Job Description:
Location: Oud-beijerland
Segment: Mars Food & Nutrition
Reports To: Vice President, Global R&D – Mars Food & Nutrition
At Mars Food & Nutrition, we are dedicated to our purpose: Better Food Today. A Better World Tomorrow. We are a segment of Mars, Incorporated, proud to produce some of the world's most beloved and iconic brands, including Ben's Original™, Dolmio®, Tasty Bite®, MasterFoods™, and Kevin’s Natural Foods. Our mission is to scale our global business by delivering foods that are Tasty, Accessible, and Healthy.
The OpportunityWe are seeking a visionary Global Head of Science & Technology (S&T) to join our executive R&D leadership team. In this role, you will be the primary bridge between cutting-edge scientific discovery and commercial business growth. You will shape and execute our global S&T strategy over a 1-to-5+ year horizon, translating complex science into scalable, proprietary technology platforms that deliver our short, medium, and long-term business objectives.
As a key member of the Mars Science Leadership Team (MSLT), you will also collaborate across our sister segments (such as Snacking and Petcare) to shape enterprise-wide scientific strategies and champion our future technical talent pipeline.
What are your key responsibilities?- Drive the S&T Strategy: Define and execute a 1-5+ year technology roadmap that directly supports our business growth and scales our portfolio of Tasty, Accessible, and Healthy food solutions.
- Lead Pipeline & Scale-Up: Oversee the end-to-end S&T pipeline from proof-of-concept to commercial hand-off. Take operational ownership of our global R&D labs and pilot plant facilities to ensure seamless scale-up to global factories.
- Global Process Standardization: Govern global process specifications and partner with Global Engineering to standardize technologies across our global manufacturing sites.
- Pilot Plant & Scale-Up Governance: Provide operational leadership for global R&D labs and pilot facilities, ensuring safe and seamless technical scale-up.
- Open Innovation Ecosystem: Build strategic relationships with universities, research institutes, suppliers, and start-ups to accelerate proprietary scientific breakthroughs.
- IP Protection: Proactively safeguard and patent breakthrough technologies, securing our global freedom to operate.
- Inspire and Develop Talent: Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing, diverse global team of scientists and process engineers, preparing the capability pipeline for our future R&D needs.
- Education: Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Chemical/Process Engineering, or a closely related scientific discipline.
- FMCG Track Record: 15+ years of progressive R&D leadership experience in a global fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) or food ingredients environment.
- Commercialization Success: Proven experience taking proprietary food technologies from early-stage discovery to successful, large-scale commercialization in complex global manufacturing environments.
- Travel: Ability to travel globally 20% to 30% of the time.
- Strategic & Business Acumen: You know how to translate scientific opportunities into clear growth strategies, balancing long-term exploratory pipelines with short-term business deliverables.
- Technical Mastery: You bring expertise and knowledge in food chemistry, scale-up methodologies, and advanced process engineering.
- Innovation Leadership: You create an environment that encourages creativity and experimentation, driving breakthrough innovation while managing execution excellence. You champion external collaboration and open innovation.
- Scientific Communication: You are a highly effective communicator who can build deep, strategic relationships with external research partners and easily explain complex science to non-technical business partners.
- People Leadership: You have a passion for mentoring and developing multidisciplinary teams, fostering a collaborative culture of scientific excellence and continuous learning
What can you expect from Mars?
- Work with diverse and talented associates, all guided by The Five Principles.
- Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
- A strong focus on learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
- An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.
Skills Required
- Ph.D. or Master's degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Chemical/Process Engineering, or closely related discipline.
- 15+ years of progressive R&D leadership experience in a global FMCG or food ingredients environment.
- Proven track record commercializing proprietary food technologies from early discovery to large-scale global manufacturing.
- Technical expertise in food chemistry, scale-up methodologies, and advanced process engineering.
- Operational ownership experience of global R&D labs, pilot plant facilities, and scale-up to factories.
- Experience in IP protection and patenting of technologies to secure freedom to operate.
- Demonstrated ability building and leading diverse, multidisciplinary global scientific and engineering teams.
- Strong strategic and business acumen to translate scientific opportunities into growth strategies.
- Experience establishing open innovation partnerships with universities, research institutes, suppliers, and start-ups.
- Willingness and ability to travel globally ~20%–30% of the time.
Mars Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Mars and has not been reviewed or approved by Mars.
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Healthcare Strength — The benefits package is positioned as comprehensive, with broad medical coverage and additional protections like life insurance and short- and long-term disability. Mental health support is emphasized, including free mental health services and wellbeing programming under initiatives such as Mars Be Well.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is highlighted as market-leading in the U.S., with an example of 18 weeks fully paid for both parents. Additional family-related leave types such as sick time for caregiving and bereavement leave are also described as part of the overall package.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings are described as strong, including 401(k) matching (with a 6% match cited) and pension plans in some cases. The broader package also references retirement savings options and contributions aligned to local market practice, supporting long-term financial security.
Mars Insights
What We Do
For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, ORBIT®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, SKITTLES®, WHISKAS®, COCOAVIA®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, Pet Partners™, and VCA™. We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive.
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