About Kerry
Kerry is a global leader in taste and nutrition solutions, committed to inspiring food and nourishing life. With over 22,000 employees and 150+ innovation and manufacturing sites across 30+ countries, we partner with many of the world's best-known food, beverage, and pharma brands. In the Indian Subcontinent, we are accelerating growth through customer-led innovationbringing differentiated taste solutions to market across key end-use segments including Snacks, Meat, Beverage, and Bakery.
About the role
The RD&A Director will lead Kerry's Research, Development & Application (RD&A) function for the Indian Subcontinent, based at the Kerry RD&A Centre in Bengaluru. Reporting to the Country General Manager, this role is pivotal in delivering the regional growth strategy, building a strong innovation pipeline, and driving step-change impact by leveraging Kerry's global RD&A network.
This is a senior leadership position managing a team of approximately 8 direct reports and a broader organization of :40 RD&A professionals. The successful candidate will be a driver of change, able to translate customer and market needs into winning solutions, and foster a high-performance culture across a matrixed organization.
Key responsibilities
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and manage the RD&A function, ensuring alignment with business strategy, growth targets, and Kerry ways of working.
- Build and deliver a robust innovation and renovation pipeline by
- Demonstrating deep understanding of customer needs and Kerry's technology portfolio (with Taste as an underlying capability across EUMs).
- Maintaining a strong view of the competitive landscape and developing differentiated solutions that win in the marketplace.
- Evaluating and improving the existing product portfolio to deliver best-in-class, commercially successful products.
- Mobilizing and leveraging global Kerry RD&A resources to deliver step-change regional projects.
- Tracking project execution against milestones and launch dates.
- Develop, coach, and lead a high-performing RD&A team through regular feedback, training, and leadership by example.
- Partner closely with Quality, Operations, and Supply Chain to support
- Plant/process improvements and productivity initiatives.
- Business continuity and supply support.
- Regulatory readiness (including registrations, audits, and inspections as needed)
- Successful transfer of innovations into plants and scalable manufacturing.
- Serve as technical lead for selected key accounts - acting as the main contact to drive consistency, quality of service, and customer confidence.
- Actively contribute as a member of the Indian Subcontinent leadership team, shaping priorities and enabling cross-functional delivery.
- Contribute to the broader regional RD&A strategy across MISA and Asia Pacific, creating a vision and roadmap aligned to business goals.
Qualifications and skills
Qualification -
- Master's degree or PhD in Food Science / Food Technology (or related discipline).15+ years experience in RD&A leadership roles within a regulated food/ingredients industry (food, beverage, and/or pharma).
- Experience across multiple Asia Pacific markets, with strong understanding of the regional business environment and regulations.
- Demonstrated experience preparing and managing budgets and leading resource allocation (people and spend).
- Proven track record of commercial innovation and successful scale-up/technology transfer to manufacturing plants.
- Ability to adapt to changing business priorities with urgency and accountability.Willingness to travel as required.
Skills -
- Strong leadership capability with a proven ability to build, motivate, and develop high-performing teams.
- Customer-centric mindset with the ability to translate technical insight into clear, compelling solutions.
- Deep technical expertise in food science / food technology, product development, and application.
- Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to influence in a complex, highly matrixed environment.
- Commercially minded innovator with demonstrated success bringing solutions to market.
- Strong analytical and critical thinking skills; decisive decision-maker grounded in data, experience, and pragmatism.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, comfortable engaging internal and external stakeholders at senior levels.
Why It's Great to Work with Us -
This role offers the opportunity to lead a strategically critical function in a global organization known for innovation in taste and nutrition. You'll work with talented teams, state-of-the-art facilities, and a broad global RD&A network - shaping the innovation agenda for a high-growth region while partnering directly with customers and senior leadership. Kerry provides an environment where leaders are empowered to deliver impact, develop talent, and bring winning solutions to market.
