ethnicity, national origin, race, age, sex, veteran status, religion, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and disability.