Assistant Manager Deodorants, R&D India

Job title:  Assistant Manager Deodorants, R&D India

Location: Mumbai HURC

General Context:

Deodorants is a huge market in India and HUL has a small business with Rexona, Dove and Axe and the last 3 years performance of the market offers a huge opportunity for growth. In order to bring in the focus and also drive aggressive growth in this space of deodorants and Antiperspirants in India for brands Dove and Rexona, we are looking for an experienced talent who has good technical knowledge to drive innovations at pace with great agility working with cross functional teams to drive the agenda and the category deliverables.

Job Description:

The current job description is for Assistant Manager Deodorants position reporting into a R&D product development manager, Mumbai. The person would lead technical workstream for projects of Deodorants, Anti-Perspirants for innovation/renovation Program, covering formulation, process development, fragrance development and claim support. The person should also have deeper understanding of deodorants, personal care or skin care ingredients/technologies/ formulations and fragrance to meet local consumer & business needs. Good knowledge on different formats within Deodorants and specially on aerosols, creams, lotions will be important. In addition, the role would also involve leading value creation initiatives, managing product quality and specifications, interfacing with global & regional cross-functional teams and working closely with the brand teams.

Key Responsibilities:

The job responsibilities would include:

Product Development & Execution

• Drive deployment of global technologies and formulations by working closely with Global Design Centre for different formats within Deodorants ( aesrosol, sticks, creams and lotions).

• Execute projects as Technical workstream leader developing mixes with deeper understanding of consumer habits, need gap and pain points as desired by the project & business.

• Lead lab batches, process and scale-up to main plant working closely with relevant experts from Design/local teams.

• Work with the cross functional teams (Brand, SC, planning, finance, procurement, CTI, CMI) to ensure OTIF execution of projects.

• Conduct technical/product risk assessment and its mitigation plan.

• Manage project networks from R&D and timely resolution of issues.

• Identify & drive product savings opportunities/agenda for the category.

• Interact with testing houses, factories and other 3P agencies and run factory trials

• Interact with leading fragrance Houses for innovations/renovation projects.

• Generate technical data to design claim strategies/support for innovation projects

• Documentation of product development pathway by means of suitable reports and dossiers.

• Application of digital tools and project management tools to generate/manage data & fast-track project networks.

Operations, Safety & Compliances

• Manage material/product specifications & recipes/BOMs.

• Knowledge in lab safety, relevant applications, raw materials and chemical processes.

• Ensure compliance to Internal Unilever protocols, External regulatory environment, while developing mixes with respect to commitment to safety, environment & people.

About You

The right candidate will be pro-active and self- driven, articulative and a well-organised strategic thinker with strong interpersonal skills.

The candidate will typically have demonstrated:

• Ability to deep dive into challenges and come out with winning solutions.

• Needs to have passion for ‘what’s right for the consumer’. This is needed to passionately address the quality improvement areas products across portfolio.

• Focused on delivery. Is an active learner and team player

Qualifications & Experience:

• B. Sc or Master’s in science or engineering discipline or related area.

• Good knowledge in formulation, ingredient chemistry, process, fragrance development and claim support.

• Minimum 8–10 years of R&D experience in FMCG, preferably with experience in the Deodorants, Personal Care, or Skin Care category. Deodorant format experience will be greatly appreciated for this role.