Science & Technology Assistant Manager Microbiology

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world.

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our inclusive, collaborative, and flexible working environment. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

We want our business to flourish, and we know that our success depends on others flourishing around us. That's why our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace, and why sustainable, long-term growth is at the heart of our business model.

JOB PURPOSE

The Science & Technology (S&T) team in the Foods Business Group is an agile team of enthusiastic world-class scientists who deliver business relevant solutions underpinning brand innovation programs, based on scientific and technological capabilities. One such key capability is Food Microbiology, accountable for the delivery of microbiological solutions across R&D and Supply Chain (SC). The strength of the team lies in the integration of microbiological and processing knowledge for R&D to develop safe/stable formulation & process designs to deliver winning products.

As a Foods Microbiologist, you will work in the microbiology team delivering up-front solutions and safety across our R&D innovation portfolio and business operations supporting iconic brands such as Hellmann’s and Knorr. This is a critical business need as science-driven microbiological support: (1) provides the unlock for faster and sustainable innovation, incident prevention and mitigation (2) provides a solid basis to perform microbiological risk assessments and (3) enables the business to deliver better for you and for the planet products.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE?

• Assure microbiological safe and stable product and process design and preservation by hurdle technology.
• Operational support for technical incident root-cause analysis.
• Designing, supervising and carrying out laboratory project work which will be done in-house or in cooperation with third party labs.
• Ensure end-to-end quality in microbiology science-based support, including practical lab studies, data analysis and visualization, interpretation & presentation, and reporting multidisciplinary teams.
• Microbiological risk assessment for design centers and Supply Chain support (e.g. for incident and process control), R&D support (e.g. product development) and Design of Experiments (DoE).
• Develop a network and collaborations with internal and external Unilever contacts, manufacturing sites, 3rd party co-packers, QA personnel, other Unilever microbiology expertise groups, Supply Chain / Quality to deliver and implement microbiologically safe products and processes.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED

Experiences & Qualifications

• At least BSc (Food Microbiology, Food Safety, Food Science & Technology – with focus on microbiology) or equivalent.
• Data management and statistical data analysis skills (e.g. using PowerBI, JMP, R, SPSS) is an advantage.

Skills

• Solid experimental work (challenge testing, applied microbiology methods and molecular microbiology)
• Good influencing and communication skills (English written and verbal); ability to manage complex stakeholder discussions
• Ability to use technical judgment to lead and shape experimental designs
• Strong record in relevant microbiological research and factory processing experience.
• Team player with flexible “we can” attitude, yet ability to work agile and independently and has a pro-active problem solver mindset.
• Ability to work in cross-disciplinary teams and in multi-cultural environments, utilising an established network.

WHAT DOES UNILEVER OFFER?

• Attractive total remuneration package; excellent company pension, bonus, share scheme, bike-plan.
• Flexible cross-disciplinary career opportunities and a wealth of training opportunities & wellbeing resources whenever and wherever.
• Plenty of company-paid holidays to further ensure your work-life balance is maintained.
• Informal culture and being the first one trying our new products.
• My Fitness Plan (reduction on your Fitness Subscription).
• Wellbeing weeks.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP). This is a free service for you and your relatives in case you might need help in a wide range of issues, including mental health, childcare, elderly care, legal advice, and more.
• Work from home allowance.
• Company laptop and mobile phone.
• Green Mobility Policy.
• Under the Hybrid Working principles, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 40%-60% in the office or at customers, suppliers or partners to connect and collaborate. For the time you work from home, we will ensure you are well equipped. When you are at the office, you can enjoy our tasty canteen with prepped food and own products.