Our client a fast-growing food company focused on creating innovative, high-quality, and consumer-centric products that redefine categories and shape the future of food. Our ambition is to combine strong product innovation, operational excellence, and deep consumer understanding to build enduring brands.

Role Overview :

- We are looking for an experienced and entrepreneurial Head of R&D to lead product development, innovation, formulation, and technical excellence across our portfolio. The role will be instrumental in building future-ready products, improving existing formulations, and driving innovation from concept to commercialization.

- The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in food science, product development, and scale-up within the FMCG/food industry, combined with strong leadership and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Key Responsibilities :

1. Product Innovation & Development :

- Lead the end-to-end product development lifecycle from concept, formulation, testing, and validation to commercialization.

- Build a strong innovation pipeline aligned with evolving consumer trends, health preferences, and market opportunities.

- Develop path-breaking products and formats that create competitive differentiation.

- Strengthen the current portfolio through renovation, reformulation, quality enhancement, and cost optimization initiatives.

- Partner closely with Marketing and Consumer Insights teams to translate consumer needs into successful products.

2. Research & Technical Excellence :

- Drive scientific and technical excellence across all R&D activities.

- Lead formulation development, ingredient evaluation, process optimization, and shelf-life improvement initiatives.

- Stay updated on emerging food technologies, ingredients, nutrition trends, and global innovation benchmarks.

- Build and institutionalize strong product testing, validation, and documentation processes.

- Ensure robust quality, food safety, and regulatory compliance standards across all products.

3. Commercialization & Scale-Up :

- Work closely with manufacturing and supply chain teams to ensure smooth scale-up and commercialization of products.

- Optimize recipes and processes for production efficiency, consistency, and profitability.

- Ensure timely execution of product launches with speed, precision, and operational readiness.

- Troubleshoot manufacturing and quality issues during pilot and commercial production phases.

4. Cross-Functional Collaboration :

- Collaborate with Marketing, Sales, Operations, Procurement, and Quality teams to drive successful product outcomes.

- Support GTM strategies through technical inputs, product training, and innovation storytelling.

- Build strong partnerships with ingredient suppliers, research institutions, and external innovation partners.

- Act as the technical and innovation anchor for the organization.

5. Team Leadership & Capability Building :

- Build and lead a high-performing R&D team with a strong innovation mindset.

- Foster a culture of experimentation, agility, and continuous improvement.

- Develop organizational capability in food science, formulation, and innovation processes.

- Establish scalable R&D systems, governance, and best practices.

Success Metrics :

Innovation Impact : Contribution of new product launches to revenue and growth.

Portfolio Strengthening : Improvement in product quality, consumer preference, and competitiveness.

Speed to Market : Timely development and commercialization of products.

Product Performance : Stability, scalability, quality, and consumer acceptance.

Cost & Process Efficiency : Optimization of formulations and production processes.

- Regulatory & Quality Compliance Standards.

Ideal Candidate Profile :

- 10-15+ years of experience in food R&D, product development, or food technology roles.

- Strong expertise in formulation, scale-up, processing technologies, and commercialization.

- Experience in FMCG, dairy, beverages, snacks, packaged foods, or allied categories preferred.

- Proven track record of launching successful food products at scale.

- Strong leadership, problem-solving, and project management capabilities.

- Ability to balance innovation, consumer appeal, operational feasibility, and commercial viability.