Senior Food Technologist, Research & Development Data Analyst

We have an exciting opportunity available for a Senior Food Technologist located out of our corporate office in Bloomington, MN.  The Senior Technologist, R&D Data Analyst serves as the technical and analytical lead for the Research & Development department leading data management, reporting, and insights. This position is responsible for transforming complex information into actionable business intelligence that supports trends, sensory evaluation, risk management, regulatory compliance, supplier performance, product quality, and operational excellence.

The role partners across R&D (FSQR & Product Development), Supply Chain, Operations, International, Distribution, IT, and supplier partners to develop data-driven solutions that improve decision making and strengthen food safety and quality performance throughout the Dairy Queen system. This position combines technical R&D expertise with advanced analytics capabilities, serving as a subject matter expert for data analytics, regulatory intelligence, emerging risk identification, and continuous improvement initiatives.

R&D Data Strategy, Governance, Reporting & Executive Insights

• Serve as R&D Data Steward, establishing data standards, maintaining master data accuracy, overseeing data governance processes, and ensuring the quality, consistency, and reliability of R&D data. 

• Partner with Information Technology and business stakeholders to define requirements, support system integrations, troubleshoot issues, and ensure ongoing data accuracy and system performance.

• Develop AI-assisted tools, automated workflows, and scalable reporting solutions that improve efficiency, visibility, and decision making across R&D business processes.

• Build and maintain dashboards, scorecards, recurring reports, and executive summaries across R&D, FSQR, regulatory, supplier, and product development data.

• Translate complex datasets into actionable insights, recommendations, presentations, and business cases for R&D leadership and cross-functional partners.

• Track key performance indicators including project pipeline health, stage gate progress, turnaround time, supplier responsiveness, quality trends, emerging issues, and key risk indicators.

FSQR Data Analytics & Insights

• Analyze food safety, quality, supplier, audit, complaint, regulatory, operational, cold chain, and laboratory testing data to identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.

• Support predictive and risk-based analytics to proactively identify emerging food safety, supplier quality, product performance, and compliance concerns.

• Strengthen data-driven decision making for FSQR leadership by developing clear reporting, trend analysis, and recommendations for cross-functional action

Product Development & Innovation Analytics

• Analyze sensory evaluation, product benchmark, consumer insight, market performance, and competitive data to improve product success criteria and inform innovation strategy.

• Build consolidated product profiles and searchable repositories for current and historical products, LTOs, formulations, product attributes, launch details, market performance, and key learnings.

• Identify sensory white spaces, competitive trends, regional signals, product similarities, benchmarking opportunities, and process improvement opportunities to accelerate concept development and product matching efforts.

Regulatory Intelligence & Compliance Analytics

• Maintain regulatory monitoring tools, databases, and automated reporting processes to track federal, state, provincial, and international regulatory developments.

• Support FSMA 204 traceability data management, compliance reporting, and restaurant support by collecting, managing, and maintaining accurate regulatory data.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead cross-functional R&D data, analytics, reporting, risk assessment, and compliance initiatives across domestic and international business units.

• Provide technical guidance, training, and communication support to improve team capability, adoption of data tools, and effective use of analytics.

• Build presentations, executive summaries, and business cases that clearly communicate findings, recommendations, and business impact.

• Conduct regulatory impact assessments and communicate compliance risks, business implications, and recommended actions to R&D and cross-functional stakeholders.

• Build and maintain automated reporting processes related to regulatory changes and compliance initiatives.

The US national base salary range for this position is $74,968 - $89,962. The base salary range displayed reflects the targeted hiring range for positions across all US locations. Individual pay is determined by job-related skills, work location and relevant education or experience