Position: Research Development Lead
Business Unit: Ambient OEM
Job Level: Senior Department Manager/ Director
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Working Policy: Onsite
About the Company: Thai Union is a global leader in seafood, committed to sustainability and innovation. Our mission is to provide high-quality products while ensuring the well-being of our communities and the environment.
About the Role: The role involves defining and executing the global Ambient OEM R&D strategy, ensuring effective customer development and new product development projects globally.
Responsibilities:
- Global Ambient OEM R&D Strategy: Define and execute global Ambient OEM R&D strategy, driving effective execution of customer development and new product development projects globally.
- Best-in-class OEM R&D: Ensure optimized product development costs, increased speed to market, high quality product specifications that meet customer needs, a robust new product development pipeline aligned with Ambient Branded BU R&D and GIC, and develop/deploy best in-class OEM R&D practices.
- Commercial Collaboration: Ensure smooth and efficient coordination between project managers and R&D teams to ensure customer requirements are being met and consumer insights are flowing from commercial teams to NPD team.
- Operational Collaboration: Facilitate seamless coordination with plant teams throughout product development process, ensuring on-time and on-spec delivery of products from sample through to full production scale-up phases and successful commercialization.
- Innovation Collaboration: Work closely with Global Innovation Center (GIC) and Branded R&D team for big-win, advanced innovations and ensure constant communication cadence between GIC, Ambient Branded R&D, and Ambient OEM New Product Development team.
- People: Motivate, lead and challenge team members to reach/exceed BU and individual targets and objectives. Improve and sustain employee engagement scores for R&D team to be within the top quartile. Build longer term view/plan around people; prepare succession plans at different levels. Set a positive working culture within R&D team and with teams across Thai Union. Be an ambassador of one Thai Union Group thinking.
Qualifications:
- Relevant educational background in R&D, product development, or related fields.
- Strong leadership and team management skills.
- Excellent communication and collaboration abilities.
- Proven experience in product development and project management.
- Ability to analyze market trends and consumer insights.
- Experience in the seafood industry or related sectors.
- Familiarity with sustainability practices in product development.
- Knowledge of global market dynamics and customer needs.