About the Role

Schep’s Bakeries Ltd. is seeking a hands-on product developer to support innovation and commercialization for our ice cream novelty business. You will develop new products, improve existing formulations, and work alongside Production, Quality Assurance, and Maintenance to deliver products that taste great and run consistently at commercial scale. This role is suited to someone with practical food development experience who wants to build their expertise in ice cream novelties and manufacturing. You will work with the team from customer brief and bench formulation through plant trials, production start-up, and ongoing product improvement.

The ideal candidate is reliable with the ability to make sound decisions, using effective problem-solving.

Key Responsibilities

- Product development and formulation. Develop ice cream sandwiches, bars, coated novelties, and other frozen dessert formats. Formulate ice cream bases, coatings, sauces, and inclusions to meet sensory, cost, customer, and manufacturing requirements. Work with bakery colleagues on cookies and wafers used in frozen products
- Ice cream science and product performance. Work with the team to balance fat, milk solids, sugars, stabilizers, and emulsifiers to achieve target texture, sweetness, overrun, melt resistance, and frozen bite. Help evaluate ingredient interactions, coating adhesion, and moisture migration between ice cream and bakery components.
- Plant trials and commercialization. Help plan and carry out bench trials, pilot runs, and full-scale production trials. Develop and document formulations, processing parameters, product specifications, and acceptance criteria with the team. Work with operators on repeatable settings and support product launches.
- Manufacturing improvement and troubleshooting. Investigate issues involving freezing, extrusion, depositing, moulding, sandwich assembly, coating, hardening, and wrapping.



Partner with Production and Maintenance to resolve defects, improve weight control and yield, reduce waste, and achieve practical line speeds.
- Sensory quality and frozen shelf life. Carry out sensory and shelf-life evaluations, including temperature fluctuation and packaging performance. Help assess ice crystal growth, shrinkage, texture changes, coating integrity, and cookie or wafer performance throughout frozen storage and distribution
- Project coordination and technical documentation. Keep assigned development projects and trial schedules moving. Support costing and supplier evaluations, and maintain recipes, bills of materials, trial reports, specifications, and production instructions. Work with Quality Assurance on food safety, allergens, ingredient declarations, nutrition information, claims, and customer requirements.
- Other duties may be assigned within the scope of your role.
- Follow company policies, procedures, and applicable safety/regulatory requirements.

Qualifications

Required

- 3–5 years of food product development experience, including practical experience with ice cream, frozen desserts, or dairy products in a manufacturing environment. Direct experience with ice cream novelties is preferred.
- Experience contributing to product launches, including formulation, plant trials, and production handover. Able to explain your role and what you learned from the process.
- Degree or diploma in Food Science, Dairy Science, Food Technology,



or a related field; an equivalent combination of relevant technical training and substantial industry experience will be considered.
- Working knowledge of frozen dairy formulation and ingredient functionality, including freezing point, solids balance, overrun, stabilization, emulsification, and texture management.
- Familiarity with mix preparation, pasteurization, homogenization, ageing, freezing, and hardening, with practical exposure to relevant forming, assembly, coating, or packaging processes.
- Working knowledge of food safety systems, allergen controls, and applicable Canadian food requirements; familiarity with U.S. requirements for export products is an asset.

Preferred

- Private-label development, customer technical standards, and commercialization for major retailers or foodservice customers.
- Positive organization, documentation, and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with operators, technical teams, suppliers, and customers. Experience with project coordination and product costing is an asset.
- Experience carrying out sensory or shelf-life evaluations and using the results to help improve a product or process.

What We Offer

- Bi-weekly Direct Deposit Pay
- A wellness/benefits package for full-time employees after successful completion of their 3-month probation
- 2 weeks of paid vacation to start plus unpaid personal days
- A positive workplace culture which promotes respect and honesty
- Several employee appreciation events such as food trucks, golf tournament and Christmas party

Working Conditions

This position involves standing for long periods of time, lifting and in some cases exposure to refrigerated environments.

The successful candidate must be able to lift up to 40 lbs.

Pay: $30.00-$36.00 per hour

Expected hours: 40.0 per week

Benefits:

- Casual dress
- Discounted or free food
- On-site parking

Work Location: In person

📌 Product Developer - Ice Cream and Novelties (Norwich)
🏢 Schep's Bakeries
📍 Norwich