R&D Maintenance and Expansion (ME) Senior Associates at Reckitt Benckiser (RB)

Reckitt Benckiser is the world's leading consumer health and hygiene company. Every day, across 60 countries, we work with the best people to challenge conventional thinking and strive to find even better ways to give people innovative solutions for healthier lives and happier homes.

We trust people in what they do and we give full accountability and autonomy to make things happen. That’s how we generate the game-changing ideas that built 19 iconic Powerbrands around the world, such as Nurofen, Strepsils, Mucinex, Dettol, Lysol, Finish and Vanish.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: R&D Maintenance and Expansion (ME) Senior Associate

Location: Lagos State
Job Type: Full Time
Department: Research and Development

Job Purpose

• This the Research and Development (R&D) function responsible for products once they are launched on the market.
• The teams are based all around globe, working closely with R&D product development teams, supply, procurement, global/regional/local marketing & commercial teams in order to deliver projects to grow and protect the existing business in addition to increasing the profitability of our products through cost saving programs.
• In Maintenance and Expansion (ME), we truly develop people by you giving responsibility as soon as you join the team.
• The job is dynamic and complex, and the challenges you will face will give you the possibility to develop quickly, laying a strong foundation for your future career.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Assume leadership for R&D ME projects in relevant categories, ensuring the implementation at regional/local level by ensuring all required formulation, feasibility work, analysis, validation, stability testing, industrial trials and dossier preparation are performed on time and to the required internal and external standards and market conditions.
• Implement global product initiatives with R&D Product Development and other R&D ME teams.
• Assume TPL responsibility when project leadership is assigned, based on an agreement with R&D Product Development, preparing a project plan with timeline for all technical activities to be performed, work on formula development be the key contact for all stakeholders involved in the initiative, ensure IDB completion and allocation of resources to complete the tasks as per plan, keep a good track of the activities versus the plan, keep the key stakeholders informed about the progress and issues, manage changes to preserve the commitment.
• Collaborates with local commercial organizations in relation to consumer complaints and quality issues, competitor challenges and legal / regulatory inquiries concerning technical matters relating to products marketed within the region.
• Collaborates with Supply function regarding technology and product expertise, for production start-up, quality improvements and cost savings projects.
• Collaborate closely with Marketing organizations (local / regional) to provide technical expertise and required business support to evaluation (Portfolio Management) and execution of commercial initiatives and projects.
• Support R&D teams by providing a clear definition of products, marketing claims and raw material requirements from a regional/local perspective and by providing technical input and support in the preparation of the claim support data.
• Day to day management of personnel, including the motivation and development of direct reports.
• Maintain good communication as part of R&D organization and across functions to accomplish business objectives.
• Interact with technical functions (R&D, Supply, Packaging Development, etc.) to define and share best practices.
• Manage an assigned budget.

Key Challenges:

• Manage a wide variety of projects across a number of different brands and technology platforms in compliance with regulatory requirement
• Evaluating project priorities (with PM function) and securing resources to support project delivery
• Self-starting and independent working
• Maintain appropriate levels of communication with all RB upper management
• Multi-cultural leadership

Professional Qualification/ Experience

• Educated to degree level (chemistry, pharmacy, chemical engineering or other relevant science) PhD or Masters
• Minimum five (5) years of experience with a proven track record of successful delivery of technical projects in a FMCG company
• Proven project management, prioritization and problem solving skills
• Proven experience with recruitment, management and development of people
• Strong formulation knowledge and understanding of chemical interactions
• Proven track record in active collaboration with internal & external R&D and non-R&D functions
• Leads multiple projects of any risk level (including cross site)

Key Skills & Competencies
Skills:

• Strong negotiating and interpersonal skills to complete complex and high pressure projects
• Excellent organisational and problem solving skills
• Ability to identify and communicate risks
• Capable of building strong working relationships and strong networking skills
• Strong negotiating, influencing & analytical skills
• Ability to anticipate, plan and execute significant projects involving multiple technical and scientific hurdles
• Understanding of P&L management
• Strong intellectual curiosity, appetite for exploring new and previously uncharted territories
• Excellent communication skills both written and oral in English and excellent presentation skills

Competencies
Product Development:

• This involves the ability to design and manage an end-to-end product development process that includes:
• Development of innovative concepts, claims, formulations and packaging;
• Application of quality, sustainability and regulatory standards;
• Effective selection of scale-up strategies, equipment and process parameters;
• Market research and performance testing;

Technology Management:

• This involves the ability to manage a technology portfolio and create competitive advantage by:
  • Identification of possible relevant innovative technologies (outside innovation);
  • Mapping technologies to business and market needs;
  • Communication and implementation of technology strategy in the product development process;
  • Recognising when to invest in technology development and when to withdraw to ensure constant value of the product to the consumer;
  • Guidance to production and operations management, project management, quality control, safety and health issues, statistics, and sourcing;

Project Management:

• This involves the ability to achieve complex goals by finding and adapting the best possible methodology of planning, organizing, motivating, negotiating, communicating, controlling resources and procedures to ensure optimised cost, risk, quality and speed of delivery.

Consumer Science:

• Ability to identify consumer unmet needs, understand motivations and behaviors by effective selection and implementation of consumer research methods.
• Translation of insights into actionable product measures, enabling the R&D team to design products for maximum success on shelf and in home.

Finance:

• Ability to manage, control and optimise budgets for teams and projects by planning, predicting and analysis of expenditure.

Application Closing Date
Monday, 10th April 2017.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV's to: [email protected] with the relevant position applied for as heading.