Material Expert for Functional Food Ingredients - Foods Global Innovation Team

Job Details

Material Expert for Functional Food Ingredients – Foods Global Innovation Team

About Foods

Foods is one of the largest Business Groups (BG) in Unilever with global multibillion-euro power brands such as Knorr and Hellmann’s and many regional and local brands. Our purpose is to brighten lives every day with our goal to be best in class with marketing making, unmissably superior brands. This can be achieved through an ambitious innovation, technology and commercialization agenda which delivers differentiating and superior products and packaging solutions vs. competition, sustainable, and at a cost advantage.

About the MET Team

Material Expert Teams (METs) are part of the Foods R&D Global Innovation team for Cooking Aids and Mini Meals. They lead our materials portfolios and contribute to the growth agenda of the three verticals: Condiments, Cooking Aids & Mini Meals, and Food Solutions.

METs are global cross functional teams comprising of R&D, Procurement and Quality, led by R&D. They link with Technical Program Leaders and Technical Project Leaders both in Global Design, BU and 1Unilever R&D teams to manage their programs/projects/ongoing business needs. METs collaborate with suppliers through the Partner to win strategy to meet the needs of the business.

Together with Global Innovation teams, BU-teams and Science & Technology, METs identify or co-create materials with suppliers to meet the needs of the H1, H2 and H3 Innovation plans. METs have an important role in driving the global/regional initiatives of portfolio transformation and own the Future Fit Ingredient portfolios.

Description of the role

The Material Expert defines and implements optimal material portfolios, delivers differentiating technologies for his/her portfolios, implement best ways of working with internal R&D partners, ingredient suppliers, and leverage scale and efficiency in their material portfolio through partnerships with suppliers, Procurement, Digital & Data, R&D, Quality, SC, etc.

The Material Expert plays a pivotal role in the Global and BU innovation/ renovation programs for the three verticals by ensuring the right functionality and that the best quality ingredients are sourced from preferred and strategic suppliers at competitive pricing to deliver value in the foods business.

Job summary

• Reporting to the Senior MET Leader, the material expert for food ingredients is responsible for managing her/his own portfolios under the guidance of the Senior MET leader. The portfolios include Flours, Vinegars/alcohols, chemicals and preservatives.
• Driving future fit portfolio by ensuring Innovation needs are captured in the portfolio. This requires her/him to consult with R&D teams across foods, supporting their Innovation and Renovation projects.
• Collaborating with Procurement and Quality to define and execute the supplier and material innovation strategy based on global ingredient and commodity trends by constantly evaluating and revalidating existing and upcoming supplier capabilities and technologies.
• Owning the analytical capabilities for all Functional Ingredients by working closely with the analytical team, managing the relevant methods used in our ingredient specifications and executing them.
• Owning the Positive Material List (PML) for her/his portfolio, driving commonalities of similar materials. Having a leading role in creating and approving high-quality ingredient specifications which are aligned with and signed-off by suppliers globally, thus ensuring quality of the materials in the sourcing units.
• Maintaining and further strengthening R&D teams globally through sharing skills and knowledge.
• Working closely with suppliers and having frequent connects.
• Working with global Quality teams to define most important and critical parameters in the specifications of the raw materials that need to be monitored by the receiving sourcing units or need to be put on Certificates of Analysis to ensure that incoming materials are up to the quality guaranteed by suppliers.
• Performing lab work & sensory evaluations in assessing ingredients to give recommendations and sharing her/his expertise across Unilever.
• Representing the material expert team on various programmes and projects in addition to leading material portfolios.

Key requirements

• Master’s degree in a relevant study (Food science/technology, Biotechnology, Food Chemistry/Technology) or is fully operational at that level.
• An awareness or understanding of flours, vinegars, chemical and preservative ingredients, including in-product applications.
• Tasting skills & understanding of sensory and technological principles that support material evaluations.
• Drive speed to market and have a mindset of speed over perfection by staying three steps ahead and focusing on what counts.
• Focus on what counts and deliver with excellence.
• Collaborative mindset & a committed Team player.
• Have the right aptitude and mindset required for working in a multi-functional, multi-cultural environment, advanced global communication skills and fluency in written and spoken English.
• Proactive and independent, coordinating workload efficiently.
• Experience in BU or BG R&D teams is highly preferred.

Additional requirements

Basic awareness of:

• Recipe Design Principles of Condiments, Cooking Aids, Mini meal and Food Solutions Technologies.
• Quality aspects of ingredients and applications alike.
• Analytical test methods and respective equipment that support evaluation and confirmation of material quality.
• Relevant knowledge of the ingredients in her/his portfolio; types of ingredients & their functionality in food applications.
• Food technologies, food processing, food nutrition and health, food safety and hygiene, food regulations, culinary ingredients and techniques to help the product teams in selection of best materials suited for their applications.
• Ideally hands-on working knowledge on existing and upcoming digital tools: PLM, ELN, LV8, PowerBI, Iris and Co-Pilot.