Responsibilities
Act as a SPOC (single point of contact) for R&D Specification management delivery to in-market R&D teams
- Manage and oversee teams delivering R&D Foods Ingredient, Formula, Process and Finished Goods specification writing activities.
- Build and foster strategic relationships with other R&D Team Leads for data collection, sign-offs, and specification completion.
- Work closely with Function Leaders to understand business needs, assess knowledge gaps, and develop Specification Management strategy that focuses on process and alignment to R&D strategic goals.
- Ensure all technical documentation is approved and captured into the appropriate document management system.
- Ensure team leads manage all requests - processed, documented, and delivered within defined SLAs.
- Monitor Specification writing resource count and resource utilization across HBS to meet the pipeline of requirements from R&D sectors and functions across all geographical locations.
- Identify potential areas for process improvements and employee upskilling to make recommendations to R&D GBS Leadership for continuous capability development.
- Support simplification, standardization, and digitization efforts.
- Partner with Business Partners to develop and fine tune internal processes (e.g., work-flow mapping, pain-points, and bottlenecks management)
- Conduct performance reporting and create required reports or score cards for R&D functions.
- Work closely with Process Excellence on relevant continuous improvement projects.
- Partner with counterparts in Mexico Business Services to share best practices, align on a single way-of-working.
People Responsibilities
Develop team capabilities, continuous motivation, and increased engagement levels
- Define and monitor performance goals for evaluation of direct subordinates.
- Support communications, idea sharing, and learning for specification writing team.
- Provide timely feedback on team members performance and provide subject matter or market-specific expertise when necessary.
- Build meaningful developmental / career paths for subordinates.
- Report on best-practices and gold standard work within and across teams and hubs to build consistent levels of excellence across R&D GBS.
- Enhance internal knowledge and team efficiency through productivity optimization and digitization projects.
- Address any gaps in team competencies (e.g., training and development) together with forming developmental plans for existing workforce and potential external talent search.
Qualifications
Leadership Skills
- Strong leadership and motivational skills with a track record of identifying and championing new processes for improving fact-based decision making.
- Communication: Clearly, completely, and concisely shares ideas and adapts style / content as appropriate for the audience, actively listens; demonstrates ability to produce presentations, written reports, and analysis; delivers formal and informal presentations with impact in both oral and written format
- Collaboration / Stakeholder Engagement: Working across boundaries and creating trusting relationships, demonstrating active listening skills.
- Clarity: Simplifying complexity, communicating in a clear and concise manner
- Demonstrated experience leading & motivating teams
Professional Skills
- Experience working in the CPG industry, with deep understanding of the business performance measures and output, their relationships, and how to bring business performance insights to life visually.
- bachelor's degree required, Engineering, Science or Business Management preferred
- 12+ years of prior work experience in a similar or related field; Preference for prior experience working in or with Research & Development, Operations, Quality Assurance.
- Fluent in English – verbal and written
- Experience working with stakeholders in North America, Europe, LATAM, APAC, or AMESA markets
- Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite
- Exceptional organizational skills, with attention to detail and accuracy, a working knowledge of cataloging and distributing knowledge.
- Ability to manage time effectively across priorities and projects requiring a high degree of organizational and communication skills to ensure requests are delivered in a timely manner.
