How you will contribute
You will work with a cross-functional partners to define, initiate and lead teams to successfully deliver business goals using technical rigor and best practices while effectively allocating resources and prioritizing workloads. Influencing skills are important in this role because you will use them to educate business stakeholders about technical risks, ensuring clear communication and understanding to allow for effective cross-functional decision making. You will also create and maintain accurate consumer-led specifications. As a technical and people leader, you demonstrate your own high levels of technical rigor and expertise and that of your team by tapping into internal and external resources to stay up-to-date on the latest best practices and to continuously identify opportunities for improvement, keeping in mind consumers’ wants and needs. As a people leader, you recruit, retain and develop a team of direct and indirect reports to ensure highest team performance, and mentor and coach your team and others to grow capability and support career development.
What you will bring
A desire to drive your future and accelerate your career and the following experience and knowledge:
Leading teams and coaching and mentoring to foster performance and team effectiveness
Influencing cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders in decision making
Delivering results in a fast paced, complex and ambiguous environment
Handling multiple priorities
Being a champion of consumer needs
Succeeding in a fast-moving consumer goods environment
What you need to know about this position:
R&D Manager in cross category team driving the SSA BU technical brand agenda spanning across the numerous countries within the BU
What extra ingredients you will bring:
Strong technical and leadership experience across South Africa and Southern African countries. A deep sense of the consumer diversity and approach to Innovation and driving growth through the markets. Excellent networking & collaboration skills enabling the successful implementation and growth agenda.
Education / Certifications
Degree in Food Science/ Chemical Engineering / Microbiology as a minimum
Job specific requirements:
10 -15 years’ experience in product development & people management
Strong technical skills including new line start-up & or technology implementations in FMCG’s.
Experience in Beverage / Gum & Candy / Biscuit / Chocolate categories will be advantageous.
Driving growth agenda through NPDs, Productivity, Brand Quality, Innovation Pipeline Development in a Consumer Led environment.
Travel requirements:
Travel into and across the SSA BU: (South Africa, West Africa and Central East Africa) as well as international travel (AMEA Region, & Global) when needed.