Chief Science Officer – Perennia Food and Agriculture Inc – Bible Hill

Perennia Food and Agriculture Inc.  has an opening for a Chief Science Officer located at the Perennia Innovation Centre in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia.

Perennia is a provincially-owned crown corporation providing production, food safety and value-added product development services to the agricultural and food processing sectors in Atlantic Canada. The Innovation Centre, its staff and this position play a key role in Perennia’s ongoing mission to proactively and innovatively service our clients.

The Chief Science Officer (CSO) is responsible to lead a team of scientific and technical experts with the goal to assist producers and processors in new product and process development from idea stage to commercialization. This work is mainly done using research as a tool to create innovative food and nutraceutical products.

The CSO is the driver of food- and product-related research and technology development activities within Perennia and plays a key role in identifying opportunities for generating economic activity through new business start-ups, expansions and relocations to the Perennia Innovation Centre. The person hired for this position will report directly to the CEO and be part of the Perennia management team.

Specific responsibilities include:

Identifying of opportunities with producers and processors to optimize their income
Overseeing the research and commercialization services unit of Perennia
Overseeing product and process development services
Conducting outreach with target markets to transfer new technologies
Leading new business incubation and attraction to the Perennia Innovation Centre
Optimizing the facility, equipment and team for best service delivery and efficiencies
Management of the process and product development team which includes a food scientist, process and product development co-ordinator, two research and development technicians, and a program administrator

To excel at this position, the successful candidate requires the following qualifications and experience:

PhD in a Food Science discipline and previous management experience
Demonstrated experience and success in managing and motivating a team
Experience in business planning and service delivery
Evidence of an ability to commercialize from research is mandatory
Demonstrated ability to understand client needs then build a successful research and product development regime around that need
The ability to pull in appropriate partners at appropriate times is critical. Evidence of the ability to access program and project funding is a key priority
A self-driven attitude and approach to work
Be a problem solver
Excellent planning and organizational skills
Excellent verbal and written communications skills

To express interest, please submit a cover letter, resume and remuneration expectations to the following address by April 7th, 2015:

Perennia
ATTN: Ruth Ann Hutchinson
173 Dr. Bernie MacDonald Drive
Truro, NS  B6L 2H5
rhutchinson@perennia.ca

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