MISSION: The Director of Research and Development will bring focus to innovation, new product development, and sustaining engineering initiatives to improve the Quality, Delivery, Cost, and competitive position of the product portfolio.
The R&D Director will lead, manage, and direct development and quality assurance activities to support our existing and new business opportunities in international markets including development and evaluation of new product lines.
The R&D Director will collaborate with operations, manufacturing, and marketing on initiatives while managing daily tasks to ensure deadlines and objectives are met.
Accountability and Objectives End-to-end responsible for developing products and driving innovation according to product roadmap Maximizes product profitability and improve product performances Assures competitiveness and innovation of products and processes from a technological and design standpoint Ensures and consolidates that the growth of the technical “know-how” within the working group is shared and constantly increasing Delivering on-time solutions and associated deliverables Manages and develops a cohesive work team, provides solutions for conflicts within the team Key Responsibilities Ensures and consolidates that the growth of the technical “know-how” within the working group is shared and constantly increasing Leads development projects Is responsible for product compliance Incorporates relevant design expertise and experience in projects in line with brand/product strategy Encourages creativity in R&D teams Actively searches for best-in-class technologies among competitors and develops an innovation roadmap Cooperates closely with product managers to assure customer focus and target costing; co-develops product roadmaps Coordinates with Groupe product development managers defining the right allocation of resources Supports R&D projects at the Groupe level, participating in meetings and sharing technical information and “best-practices” Cooperates with design committee to ensure brand-consistent design of product ranges Secures freedom to operate and initiates IP protection Develops employees assigned to the department, ensuring the correct application of tools and policies on training, identifies career path, performs evaluations and provides inputs to compensation systems Leads a cross functional team and manages all aspects of innovation, new product development process, and sustaining engineering to deliver on-time and to budget new and updated products with exceptional quality which exceed the expectation of the customer and shareholder Provide leadership and project management to prioritize workload and drive ownership at the design level Quality & Customer Focus: Continuously looking for ways to simplify and improve work processes to achieve better results, considering internal and external customer needs when setting priorities Manages others with a high level of integrity, confidentiality, ethics, and discretion.
Is direct and open while maintaining a professional, respectful demeanour.
Builds and sustains relationships with all stakeholders Staffs and manages engineering capacity and capability of a highly effective technical team that delivers the required business results on-time, in coordination with Chief Operating Officer Skills & Qualifications Qualifications: University degree in engineering or equivalent is required A Master’s degree and or any other further qualification related to R&D is appreciated A minimum of 4 years’ experience in R&D managerial roles with direct reports Experience in the food and beverage industry Knowledge: A strong knowledge of R&D processes and organization in B2B / durable goods companies is needed Extensive knowledge of technical applications and manufacturing implication, methods and requirements are desired Languages: Fluency in written and verbal English is a must, Spanish and German are pluses Learning & Adapting: Demonstrated willingness to take on new challenges, responsibilities, and assignments.
Taking the initiative as problems or opportunities arise; being action oriented, willing to take risks Communications: Communicates clearly and candidly; avoiding vagueness, ambiguity, and mixed messages.
Contributing to an enthusiastic, positive work climate; energizing others Managing Work: Manages work to achieve results on time.
Understands and supports the organization’s vision, purpose and strategies.
Understands our products and services.
In coordination with the cross-functional colleagues, establishes work priorities and schedules for completing assignments.
Must take accountability for decisions, actions, and results of work activities and perform responsibilities with minimal supervision and general guidance.
Technical Skills & Qualification System Engineering: Ability to read a PRD and extract a System Definition (HW & SW Architecture).
Familiar with electrical Hardware domain: able to read a scheme, bus management, RF basic terms; able to define a product electrical HW architecture, familiar with HW processes (Layout, Assembly, Bring-up).
Familiar with mechanical Hardware domain: able to define a mechanical product architecture and design concept, familiar with basic hydraulic systems; able to drive make or buy decisions based on own manufacturing capabilities and economical judgement.
Familiar with Embedded SW domain
– mastering firmware platform concepts, OS & Integration, DB concepts & definitions, Communication & Networking.
Familiar with PC base SW: Client/Server, frameworks, Processes, Services.
Familiar with international regulatory standard systems, able to determine the relevant electrical safety, EMC, food safety and other regulatory standards QA domain: Quality Management System, Roles and Responsibility, tools, processes; reliability management.
Product Life Cycle: PRD, Architecture, SyRS, SRS, HLD, Development Plan, Integration, STP, Configuration management, SPR & SCR management
– Processes & Artefacts.
Mindset and Interpersonal Skills Strong leadership and ownership are needed.
Capability in managing people and complexity in a multinational environment is needed.
Capability to promote team-working and collaboration among the different functions.
Analytical rigor and solid process management and way of working is needed.
A real market-orientation in defining the new projects to launch and a proven attitude in working strictly in relation with design, marketing and product management is needed.
Out-of-the box thinking and encouragement of driving for creative, marketable solutions is highly appreciated Drive for excellence is expected.