Research and Grants Development Specialist

• Serve as technical lead on research initiatives assigned by the Director, coordinating experimental design and execution with pilot plant staff and external collaborators.

• Provide technical and research support to FOODii tenants, including experimental design consultation and troubleshooting support for their product development work.

• Design sensory analysis experiments and prepare sensory evaluation reports for FOODii research initiatives and tenant projects.

• Develop and maintain working knowledge of emerging food processing and ingredient technologies relevant to FOODii's pipeline, such as extrusion processing and precision fermentation.

• Evaluate new equipment, ingredients, and processing methods, and provide technical recommendations to the Director.

• Identify and pursue funding opportunities aligned with FOODii's strategic initiatives, spanning workforce development, applied research, equipment and infrastructure, and private foundation funding categories.

• Draft grant proposals in coordination with the Director, including project narratives, budgets, budget justifications, biosketches, facilities and resources statements, and letters of support.

• Author white papers and other funding-adjacent materials that support FOODii's positioning with prospective funders.

• Organize or support webinars and outreach activities connected to funding opportunities and FOODii's grant initiatives.

• Maintain a rolling pipeline of prospective funding opportunities and report status to the Director on a monthly basis.

• Coordinate with the LSU AgCenter Office of Sponsored Programs and with co-investigators across departments and partner institutions on multi-party proposals.

• Maintain a library of reusable proposal content, including institutional descriptions, facilities statements, and standard biosketches, to reduce proposal turnaround time.

• Support post-award progress reporting and compliance documentation in coordination with the Office of Sponsored Programs.

• Master's in Food Science, Food Engineering, Sensory Science, or a closely related discipline, with a minimum of three years of applied research experience.

• Strong technical writing skills, with the ability to translate scientific work into proposal narratives for non-specialist reviewers.

• Ability to manage multiple concurrent deadlines and work independently with growing autonomy over time.

Background Check - An offer of employment is contingent on a satisfactory pre-employment background check.