Job Description
Major responsibilities
1. Implement, Monitor, Evaluate plans for the improvement and development of the Applications Design function in Inventive. This includes close dialogue with the Commercial and Operation teams at Inventive.
2. Lead and coordinate customer project execution, ensure all resources are in place to maximize project win rate.
3. Identify new opportunities for creating inclusions in our target categories, formulate ideas as to how these can be turned into new products for customers.
4. Guide team to develop new products, from concept to final product, while evaluating risk of every stage.
5. Plan overall activities for the Applications Department in close dialogue with other departments such as Commercial, Operations, Quality, Customer Service, Procurement.
6. Coordinate and prioritize application activities (TSR, project support) to support the Inventive growth pipeline globally and realize 10% growth yoy.
7. Support commercial team in complex customer projects (product, regulatory compliance, scale up etc) to design the right solution for the customer
8. Visits key and high potential accounts on need-to basis with regards to pro- and reactive projects – jointly with the Commercial team
9. Provide (on time) together with Commercial, Marketing, Sensory Consumer Insight, all information necessary for the service of the accounts. This includes:
Concept/product samples for customer visits / workshops / Innovation days
10. Ensure Inventive application knowledge sharing & alignment (key learning/new findings, best practices) across the IFF innovation network (R&D, regional application teams), coordinate global project across regional teams & identify/develop a network of external partners/outsourced services that could facilitate geographical expansion.
11. Develops direct reports through training programs, coaching, and leading by example.
Required Skills
1. It is essential that the Application Design Team Leader possesses skills such as:
1.1 Ability to motivate the Application Design Team Group Managers and Staff.
1.2 Ability to communicate effectively with all relevant parts of the organization as well as external stakeholders and customers as required.
2. A strong background in leading Application & technical support teams, across multiple cultural & organizational types.
3. The position requires a thorough knowledge about food ingredients and flavors (inclusions if possible) and uses of the products to recommend appropriate technical solutions to customer problems.
4. Bachelors degree in food technology, 10+ years of experience in the food industry
5. 3 years exposure to interdepartmental cross-functional team roles (leader, participant, manager, etc.) and 2 years in people leadership role
6. Specific knowledge about the food areas most important are Beverages, Bakery, Dairy, Frozen desserts, Confectionary
7. A creative attribute and an openness to others creative / innovative ideas.
8. People orientation - can orchestrate multiple (virtual) teams/players across functions and matrixes and gets everybody to pull in the same direction. 9. Connects people from different parts of the organization and builds strong relationships at all levels.
10. Energetic self-starter with a “can do” attitude, high degree of autonomy and flexibility. Willing to look beyond existing scope of job.
11. Innovation mindset - ability to develop and maintain strong market & application insights - leverage category, ingredient and competitive intelligence to capture innovation opportunities.
12. Fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English & familiar with interacting with different cultural backgrounds.
13. Familiar with Data bases / IT on a user level.