About ofi
ofi, is a global leader in food & beverage ingredients. Pioneers at heart, we operate at the forefront of consumer trends to provide food & beverage manufacturers with products and ingredients that will delight their consumers. Making a positive impact on people and planet is all part of the delight. With a deep-rooted presence in the countries where our ingredients are grown, we are closer to farmers, enabling better quality, and more reliable, traceable and transparent supply. Supplying products and ingredients at scale is just the start. We add value through our unique, complementary portfolio of natural, delicious, and nutritious products. With our fresh thinking, we help our customers unleash the sensory and functional attributes of cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts, and spices so they can create naturally good food & beverage products that meet consumer expectations. And whoever we’re with, whatever we’re doing, we always make it real.
ofi is driven by a strong purpose – ‘Be the change for good food and a healthy future’. By working with ofi, you’ll be helping to create a real impact on the ground. Sustainability is built into our business model - from our offices to our farming operations and supply chains, we’re acting across issues as diverse as farmer poverty, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Position Overview
The incumbent role reports to the VP Innovation & APAC Customer Solutions Head. The incumbent will be managing a team of category managers and specialists with varying food and beverage development and application expertise. The role will be driving execution of projects, partnering with cross functional team to meet project timelines, leverage expertise to commercialize new products to meet customers’ growing needs.
Responsibilities
- Lead a team of experienced category managers/solution specialists who specialize in specific product category, sensory scientist and application technicians
- Passionate about working on complex projects and have a good understanding of technical know-how across varying food categories
- Able to inspire and guide the team to develop best solution to win customer projects
- Work closely with sales and marketing teams to develop a customer-centric proactive initiatives based on trends
- Collaborate with technical team from IEC (Ingredient Excellence Centers) to test the performance of new ingredients in consumable products as well as defining gaps or improvements in the current ingredient portfolio.
- Develop highly effective ways to communicate and interact with customers during project execution. Speed of response is key to making a difference and to win the activities with customers.
- Ensure smooth project management and secure a seamless service from the moment a project is entered up to winning.
- Deliver high quality great tasting product solutions, innovative value-added concepts, meeting target cost, regulatory, food safety requirements and best-in-class sampling.
- Take ownership to improve team performance, effectiveness in project execution and the success rate of new projects and product developments
- Personally, lead few key customer projects/internal or external initiatives partnering with cross functional stakeholders
- Identify supplier partners and explore new ingredients to bridge performance gaps or develop new functionality in current product portfolio.
- Oversee the CSC laboratory operating procedures, governance of GMP, safety and ensure resources utilization are within budget
- Regularly update line manager on key projects, progress, challenges and escalation process as needed meet team KPI
- This position requires minimal travelling (<10%).
Requirements and skills
- Masters or Bachelors Degree in Food Technology, Food Chemistry, Food Engineering or any other related discipline
- A minimum of 12-15 years of experience in B2B food development, having in-depth knowledge of ingredient functionality and processing know-how in beverage segment (powdered premixes, RTD, beverage sauce/syrup, etc.).
- Experience and knowledge in other relevant categories e.g. dairy, bakery, confectionery, desserts or savoury will be an added advantage.
- Good understanding of the working dynamics across FMCG/CPG and food service channel
- People management capabilities and ability to continuously improve the team performance having a customer centric approach based on key deliverables.
- Masters the food development process inside-out from customer inspiration to winning customer projects.
- Driven, possess a growth mindset, optimistic, trustworthy, able to navigate in ambiguous environment and inspire the team to go the extra mile combining intelligence, agility and creativity
- Work well with cross functional teams, able to multi-task and handle time sensitive situations
- Proficient in spoken and written English and other Asian language
- Excellent communication, good listeners with social skills.
- Fun to work with and open minded.
At ofi, we celebrate our diversity. ofi provides equality of opportunity for all persons with respect to hiring without discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, age, disability, veteran status, or sexual orientation. All employment decisions will be based on qualifications, merit, and business needs.
