Sensory Lead

Come join the Tillamook Team where our philosophy is “Do Right By Every Bite.” As an independent farmer-owned cooperative, we have been guided by good, honest values since 1909. We believe in putting quality over profit, natural over artificial, and that hard work can never be outsmarted. We’re taking a stand for real food because everyone deserves better.

We invite members of all diverse communities to join our workforce. At Tillamook, we believe that inclusion and diversity are central to our cultural strategy. In order to achieve our growth ambition and compete and win in the marketplace, we believe we make better decisions and build stronger teams when we invite and rely on diverse perspectives, thoughts, backgrounds and cultures into our work and to fuel our innovation and growth. To us this means creating a climate of inclusion where all employees feel valued and a sense of belonging. We believe this will make us a better consumer brand and employer.

About you:

What does real food mean to you? Is your favorite dish a cheesy casserole? Perhaps a decadent and indulgent ice cream? Either way, your identification with food is important to us. People who fit well here at Tillamook have a commitment to quality in everything they do. Our team members understand our vision, contribute to our mission, thrive on innovative thinking, hard work, and good, honest values.

About us:

Our team members understand our vision, contribute to our mission, thrive on innovative thinking, hard work, and good, honest values. We live by these shared values: We are Good Stewards, We believe in Uncompromising Quality, We work as One Team, We Play to Win, and We Genuinely Care for each other.

What you will do:

In this role, you will work on multiple sensory projects with competing priorities and will be part of planning, execution, analysis, and reporting. You will be in charge of sampling process management and sampling execution and act as a cross-functional liaison with the Operations team in the warehouse, setting up sample staging and sample pallet release. You will regularly serve as an organoleptic evaluator to assess Tillamook projects to ensure they achieve golden standard specifications. Also, to be a Sensory expert you will help ensure that product release is achieved on time and work toward improving processes that drive overall Operational excellence especially with regards to quality systems. You will report directly to the site lab manager with a dotted line to the Corporate Sensory manager.

Here’s a day in the life:

• Manages the sampling process and sample execution at Boardman
• Oversees sample staging and sample pallet release to warehouse
• Coordinates inbound and outbound sample shipments with various entities based upon inventory analytics and status
• Grades and evaluates products organoleptically in accordance with attribute standards and scaling.
• Conducts regular product evaluations; serves as product assessor, manages related inventory through data collection
• Reviews product on the line as requested by production, warehousing, or others
• Evaluates raw materials organoleptically prior to production use
• Reviews chemistry, microbiology attributes, and compares to cheese specs.
• Ensures data integrity in the system is accurate and manages any reconciliation
• Initiates root cause analysis for issues, provides recommendations, or documents action taken to resolve permanently
• Performs data entry for various applications, tests & evaluations
• Assists Sensory Analysts, Technicians, and other scientists
• Provides back-up support to product release functions as needed
• Upholds 6S lab cleanliness practices
• Ensures Lab is prepared and stocked with solutions, tools, supplies
• Works cross-functionally to improve processes within the organization serving as a driver for uncompromising quality
• Adheres to long term project schedules (such as shel- life studies) and complete assigned tasks on time
• Drives execution on multiple projects with completing priorities

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Experience in descriptive and/or flavor analysis preferably in the sensory evaluation of dairy products OR experience with the operations side of manufacturing dairy products and a strong interest in food, tasting, and Sensory Science.
• Experience with Sensometric management, Minitab, or other statistical software is not required but is a plus.
• Experience with LIMS is not required but is a plus.

Education:

Bachelor's degree in Food Technology, Food Science, Sensory Science, Experimental Psychology, Statistics, OR 2 years of sensory science, marketing research, or product development experience reflecting increasing levels of responsibility; OR 4 years of direct lab or operations experience with Tillamook Skilled in the use of MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, and MS Word at an intermediate level.

Physical Requirements:

• Sitting
• Standing and/or walking
• Lifting 55 lbs.
• Vision for machine or computer operations
• Hearing
• Pre-work physical exam required

Industry-leading benefit and reward programs:

We offer outstanding benefits to our employees. For more information, please visit the careers page:

www.tillamook.com/careers.

We are committed to creating a culture of inclusion where all employees are heard, valued and feel a sense of belonging. We rely on different perspectives, thoughts, backgrounds and cultures to inform our work, to help us be better as a brand and as an employer and to fuel our success. We are seeking talent from a wide range of diversity, perspectives, and backgrounds to join our exceptional organization and help us build our future.

Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) is a Drug-Free Workplace. EEO

TCCA prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to age, race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity, disability status (including those related to pregnancy and childbirth), protected veteran status, membership/non-membership in a labor organization, or any other characteristic protected by law.