Senior Director, RDA

At Corbion, we exist to champion preservation in all its forms, preserving food and food production, health, and our planet.

The Senior Director, North America (NAM) for Research, Development & Applications (RDA) w plays a key role in delivering Food Technology projects that will contribute to the execution of the ambitious Growth Strategy of Corbion. This position reports directly to the Region VP and has a dotted line to the Global VP of RDA Functional Ingredients & Solutions (FIS).  This person will lead a team of Application and Technology Experts with main focus on applying and understanding the performance of our products in different finished products (Bakery, Meat or Dairy). In addition, this person will lead a group of Scientists and Technologists that will create the right products for the different industries that we serve. This person will also work in close cooperation with, and not only, main stakeholders like, Sales and Product Management Directors, IP, Marketing, Operations, Regulatory, as well as Suppliers and Customers. Ensures directly and by driving the team(s) to build, maintain, and deliver a robust and effective innovation pipeline as well as customer support according to the business needs. The person will evaluate talent with the teams and help develop future leaders, drive career advancement and foster stretch goals for direct reports and their teams.

Essential Functions:

• Design and execute the NAM RDA Strategy and lead the related team in line with the Business Strategy and Innovation Roadmap for the Preservation and Functional Blends of Corbion.
• Play a key role in translating the Business Strategy into the Technology Roadmap and its execution. Drive the research and exploration of new technologies and the improvement of the existing ones to be implemented in existing and new application solutions that create profitable growth for Corbion.
• Create a culture of high standards of performance, curiosity and continuous learning, continuous improvement, knowledge cross-fertilization within and beyond the team.
• Build, strengthen, and safeguard the technology expertise and competencies of the team. Provide technical insights. Identify appropriate training programs for the team in line with needs and opportunities, and ensure the database management.  
• Ensure the teams support Sales, Application & Technical Service, and Corbion Customers for the needs in food applications, trouble-shooting, solution development/understanding, and training.
• Proactively develop the project pipeline in collaboration with the main stakeholders, in line with the Corbion’s KPI’s and profitable growth targets.

Technology, Research, Development and Applications

• Lead organization to identify new opportunities of growth for Corbion, directly and by empowering the team to scouting potential new and existing Technologies and their effective use in known and new Applications.  Align with the key stakeholders in order to create a robust value proposition in line with the Business Strategy.
• Set clear expectations and direction for the teams, fully aligned with the RDA and the wider Corbion strategy.
• Oversee the project pipeline of competence and its progression, and guarantee their delivery OTIF in line with the plans.
• Supervise the proper planning of projects of competence (own and of the team); define timelines and deliverables for the projects in alignment with the relevant stakeholders, and ensure their execution accordingly.
• Manage the resources allocation to projects in line with the Business priorities, identify potential hurdles, and evaluate options, solutions, tactical and strategic plans to overcome them.
• Collaborate, drive results and communicate effectively with all cross-functional  team members to promote the RDA culture of team delivery.
• Lead complex projects through managing the cross-functional teams under the guidance of stage gate process.

Contributing to the Development of Technology and Application Roadmaps

• Enable cross functional technology exchange among the different RDA functional teams.
• Actively participate and contribute to the roadmap development and execution.
• Oversee research and developing sciences and technology building blocks.
• Be an active contributor in idea generation, root-cause analysis, and problem solving discussions.
• Drive the science/technologies in line with Market trends, Consumers and Customers' needs for innovative products.
• Partner with external parties (i.e. universities, suppliers, etc.) to leverage their resources in technology and new product development, in order to complement the Corbion ones.

Business Supporter

• Build a partnership way of working with the key stakeholders.
• Ensure the proper resources allocation and support to the different projects in line with the priorities as agreed with your stakeholders.
• Give trainings/presentations to internal and external stakeholders or at conference/trade shows/seminar/etc.
• Be flexible in taking additional project/tasks as business needs

Subject Matter Expert

• Lead (with other subject matter experts in applications and technology teams and from external party/network) to the quality of the RDA input in functional solutions projects,  and provide technical insights as well as insights in industry status  and technology trends.
• Proficient in self-learning and enrichment to bring new knowledge and skills to the organization.

Key Relationships:

• Customers:  all customers with their RDA team, operation team, and marketing or others as needed, and in an open innovation approach.
• Sales, Application and Technical Service: to align on Customer Support for trouble-shooting, and new development projects.
• Suppliers and Third parties:  collaborating with their R&D teams and other relevant departments in an open innovation culture.
• BD and PM: In building the innovation roadmap and its execution, evaluating options for the product portfolio expansion, improvement, and optimization.

• Other Corbion functions and locations according to the needs and benefits.

Required Education & Experience:

• MSc degree in Food Science, Biochemistry or equivalent scientific education. Any further educations/PhD is a plus.
• Specialized in enzyme, texturizers, fermentation, or other functional food ingredients, with a good understanding of various food applications and food science.
• 5+ years of experience in a similar managerial position.
• Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Able to translate the scientific/technical knowledge into profitable business opportunities.
• Working knowledge of innovation processes and project management, in a multi-functional project environment
• Familiar with complex and international environment, within a matrix organization
• Customer focused and solution oriented mindset
• Creative and drive for success
• Capable of building trusted relationship with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong team-player skills: build on expertise of others, and able of connecting the dots to drive for success.
• Bring new ideas into the organization.
• Available to travel up to 30% of the time.

About Corbion

Corbion is the global market leader in lactic acid and its derivatives, and a leading supplier of emulsifiers, functional enzyme blends, minerals, vitamins, and algae ingredients. We use our unique expertise in fermentation and other processes to deliver sustainable solutions for the preservation of food and food production, health, and our planet. For over 100 years, we have been uncompromising in our commitment to safety, quality, innovation and performance. Drawing on our deep application and product knowledge, we work side-by-side with customers to make our cutting-edge technologies work for them. Our solutions help differentiate products in markets such as food, home & personal care, animal nutrition, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and bioplastics. In 2023, Corbion generated annual sales of €1,443.8 million and had a workforce of 2,727 FTE. Corbion is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. For more information: www.corbion.com

Corbion is an equal opportunity employer and committed to a diverse workplace.  All applicants will be considered equally without regard to race, color, ethnicity, veteran status, religion, national origin, marital status, political affiliation, age, sex, sexual orientation, handicapping condition, membership in an organization or any other non-merit factors.

Corbion provides reasonable accommodation to applicants.

EOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled

Corbion does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to our hiring managers. All candidates must be submitted by approved Corbion vendors who have been expressly requested to make a submission by our Talent Acquisition team for a specific job opening. No placement fees will be paid to any firm unless such a request has been made by the Corbion Talent Acquisition team and such candidate was submitted to the Corbion Talent Acquisition Team.