Looking for Your Dream Job? Join The Magnum Ice Cream Company!

Location: Sarıgazi R&D IC

Terms & Conditions: Full Time

The Ice Cream division at Unilever is preparing to stand on its own, aiming to become an independent, EUR 8.3 billion publicly listed company by the end of 2025. We’re on a mission to create the ultimate snacking company. A place where growth, innovation, founder and ownership mentality, and performance are cultivated and rewarded. And where we craft extraordinary ice cream experiences - transforming ordinary moments into lasting memories. Because we know, life tastes better with ice cream.

The Magnum Ice Cream Company is all about growth. Growing our business. Growing our customers’ businesses. Growing our people’s careers. Growth begins with empowerment. So we free our people to be innovative, responsible entrepreneurs, driven and equipped to give our consumers more amazing products and unforgettable moments – and having fun doing it.

With 19.000 expert ice cream colleagues and iconic brands like Wall’s, Cornetto and Ben & Jerry’s, loved in 76 countries, we are the world’s largest Ice Cream company leading the industry. We have been taking pleasure seriously for more than 100 years, serving happiness with every lick or scoop of ice cream for generations.

We are investing to unlock the full growth potential of The Magnum Ice Cream Company as a standalone entity, once we separate from Unilever, which is planned to happen before the end of 2025.

We dream big but keep things simple to act fast.

If you want to grow with us, make an impact, and shape the future of Ice Cream, this is the place for you!

The role sits within the Scientific Affairs team, more specifically the Global Research, Development & Innovation (RD&I) Microbiology Team, and will be based in Sarigazi, Turkey.

The Ice Cream business in METSA Region is large and highly successful. The Ice Cream Regional Design Center (RDC) located in Sarigazi/Istanbul is the driving force behind the creation and delivery of benefit-led, innovative ice cream products across our world-renowned global (e.g. Magnum, Cornetto, Twister), premium local (e.g. Carte D’or, Maras) and regional (e.g. Vienetta) brands. The team embrace agile innovation and are fully connected to country teams to land innovation and renovation projects in the markets. The team is closely connected to local marketing and customer development teams and support their relationships with regulatory authorities, customers (e.g. by developing compelling selling stories that drive sales of our products) and consumers.

The business reaches across all ice cream experiences under two broad platforms: In Home and OOH (in-home tubs, log and pints and out of home experiences such as scooping non portioned and mono portions) and Impulse which includes global and local stick, cup, cone formats under Kids, Snacking, Cone and premium ranges.

OUR TEAM:

Ensuring that The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) products are safe to consume is of paramount importance for the business. The Global Scientific Affairs function, which is part of RD&I, brings together Food Safety, Regulatory Affairs and Nutrition expertise to ensure that TMICC products are safe-by-design and compliant with relevant regulations & nutrition requirements. As well as protecting the business, the Scientific Affairs function is also key to unlocking innovations to enable business growth. One of such functions is the Global RD&I Microbiology team.

Global RD&I Microbiology is an agile team of enthusiastic world-class scientists who deliver business relevant microbiological solutions underpinning brand innovation programmes, based on scientific and technological capabilities across RD&I and Supply Chain (SC). The strength of the team lies in the integration of microbiological and processing knowledge for RD&I to develop safe/stable formulation & process designs to deliver winning products.

The Ice Cream Microbiologist will work within the Global RD&I Microbiology team delivering up-front microbiological solutions and security across our RD&I innovation portfolio and business operations, supporting iconic brands such as Magnum, Cornetto and Ben & Jerry’s. This is a critical business need as robust data-driven microbiological support: (1) provides the unlock to maximise value from data (faster and sustainable innovation, incident prevention and mitigation, cost efficiencies), (2) provides a solid basis to perform microbiological risk assessments and (3) enables the business to deliver better for you and planet products.

This role will be based in Sarigazi (Turkey), co-located with the Ice Cream Regional Design Center, and reporting into the Global RD&I Microbiology team based in Colworth, UK.

JOB PURPOSE:

Working as an integral member of our enthusiastic team of microbiologists, you will play a key role in supporting new products and processes development projects in RD&I and providing microbiological support to our global business operations.

Main responsibilities include:

• Ensure microbiological safety of our Ready-To-Eat ingredients by working closely with our Global and Regional Microbiologists, Suppliers, RD&I project leaders, Quality, Procurement, and Ingredient Specialists to align on procedures, review decontamination processes and validation reports, and provide expert guidance for decontamination and validation procedures, as well as delivering decisions on RTE ingredient approval/rejection.
• Supporting the METSA Business Unit where RD&I Microbiological expertise is needed and drive compliance with Global Microbiology requirements by working closely with the other colleagues from the Global RD&I Microbiology team for alignment and sharing best practices.
• Conducting microbiological risk assessment for RD&I support (e.g. product development, RTE discussion) and Supply Chain support (e.g. for incident and process control).
• Assure microbiological safe and stable products and processes by actively implementing a Safe-By-Design approach.
• Partner with Global team to identify and adapt new methodologies/process/procedures enabling continuous future fit microbiological data science.
• Deliver technical input for relevant documents and training materials to ensure renew/maintenance of product & process design knowledge.
• Designing and supervising laboratory project work which will be done either in-house or in cooperation with third party labs.

WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED:

• Background (minimum BSc) in Microbiology, Applied Biology, Food Safety, or a closely related science area.
• Preference for previous experience in Microbiology linked to Food Industry, and understanding of food decontamination processes (thermal and non-thermal). Molecular Biology (DNA sequencing interpretation) is an advantage.
• Basic working knowledge and experience of using Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook).
• Excellent communication skills, written and oral to present in multidisciplinary teams and to various stakeholders, both in English and Turkish. Ability to manage complex stakeholder discussions.
• Ability to learn and work in fast paced environment with varying priorities and demands, demonstrating problem-solving skills where necessary.
• Team player with flexible “we can” attitude, yet, ability to work independently and defend own science-based knowledge in front of stakeholders.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:

• A unique mix of global scale & start-up spirit—€8.3bn powerhouse with an agile, entrepreneurial mindset. We’re building a new high growth Ice Cream company from the ground up.
• Career without limits—42 markets, international opportunities, and fast tracked growth.
• A performance-driven culture—Freedom to act, disrupt and grow – your success is measured by impact.
• A company that celebrates joy, innovation, and purpose—We create extraordinary careers, just like our ice cream creates extraordinary moments.

As publicly announced, Unilever will separate its Ice Cream business which is expected by the end of 2025. This role will transfer to the new Ice Cream company.

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicants from all walks of life. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

For the recruitment of this position, we would like to emphasize that local conditions apply to the position.

ARE YOU EXCITED TO CRAFT THE ICE CREAM FUTURE?

To apply, you must do so online. Please do not forget to upload your CV and a motivation letter.

Your application will be reviewed against our requirements, and we will be in touch shortly after the closing date to provide you with an update on the status of your application.

Disclaimer

Equal Opportunity Employer: Unilever is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, or any other basis protected by applicable law, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.