Senior Manager, Natural Product Extraction

 SECTOR:

Hydrocolloids

LOCATION:

Lille Skensved – DK

FUNCTION:

Science and Innovation

TITLE:

Senior Manager, Research and Innovation

REPORTS TO:

Director, Research and Innovation – Hydrocolloids

Job Description:

This role will lead Tate & Lyles Research and Innovation team in Lille Skensved for Natural product extraction to discover and develop new polysaccharides and systems for application in food, beverages, personal care, consumer and industrial products to fuel future growth.  The successful candidate will have people management experience and be a strong leader and will have subject matter expertise in natural product extraction or carbohydrate polymers or proteins.  

Key Responsibilities:

Lead a team of chemists, scientists and technologists to:

• Conceive new ideas, demonstrate proof of concept at bench level and develop scalable methods to produce new products as well as novel derivatives of existing polysaccharides using chemical, enzymatic or physical modifications.   

• Characterize and evaluate performance of new materials employing state of the art methods in polymer, physical and/or analytical chemistry including development of performance test methods.

• Lead technical project teams comprising team members from different geographies and functions to support specialized projects with high levels of technical complexity.

• Decide how to apply resources to deliver project milestones.

• Recommend when and how to use external partners to support projects.

• Represent Tate & Lyle’s external image at industry conferences, trade shows, and with customers and partners.

• Determine technical feasibility of identified market needs balanced against commercial opportunities and make recommendations.

• Identify and analyze new opportunities, anticipate risks and potential mitigation, and make recommendations.

• Proactively solve problems and issues requiring advanced level of technical knowledge and consideration of other disciplines.

• Influence others within the organization to reach agreement and accept new practices and approaches.

• Escalate issues to Science and Innovation management if projects are not on track or to discuss disconnects and misalignments.

• Understand patent landscape within a specific field.

• Act and make decisions with a defined budget; direct impact of decisions is defined by quality of service provided by the team, cost control, meeting deadlines and day to day management.

• Establish short to medium term work plans and processes; optimize resources to ensure work area objectives are

• Develop and apply knowledge to implement and/or improve tools, techniques and work processes.

• Develop people skills needed to carry out research and project management, and secure successors to key personnel.

• Set and evaluate performance objectives and conduct performance appraisals.

Skills & Competencies:

• MS or PhD in Carbohydrate/Polysaccharide Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Food Engineering and/or Food Science.
• At least 7 years’ experience in polysaccharide chemistry or protein/enzymology , including structure-function knowledge and related ingredient development.
• Experience in the characterization of polysaccharides, including physical property measurements (rheology, thermal analysis, solution properties, etc.) and compositional methods (IC, HPLC, GPC/MALLS, ICP, etc.)
• Experience leading people and teams, with ability to mentor, coach and develop people.

• Experience in lab-scale process development of novel polysaccharides including chemical, enzymatic and physical modification techniques.

• Ability to lead diverse teams where resources may be deployed from different cultures, geographies and functions.

• Able to communicate effectively across different organizational levels and functions

• Project management skills especially in outlining initial scoping and proof of concept stages.

• Experience in the use of polysaccharides in food, beverage, personal care and household care formulations.

• Ability to transform commercial needs into technical programs and business opportunity, and drive those for execution.

• Ability to deal with ambiguity and changing priorities.

• Ability to influence and gather opinions directly and indirectly.

• Ability to evaluate risk and recommend path forward.

• Creative, innovative, open minded and a can-do attitude.

• Idea generator and problem solver

• Customer and market oriented.

• Curious, thirsty for knowledge.

• Future thinking with a whole systems view.

• Takes ownership proactively.

• Regarded as an expert in the technical field.

Tate & Lyle is an equal opportunity employer, committed to the strength of an inclusive workforce.