Food Application Development Scientist

About the role
StrainX makes precision-fermented food ingredients. An ingredient, however well made, is only useful once it works inside something real — a beverage that stays stable on a shelf, a bakery format that holds its texture, a confectionery matrix where the sweetness lands in the right place at the right moment.
Closing that gap is this job. You will take our ingredients and turn them into prototypes customers can taste, and into data that shows how they'll perform in their own products.
What you'll do
Develop and optimize food and beverage formulations using StrainX specialty ingredients
Run application trials across beverages, dairy, confectionery, bakery, snacks and nutraceutical formats
Characterize ingredient performance — sweetness, solubility, stability, flavor profile, texture and matrix compatibility
Produce application data sheets, prototype demonstrations and customer-ready technical documentation
Work with sensory teams on internal tastings and evaluation panels
Support customer trials, pilot demonstrations and B2B product integrations
Feed findings back to our fermentation, downstream and analytical teams
Keep work aligned with FSSAI and global novel food regulatory frameworks
What we're looking for
M.Sc., B.Tech or M.Tech in Food Technology, Food Science, Dairy Technology, Food Chemistry or a related field
Freshers to 3 years in food product or application development — FMCG, ingredient companies, flavor houses or R&D labs
A working understanding of ingredient interactions, sensory science, stability studies and prototype creation
Exposure to sweeteners, proteins, hydrocolloids, emulsifiers, flavors or alternative proteins
The discipline to design a structured experiment and document it properly
A creative, solution-oriented approach, and comfort in a fast-moving environment
Nice to have
Experience with precision-fermented ingredients
Sensory panel management, or formal sensory training
Clean-label formulation, plant-based product development or sugar-reduction work
Nutraceutical, functional food or RTD beverage formulation
Why this role is worth taking
You will work with ingredients that did not exist commercially a few years ago, and the prototypes you build go in front of global B2B partners. The plant is here in Bhopal, which means the fermentation team, the downstream team, and the analytical team are all people you can walk over to.
For someone early in their career, that combination — new ingredients, real customers, and everyone within walking distance — is rare.
About StrainX
StrainX is a precision fermentation company with a working factory in Bhopal and an R&D center in Bangalore. Venture-backed, more than a hundred people, three years of building.
To apply
Write to careers@strainx.in with your CV and a short note. If you can, use the subject line: Application for Food Application Development Scientist – Your Name.

Work arrangement
No