General Manager - Quality & R&D - Food

Qualification: MSc/M.Tech / Phd in Food Tech / Dairy Tech / Chemistry / Agriculture

Target industry category: Ethnic Indian food and snacks, Baked products, Frozen Foods, Spices, Ready to Eat foods, Sauces & Dressings: MNC's or Large Indian Conglommerates preferred but not mandatory

Subject matter Expertise & Experience:

Quality:

1) Good understanding of GLP (Good Laboratory Practices): Proven Experience in and as Head of Analytical Laboratory of recognised food company / government laboratory / private laboratory. Has taken a laboratory to NABL authorisation / accreditation.

2) Problemsolving & Troubleshooting: Demonstrated ability to remove quality defects through diagnosing root cause and effective action

3) Food safety: Hands on understanding of building / improving a Food safety program including HACCP, FSMS and other risk assessment methodologies

4) Auditing: Working knowledge of auditing: Quality systems, Process Audits, Vendor audits, Shopfloor and Warehouse audits, Social audits, etc

5) Defect classification and Quality performance measurement: Well aware of industry measureables within FMCG and Food industry about quality defect classification, and setting quality targets / KPI's

6) Traceability: Is fully operational on deploying product traceability systems eg., batch numbering system, bar coding / QR coding, RFID tagging

7) Outsourced manufacturing quality: Skilled in selecting and improving quality of outsourced products.

8) Supplier quality performance management: Skilled in supplier quality performance management and improvement.

9) Quality management systems and accreditation: Is well aware of ISO, BRC, NABL and similar certification / accreditation

R&D:

1) Good understanding of Food ingredients and Food processing: Proven experience as senior manager (or above) in R&D of renowned, multiproduct food companies with revenue above Rs 300 cr

2) New Product Development: Experience in developing new products in culinary frozen and shelf stable range

3) Regulatory: Good understanding of Regulatory requirement of importing countries, viz., US, UK, EU as well as India (FSSAI, Legal metrology etc)

4) Packaging & Labelling: Working knowledge of various packaging, and their suitability for different food items, nutritional and other labelling regulations

5) Sensory analysis: Knowledgeable in theory and practical deployment of sensory evaluation.

6) Competition benchmarking: Has carried out competitor sample analysis routinely to benchmark own performance vs competition

7) Formulation value engineering: Lead Formulation value engineering, viz., ingredient substitution from market scan to commercial scaleup.

Common:

1) Document and Change management: Is adept on document management of all forms in Quality Assurance and R&D, and Change management practices from procedure development, deployment and execution

2) Training and Capability Building: Conceives and executes Learning and Capability Building for department members.

3) Project Management: Have proven ability to manage end to end projects, viz., new product development / formulation value engineering / Process improvement / Digitization, etc

4) Consumer Orientation: Timely and Correct response to consumer and customer complaints, able to participate with marketing function in product design and improvement.

G) Other skill sets:

1) Proven experience of leading a Quality Assurance and R&D team: has worked in both quality assurance and R&D functions with at least 5 years in either

2) Understanding of consumer, competition and industry.

3) Hands on with IT tools, like excel, powerpoint

4) Hands on with ERP wrt Quality Management System and Product Development procedures

5) Effective Leadership capabilities

B) Job deliverables:

1) Sets up / improves the laboratory for Quality Assurance and R&D function at all sites

2) Sets up the appropriate organisation within R&D and QA involving restructuring or recruitment as needed

3) Is able to standardize daily tasks for individuals working within quality function and ensure their implementation.

4) Is able to simplify processes to build 'Quality By Design'.

5) Is able to set up a verifiable working, transparent system of day to day delivered quality, based on monitoring of leading and lagging indicators

6) Is able to improve products in rapid turnaround time based on objective feedback

7) Is able to scan the market to build the innovation pipeline