Deli Star Corporation is advancing the future of fresh sous vide with the REVEL retail brand and customer innovation programs, and the company is adding a Senior Product Designer to shape what customers will experience. This onsite role in St. Louis blends sensory judgment, scientific measurement, and hands-on formulation and prototyping, with scale-up support across multiple functions.
What you’ll do
- Design sous vide protein products and fresh prepared foods for REVEL and customer innovation programs.
- Turn customer and consumer needs into clear goals covering flavor, texture, appearance, nutrition, convenience, and value.
- Build formulations and bench prototypes, refining the details that impact how the food is prepared and how it’s eaten.
- Explore new applications and product formats enabled by Fresh Sous Vide, setting measurable quality targets and clear technical intent.
- Use first-principles thinking by questioning assumptions, identifying the underlying problem, and testing what improves the product.
- Run focused experiments that combine sensory judgment with scientific measurement.
- Account for ingredient behavior across cooking, chilling, packaging, and reheating to protect product quality and the eating experience.
- Simplify formulations and methods when possible, while keeping accurate records of findings and design decisions.
- Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Product Management on customer discovery, samples, and technical feasibility.
- Provide formulations, product specifications, quality targets, and technical intent to the Sr. Development Scientist who leads commercialization trials and scale-up.
- Participate in pilot and plant trials, compare results to the intended product experience, and refine formulations with the development team.
- Collaborate with Purchasing, Logistics, Technical Services, Technology, Manufacturing, and Food Safety & Quality to preserve product intent through production and support required evaluations and approvals.
Design team context
The Design function connects food science and product design with technical expertise across Supply Chain, including Commercialization, Purchasing, and Logistics, as well as Technology systems. In this role, the Senior Product Designer stays focused on the food itself, working across disciplines to understand how ingredients, processing, and manufacturing capabilities can improve the product experience. Collaboration centers on the Sr. Development Scientist, who leads commercialization trials, scale-up readiness, and technical transfer to Manufacturing.
Ownership and collaboration
This position owns product science, formulation, bench design, and technical intent, under direction from the CEO and Chief Science & Innovation Officer. Engagement continues through scale-up to assess product performance and guide formulation refinements.
Education and experience
- Minimum: 3 years of experience.
- Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Meat Science, Food Engineering, or a related discipline.
- Preferred: 3 or more years with sous vide, cooked proteins, vacuum packaging, or refrigerated prepared foods.
- Preferred: experience with prepared meals, home meal replacement, entrées, sauces, sides, or meal components.
- Preferred: experience supporting pilot or plant trials and translating culinary concepts into repeatable formulations and manufacturing specifications.
- Preferred: experience designing for reheating performance, component compatibility, texture, moisture retention, and shelf-life quality.
Required strengths
- A clear passion for designing food products, backed by examples from professional, academic, or independent projects.
- First-principles thinking and the ability to explain why a product behaves as it does.
- Understanding of protein and ingredient functionality, thermal processing, and refrigerated food quality.
- Ability to plan and conduct bench experiments, assess results, and refine formulations.
- Strong sensory judgment, analytical skills, and disciplined technical documentation.
- Ability to communicate design clearly, welcome critique, and solve problems collaboratively across functions.
What success looks like
- Create food people want to eat again.
- Explain why it works, document how to make it, and partner with Commercialization and Manufacturing to reproduce the intended product experience consistently.
- Expand what Deli Star’s Fresh Sous Vide system can offer.
Location: St. Louis, MO (onsite)
Minimum experience: 3 years
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Meat Science, Food Engineering, or a related discipline
