Job Title: Product Design & Innovation Manager
Job ID: 38556
Location: Lagos, Nigeria

Key Duties and Responsibilities

  • Assumes overall responsibility for product formulation, optimization and compliance initiatives for the Business Unit (BU).
  • Responsible for crafting product development brief in liaison with respective Strategic Marketing Managers
  • Acts as the principal sole point of contact between BU and designated Research & Development facilities working on new formulation development for all BU NPD projects
  • Drives formulation prototype design, manufacture and screening in conjunction with R&D and in compliance with BU and company research protocols.
  • Manage the communication and effective flow of information and approval systems associated with the Technical Commercialization Process.
  • Establish, communicate and enforce policies and processes regarding formula and regulatory issues, thereby ensuring efficient stewardship of all product related activities including all Technical, Marketing and legal approvals.
  • Develop, share and ensure effective use of Best Practice and Common Platforms relevant to Product Innovation.
  • Explore and assess potential relationships with R&D and CPS partners (e.g. cross BU partners) for the purpose of sharing investment/risk, or enhancing business through new brands, technologies and processes.
  • Is the PAR process owner in Picasso (the company’s formula database), coordinating the creation, submission, approval, issuing and maintenance of Formulas.
  • Responsible for formula optimization initiatives, (COGs reduction, Ingredients standardization/substitution, Renew the Category Growth) in conjunction with Scientific Regulatory Affairs, Brand teams, Knowledge & Insights, R&D & CPS.
  • Mapping BU technical capability and establishment of possible / optimal product formulations relating to this technical capability.
  • Identifies new ingredients suppliers and takes them through the Approval process in conjunction with R&D, CPS and Procurement.

Communication Complexities:
Internal/External Contact:

  • Corporate/ Global Juice Community
  • Knowledge & Insights Manager
  • Government Agencies/ Bodies (31 Countries)
  • Professional Bodies
  • Corporate Formula Governance Team
  • Europe, Eurasia, Middle East & Africa R&D and CPS
  • Strategic Marketing Managers

Nature and Purpose of Communication:

  • Best Practice and Information sharing
  • Providing Product Innovation expertise.
  • Samples tests and trials supervision.
  • Seeking advice on regulatory, technical and legal issues.
  • Fast tracking of Product Innovation work stream.

Analysis:

  • A vast geography (31 Markets, 55 Bottling Plants, 4 International languages – English, French, Portuguese, Spanish)
  • Advanced Regulatory Knowledge – expertise on regulatory and political landscape affecting foods and beverages
  • Cross cultural and language barriers
  • Technical Communication to Non-technical Audience

Judgement and Decision Making:

  • Understands the external environment (competitive and market) and identifies new sources of opportunity.
  • Anticipates future trends to engage and delight consumers
  • Joint responsibility with Team members to create and execute projects as set in Annual Business Plan
  • See key duties/responsibilities
  • Interrogates data to identify core business levers.
  • Balances facts with intuition to distil complex opportunities into compelling business cases.
  • Leverages analytical rigor to prioritize and allocate resources effectively.

Innovations:

  • Come up with new processes by challenging the status quo.
  • Pursues innovation and change with a mind-set of continuous improvement
  • New Packaging development, approval and execution
  • New formula creation, approval and issuing and CPS management
  • Evaluate feasibility of new products by pre-product testing
  • Validation of key product/pack/price innovations across channels
  • Crafts a vision for what the brand/category/market could be
  • Demonstrates judgement to define a compelling core creative idea

Supervisory Responsibilities:

  • Direct Reports ( Position Titles, not names): N/A
  • Supporting Service: BU and Franchise Technical & Marketing Teams

Qualifications / Competencies / Skills

  • Leader of Self

Technical Skills:

  • Project Management
  • Commercialization Process, CIF, CokeWorks
  • New Product Development Procedures
  • Strategic Innovation Planning
  • Packaging and Print Technology
  • Innovation Business cases
  • Brand and Portfolio Strategy
  • System and Bottler Economics
  • Production Planning and Control
  • Juice & Carbonated Soft Drinks Manufacture
  • Understanding Brand Essentials
  • System and Bottler Economics
  • Concentrate Plant Supply Processes
  • Regulatory Stewardship
  • Research and Development

Generic Competencies:

  • Act like an Owner
  • Collaborative with the system, Customers and Key Stakeholders
  • Drive Innovation
  • Inspire Others
  • Develop Self and Others

Required Experience

  • 8-10 years’ experience in Product Development, exposure to beverage manufacturing will be an advantage
  • Bilingual skills (English & French)

Educational Requirements
Education required:

  • University/Bachelor’s degree

Preferred Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s Degree (Chemistry, Biology, Food Science, etc.). Professional certifications in Beverage Product R&D and/or Commercialization expertise will be an added advantage.

Cultural Diversity:

  • Need to understand cultural differences in different markets to translate data into meaningful business insights. Has worked most of his/her career in a collaborative working situation, in which different viewpoints from a range of stakeholders needed to be taken into account to arrive at a productive solution.
  • Has worked most of his/her career in a collaborative working situation, in which different viewpoints from a range of stakeholders needed to be taken into account to arrive at a productive solution

Working Conditions:

  • As per the assigned geography.

Travel Requirements:

  • Significant travel may be required within and outside the BU – 50%

Additional Information

  • West Africa Business Unit (WABU) is a multi-Country Business Unit with a myriad of projects constantly running.
  • Due to the sheer size of the BU and the peculiarities of each market, substantive travel and use of alternative communication technology is required.
  • This role, reporting into the BU Commercialization & Innovations Manager, will be key in ensuring Innovations delivery within time and cost constraints.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply