Manager, R&D

Location: Shawnee Mission

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

Corbion is seeking a proactive RD&A Manager to lead a team of bakery and food scientists.  This role serves as a critical business partner to Sales, Marketing, Product Management, and Procurement while driving the execution of innovation, customer, and renovation initiatives to support our bakery business strategy. The RD&A Manager is based in the Lenexa, KS North American corporate office and reports to the Director of RD&A.

 In this position you will lead a team which supports Corbion’s baking business through the development, validation, and commercialization of bakery ingredient solutions.  You will coordinate, prioritize and deliver strategic and customer projects while collaborating with internal and external customers.  You will be a key representative of the Corbion NAM RD&A group to external customers. The ideal candidate will be a food scientist with experiences relevant to bakery applications, ingredient functionality, project management, and team leadership.

KEY

ACCOUNTABILITIES Lead and develop a team of scientists and technologists to deliver innovation, customer, and renovation projects, ensuring the timely execution of product development activities and the generation of accurate, high-quality results Manage resource allocation across project portfolios to ensure efficient utilization Lead ingredient and bakery application product development Ensure effective project scoping, resource planning, risk management, and stakeholder communication. Lead complex projects independently including but not limited to ingredient research, product optimization projects, and new product development Actively build open and collaborative teamwork between global RDA teams Flag priority clashes on time for decision within leadership team Secure data reporting and management of application knowledge, provide written reports for use by internal teams and customers Ability to build trusted relationships with customers and internal business partners as an expert in the field Personnel Management:
Cultivate a team atmosphere with peer groups and upper management Manage, motivate and develop laboratory staff Work collaboratively across the research and application department to assess and prioritize needs of the broader RDA team Communicates with clients regularly to understand needs, as well as answer questions and provide information on product functionality and troubleshooting Maintain project timelines and prioritize daily work Oversee all people management for the designated team including hours’ management, hiring, personnel development, performance evaluation and training Assist in maintaining a lab environment that is clean, organized, and work ready  Project leader or member of application/innovation projects:
Contribute to ideation, review and identification of new projects, developing and executing technical plans, collecting and analyzing data, communicating results and project status, generating reports, and making presentations Participate effectively on cross functional project teams, which may include colleagues from RDA, Sales, Technical Services, Business, Marketing, Operations, etc. as the needs of the projects dictate Utilize strong project management skills to develop and execute project plans, develop value propositions, and commercial launch packages Provide technical training on new technology and solutions Possess problem solving skills, understanding of experimental design, and statistical analysis  

Qualifications:

Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Food Science or related scientific field.  Master's Degree can substitute portion of…