Global Head of Consumer Science

Opella•Morristown, NJ

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Head of Consumer Science is a pivotal leader in shaping Opella's ambitions to be consumer centric in making health as simple as it should be and delivering outstanding consumer experiences that support selfcare. This role is responsible for defining and implementing the overall consumer science strategy, ensuring that technical consumer insight and true product reasons to believe are built throughout our product development cycle. The successful candidate will drive the creation of superior consumer experiences through building the consumer-centric culture across R&D, developing new approaches to unlocking technical product insights, and supporting teams to deliver outstanding consumer experiences making selfcare easier for consumers across the science that supports our brands.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree or Master's in relevant field
Strong leadership expertise and experience leading teams and matrix organizations.
10 + years Products Research experience ideally with a leading FMCG or Consumer Health company.
Knowledge of qualitative & quantitative research methodologies
Knowledge of the advantages and limitations of different analytical/quantitative approaches
Knowledge of insight approaches - including activities such as market monitoring, surveillance, development of competitive pipelines & timelines, competitive product & company profiling, facilitation of readiness workshops and strategies.
Fluent spoken and written English

Nice To Haves

Experience in conducting Sensory tests and managing Consumers and Expert Panels with a leading Company is highly desirable.
Additionally, experience in leading the technical evaluation of products versus competition highly advantageous, ideally spanning the development and validation of consumer-relevant test methodologies, evaluation of products and translating differences into supportable claims and visualizations / demos of advantages.
An Additional language (particularly French) is desirable

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership for the Consumer Science function: It is expected that this leader will be responsible for leading the global consumer science work program and engaging the full consumer science team in driving the consumer science strategy forward
Collaborate closely with Opella's CXI team (Marketing Insights Team) , Development Centers, and key functions including Public Relations, Regulatory, Manufacturing & Supply, Procurement and Quality.
The Global Consumer Science Lead develops a high performing team across the science hub: Establishing objectives and development goals for the team and developing a pipeline of talent
Foster an environment/culture of learning and sharing of best practice within the team
Build strong leadership capabilities, ensure effective management, and promote professional growth within the team
Build strong relationships with key transversal partners within the Science Hub, the Growth Hub, and the Regions to elevate the role of product research to ensure it is a key driver for innovation and Category and Brand growth
Insight, Strategy & Capability Development: The leader is responsible for overseeing all aspects related to Sensory Testing, either conducted internally and/or externally ensuring consumer centric product development and gaining consumer input on product and packaging prototypes.
They will also oversee Consumer and Product research including but not limited to competitor products, product acceptance, repeatability, market intelligence, competitive intelligence, behavior science etc.
The leader will co-own the relationship with Flavor Houses (together with procurement) to ensure that the latest technologies and trends can be part of our consumer experiences.
The leader will identify new technologies and ways for consumer engagement that will allow for agility in how Opella test and engage new technical product insight generation (Formula & Packaging).
The leader will be accountable for the consumer centricity program to ensure that everyone in R&D has the right level of consumer empathy and understands the needs and preferences of our consumers
Innovation & Roadmap Integration: Actively engage with Opella's broader innovation community to understand, support, and guide the current & future direction of new product and solution offerings, with a clear focus on ensuring teams drive best insight identification to superior product experience including simplifying science for our consumers.
The leader will continuously scout the external environment for cutting-edge consumer science approaches their strong external network to bring in a broad range of external science opportunities to build a platform approach and to work closely with external technology scouts to direct them to opportunities for our platforms
Development and Implementation of the Consumer Science Vision & Strategy
Operationalize Consumer Science: The Global Consumer Science Lead will engage with consumers to inform how Opella design products (Formula & Packaging) .
They will be responsible to drive the delivery of superior consumer experiences for brands utilizing different solutions: sensory lab testing, online engagement, use of technology, partnerships (in particular with Flavor Houses) , enrolling the cross-functional science organization and partnering with CXI (Marketing Insights Team) .
They will lead the development of all consumer/product research that help to inform product development and improvement for launch and Life Cycle Management of our products be they core and / or new innovations
Effectively manage the consumer science budget and vendor relationships
Consumer Science Capability build & Growth In collaboration with functions such as CXI (Marketing Insights Team), development of core deliverables such as situational analyses to strengthen Opella’s understanding of the CHC markets based on consumer and technical product insights, with a focus on environmental factors, selfcare expectations, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions that influence behaviors and customer experience, as well as consumer characteristics and product attributes that drive product choice.
The use of qualitative and quantitative research methodology to inform key development and business decisions leading the analysis plans, report, and present research findings.
Drive the consumer-centric culture for the entire R&D organisation by building consumer engagement and training programs.
Driving solid Fundamentals such as: Digital evolution for the consumer science team driving a strategy that supports consistent reporting & data consolidation and delivery – overseeing the delivery and utilization of consumer/product research, competitive intelligence, secondary data such as IQVIA, GNPD data, etc.
Follow industry and pre-defined standards to ensure legal and ethical approaches to Consumer Science, consumer/product research protecting business interests and confidentiality.
Nurturing key working relationships: Innovation Teams, Development Centres, CXI (Marketing Insights Team) , Regulatory and Medical.
Regional Science Hub leaders and teams, Brand R&D leads and Innovation leads