As flavor, fragrance and specialty ingredient businesses prepare their hiring plans for 2027, I believe more attention should go to the work required to support their existing portfolios.
Charlie PackwoodCourtesy of the author
From a recruitment perspective, five areas deserve particular attention. Each points toward a more specific hiring requirement, with implications for both employers and candidates.
Previously: Five Talent Trends Shaping Hiring Across Specialty Ingredients in 2026
Reformulation is becoming a dedicated technical leadership discipline
An established formula carries an ongoing workload.
Raw materials become unavailable. Customers change specifications. Costs increase. Products need to meet different requirements across markets. Each adjustment requires decisions about performance, testing, approvals and commercial priorities.
An IFF recruitment brief illustrates the scale. Its technical perfumery reformulation manager position included responsibility for coordinating work across more than 8,000 fragrance formulas globally, covering compliance, supply continuity, cost optimization and portfolio simplification.
For me, the hiring significance lies in the responsibility for managing the portfolio as a whole.
A strong technical specialist understands how to resolve an individual formulation problem. Leading a reformulation program also requires judgment about which projects need immediate attention, where customer exposure is greatest and how to allocate experienced people.
This places value on technical perfumers, formulation managers and portfolio leaders who combine detailed product knowledge with the ability to set priorities.
The strongest candidates will explain how they managed competing requirements across multiple products. Their experience should show how they maintained quality, secured approvals and kept work moving without allowing every request to become equally urgent.
As portfolios change, I expect this discipline to carry greater weight in technical leadership appointments.
Regulatory hiring is expanding into data and systems
Regulatory knowledge depends on the quality of the information supporting it.
A specialist needs reliable composition data, current specifications, accurate customer restrictions and a clear record of approvals. When this information sits across disconnected systems, even an experienced team spends time reconstructing answers.
Givaudan’s recruitment brief for a head of systems strategy in regulatory reflects this intersection. The position combines regulatory requirements, data integrity, system design and coordination across product safety, technology and business teams.
This points toward a distinct hiring profile.
Companies need people who understand how regulatory requirements translate into working systems. They must recognize which information matters, how it should connect and where an error affects a product or customer decision.
The EU’s expanded fragrance allergen labeling requirements give this capability practical relevance. Implementation requires accurate information to move between suppliers, fragrance houses and finished-product manufacturers.
I see a clear case for placing greater value on regulatory data specialists, systems leaders and professionals experienced in translating compliance requirements into everyday processes.
Candidates from adjacent regulated industries deserve consideration where their systems experience transfers. Their suitability will depend on how effectively they learn the product context and work with established fragrance or ingredient experts.
Natural color conversion is increasing the value of production experience
Natural colors featured in my previous column as an area requiring specialist ingredient knowledge. The next hiring consideration concerns implementation.
The January 2027 deadline for reformulating foods containing FD&C Red No. 3 creates a near-term requirement for affected manufacturers and suppliers. Wider customer commitments to color conversion add further work.
Replacing a color involves decisions about processing, stability, appearance and shelf life. Heat, light, pH and the order in which ingredients enter the process all influence performance.
This makes experience beyond the development bench particularly relevant.
A candidate might know the available color systems and produce a successful laboratory sample. The commercial challenge continues through factory trials, production variability, customer approval and ongoing supply.
For me, this strengthens the case for application scientists, technical service managers and process specialists with experience completing conversions under manufacturing conditions.
Sensient’s recruitment material explicitly connects the natural color transition with technical service, commercial understanding and problem-solving capability. It provides a practical example of a product transition shaping talent requirements.
When assessing candidates, I would place considerable weight on the projects they have taken through to production. The useful detail lies in what changed during scale-up, which alternatives failed and how the final solution met the customer’s requirements.
Business separations are increasing the value of leaders who establish independent capability
Acquisitions and divestments change the capabilities a business needs around its products.
A team previously supported by group functions might need to establish its own systems, processes and decision-making responsibilities. An acquired business might need to join a larger organization while maintaining service to existing customers.
These situations place specific demands on leadership.
In October, dsm-firmenich announced Noviwest and Panavora as the planned standalone companies emerging from its animal nutrition and health transaction, subject to completion. The announced Noviwest portfolio includes vitamins, carotenoids and aroma ingredients.
For any business undergoing a similar change, the talent requirement extends across technical leadership, regulatory affairs, quality, supply chain and commercial management.
I would distinguish between experience leading an established function and experience establishing how a function should work independently. Both have value, but they answer different hiring needs.
Candidates suited to a separation need to understand dependencies, establish ownership and make decisions while responsibilities evolve. They also need to preserve the product and customer knowledge held within the existing team.
This makes practical transition experience relevant to appointments. A familiar industry background provides context. Evidence of maintaining service while building independent capability gives a clearer indication of suitability.
Senior technical appointments need to build expertise across the team
I expect the ability to develop other specialists to receive greater attention in senior technical hiring.
An experienced perfumer, flavorist or application leader brings individual expertise. The business also needs a plan for how colleagues gain the judgment required to take responsibility for difficult work.
This becomes particularly important where a small number of people hold detailed knowledge of products, processes or customers.
A specification records an approved material. It does not necessarily explain why an alternative failed, which processing condition caused a problem or why a customer requires a particular approach.
That context develops through experience. Transferring it requires time, involvement and deliberate leadership.
For me, this should influence how companies assess senior candidates. Technical achievement remains essential, alongside evidence of developing colleagues, documenting critical decisions and creating opportunities for others to handle complex projects.
Promotion into management does not establish these skills automatically. Employers need to examine how a candidate has supported learning and increased the team’s ability to work independently.
Candidates who demonstrate this contribution offer value beyond their own output. They help the business retain expertise, prepare successors and reduce its dependence on individual employees.
The skills that will define 2027 hiring
Across these five areas, the hiring requirement becomes more precise.
Companies need leaders who manage formulation portfolios, specialists who connect regulation with reliable systems, application professionals who complete manufacturing conversions, managers who establish independent capability and technical experts who develop others.
As I look toward 2027, these are capabilities I would examine closely. They support the products already generating revenue and give experienced teams more capacity to develop new business.
