CTI Scientific Excellence Manager

This senior technical leadership role is pivotal in shaping the future of product experience for our Pet Nutrition consumers. We are seeking a provocative and inspiring technical leader to challenge the status quo and bring our consumer science capabilities up to speed with the latest methods. The successful candidate will build and champion our sensory and consumer research approaches to efficiently support our holistic product experience design, establishing a culture of continuous improvement as well as comprehensive training for the relevant CTI associates. You will do so thanks to deep rooted personal expertise and track record in successfully implementing and upgrading those sciences in other roles. This role is critical to our Consumer & Technology Insights (CTI) organization, driving a user-centric approach and supporting an agile innovation pipeline that is aligned with the evolving needs and desires of pet parents.

Key Responsibilities:

• Capability Building: Design and implement a short to medium-term capability-building roadmap in consumer sciences, including sensory sciences, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, as well as other relevant user-centric design sciences if appropriate. Define and enforce standards for data quality, method validation, and governance including auditing of current methods.
• Talent Empowerment & Upskilling: Support the continuous learning and development of technical talent within the CTI organization, with a strong focus on auditing the current skills and building training for the relevant CTI associates. As a key technical leader, this role acts as a collaborative coach, helping to guide capability growth and advance our collective skills.
• Directional Leadership: Set the direction for our consumer capability agenda, acting as a thought leader to provoke new ways of thinking. You will identify, prioritize, and pioneer the development of new tools, methods, and approaches to understand and design for holistic product experiences. Partnering with the CTI Excellence Snr Manager to develop the wider CTI capability strategy.
• External Leadership: Bring and maintain a strong external network, bringing in outside perspectives to challenge our thinking and enhance our capabilities. Represent the company with authority at external forums, sharing research and building our reputation as an employer of choice for CTI professionals. Review and improve our vendor management approaches in the related sciences establish monitoring and KPI plans with key vendors.
• Digital Integration: Supported by our digital partners, you will champion the evolution of our consumer science capabilities in the context of a digitized R&D environment, integrating new technologies and data sources to generate deeper insights.

Context and Scope: This role is highly collaborative and requires strong influencing and relationship-building skills. The job holder will interact with a wide range of stakeholders to understand their needs and challenges, ensuring the capabilities developed will enable CTI associates to deliver impactful results. Key interactions include:

• CTI Associates: Your stakeholders will be primarily the CTI associates across Central and Regional teams as well as their stakeholders (Product Development for example) for influencing purposes. You will provide coaching, and leadership, fostering a culture of excellence and ensuring the successful adoption and application of the various excellences under your responsibility.
• CTI Leadership: To understand the strategic direction and innovation priorities, ensuring the capability roadmap is designed to support these future business needs.
• Marketing & CMI: You will interact with your counterparts in CMI capabilities, specifically in the consumer research methodologies (alignment of protocols, etc.) and potentially in the vendor management area.

Qualifications:

• University degree (Masters Degree preferred) in sensory or consumer sciences or related equivalent.
• Proven experience in Consumer Science including 5+ years of experience in technical capability development within an FMCG/Agency environment.
• Strong foundational excellence in quantitative research methodologies and ideally in qualitative research too.
• Extensive, hands-on experience in sensory science.
• Strong statistical knowledge.
• Ability to communicate complex scientific approaches with clarity and to various audiences, including non-experts; ability to speak with authority and inspire change.
• Experience in developing and implementing global standards and frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with cross-functional and cross-regional teams, coupled with strong stakeholder management skills.
• Fluent in English; knowledge of a second language would be advantageous.

Qualifications: Drives Engagement; Strategic Mindset; Communicates Effectively; Optimizes Work Processes; Plans and Aligns; Collaborates; Manages Complexity; Drives Results; Ensures Accountability; Decision Quality.