Senior Research Assistant – Food Technologist Full-time

Senior Research Assistant

Join a purposeful, collaborative research environment supporting Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator, a nationally significant initiative hosted by The University of Queensland. As Senior Research Assistant, you will provide technical and laboratory support for an industry-linked project focused on next-generation food ingredients and products with enhanced nutritional functionality, improved processing performance, and reduced allergenicity. Working alongside multidisciplinary colleagues across food science, immunology, and commercial translation, you will contribute practical expertise that helps turn research insight into industry-ready outcomes.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Conduct and support laboratory experiments across compositional and amino acid profiling, in vitro gastrointestinal digestion studies, protein digestibility assays, and allergen release kinetics assessments.
• Perform thermal denaturation and processing experiments, including differential scanning calorimetry, turbidity and dynamic light scattering measurements, and industry-relevant thermal treatments.
• Benchmark techno-functional performance across foaming, gelation, emulsification, and baking applications, including stability and shelf-life studies for liquid, frozen, and powdered ingredient formats.
• Assist with research study design, technical troubleshooting, equipment upkeep, research documentation, literature reviews, reporting, and routine team administration.

This role connects with UQ's industry-facing food innovation ecosystem. In 2025, UQ News highlighted how FaBA researchers developed a texture toolkit to help food manufacturers improve product texture and consumer appeal, reflecting the applied, practical impact this team is helping to build. Read more about FaBA's texture toolkit.

Enjoy up to 26 weeks paid parental and primary care leave, 17% super, 17.5% leave loading, flexible and hybrid working options, health and wellbeing programs, a heavily discounted Study for Staff program, on-campus childcare, affordable parking, and salary packaging.