Head - Research & Development - Agriculture Chemical Firm

Key Responsibilities :

1. Strategic :

- Define short and long term R&D research areas and come out with a product roll out plan.

- Develop the R&D strategic plan and drive innovation.

- Understanding/evaluating global strategic alliances' products and technologies.

- Keep an eye on changing market needs / reshaping of Sustainable Agriculture practices and aligning new products as per the needs.

- Actively participating in various industry forums and contributing articles to various technical magazines.

- Developing R& D architecture, processes, recruiting right people, and portfolio.

2. Financial :

- Strategize and lead the SPN R&D and come out with new and differentiated product availability along with time lines for annual budgeting exercise of the Specialty Plant Nutrition business.

- Actively participating and coming out with R&D long and short term plans.

3. Customer/ External Orientation:

- Keeping in touch with the changing patterns of farmer preferences, identifying challenges faced by the farmers and ensuring that R&D is aligned accordingly.

- Coming out with right positioning strategies for new products based on the benefits products are expected to deliver.

- Seeking active feedback from the market on product performance and incorporating the necessary changes to the recipes.

4. People Orientation:

- Strengthen R&D employee engagement and cultivate culture of high performance

- Ensure regular review of team performance and provide development inputs through identification of training needs and nominating for training programs.

- Ensuring that R&D and Production plants Quality Assurance teams work in tandem.

5. Core operational accountabilities:

- R&D in various upcoming Specialty Nutrition space

- Identification of new research areas / coming out with in-house developed technology platforms.

- Planning & review of product trials with evaluation Team

- Identify horizontal/vertical research areas in Water Soluble, Biofertilisers, Biostimulants, Nano Fertilisers and Slow & Controlled release Fertilisers space.

- Thoroughly understanding FCO/Biostimulants/Nano Fertilisers and other policies and ensuring that all new products strictly adhere to the norms.

- Responsible for accreditation of R&D facilities of highest government authorities.

- Presenting new products to all stake holders from time to time as per Stage & Gate policy

- Liaison with government authorities/product approval committees /Industry associations to include new products/new technologies and registration of in-house developed products by submitting required dossiers.

- Bringing new technologies to speed up product evaluation

- National and international research institutes/ universities tie ups for new technologies/ technical transfers for entering into new research areas and developing upcoming products

- Commercialization strategies

- Prioritization of New products roll out

- Arriving at right raw material sources which enhances product efficiency at the same time optimizes the product cost.

- Arriving at R&D budgetary requirements and year wise new products roll out plan.

- Quality Assurance

o Set up QC/QA labs at various mfg facilities

o Placing SOPs and Ensuring for Quality of all manufactured and third party products

o Continuously working on enhancing the existing product range quality in discussions with R&D teams as well as third party suppliers

Technical Knowledge :

- Ph.D in Micro Biology/Biotechnology/ Soil Science /Agronomy with minimum 20 years research experience in a reputed company and min 5 yrs experience of spear heading R&D , Product innovation and development in Specility Plant Nutrition area

- Process setup for manufacturing of in-house developed products

- Good Knowledge of Plant physiology, agriculture products and cropping patterns

- Discovery / New product Development processes/ systems.

- Knowledge on Equipment / Infrastructure for setting up R& D facilities or enhancing existing infrastructure.

- Membership/ participation in National/International Conferences/ Trade Fairs

Competencies :

- Thinks Strategically and Acts Decisively (PL3)

- Agile Towards Change and Innovation (PL3)

- Executes Efficiently (PL3)

- Builds a Performance & Development Culture (PL3)

- Focused on Achieving Results (PL3)

- Builds Partnership with Stakeholders (PL3)

- Product Development (ModulePL3)

- Analytical skills

- Communication & Writing skills

- Team Management

- Ability to see big picture

- Envisioning new product development from start to finish

- Ability to pay attention to details