VP of Global Research & Innovation

Role

A global leader in the flavours and speciality ingredients industry are currently seeking a dynamic individual who enjoys working in a multi-cultural environment to lead their global Research and Innovation team. This is a board-level appointment with full responsibility for global and regional strategy, R&D and a diverse team of 700 personnel.  You will be required to partner with the commercial and marketing teams to implement proactive initiatives and technologies to expand the business through profitable growth goals.   

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a Research & innovation strategy globally to achieve world-class innovation and product development.
• Attract, develop and retain a high performance team across multiple locations and sites and ensure best-in-class talent management. 
• Encourage a culture of pro-active idea generation and innovative spirit by inspiring your team and clearing roadblocks.
• Develop R&I capabilities to most effectively support business in regions Europe, Americas and APAC and manage R&D projects with high impact across multiple global sites. 
• Improve key processes “idea to market” and “briefing to order” to ensure efficient project management and ideal customer experience.
• Benchmark and monitor market trends to identify new technologies, raw materials and product concepts. 
• Ensure effective collaboration in a matrix management organisational structure, particularly with Application, Technology, Quality Management and Sales functions.
• Indemnify compliance with in-house and legal requirements and guidelines for hygiene, HACCP, food safety, occupational safety and environmental protection.
• Continuously improve metrics to measure progress towards achievement of defined business goals. 

Required Skills and Experiences

• Inspiring management personality with strong leadership skills, entrepreneurial attitude and high level of competence in finding solutions.
• Long track record of at least 15 years in R&D in food & beverage of FMCG industry with focus on research.
• Experience in leading a global R&D organisation and delivering excellent research results. 
• Strong knowledge of effective project management and process design in R&D.
• PhD in natural sciences with expertise in nutrition, functional ingredients and ingredient systems.
• Profound scientific network of research institutes and universities.
• Agile and ready to respond in high stress situations whilst not losing a strong attention to detail and results.  
• Highly developed project management skills including a working knowledge of Microsoft office (Excel, PPT, WORD etc.)
• Multiple language capabilities are considered advantageous for this position.