VP of Research, Product Devel. and Innovation

Since 1750, Finlays has served as the industry’s trusted leader in the supply of tea, coffee, and botanicals extracts to the world’s beverage brand owners. Through engaged employees and a continuous improvement mindset, Finlays has grown this legacy in the North and South American regions. Finlays Americas delivers safe and consistent “fit for purpose” quality products and services, meeting regulatory requirements and customer expectations by being an integrated, customer-centric solution provider.

DESCRIPTION:

This new, senior leadership role will oversee research for new products, product enhancements, and product design, leading teams with a major organizational impact to the success of the business. The VP of Research, Product Development and Innovation will report directly to the Chief Commercial Officer and partner with the Finlays leadership team and business units to set the strategy to lead the research, development, and product innovation teams and activity required for accelerating company growth. This will come through the creation and commercialization of new products, and revenue production across the entire organization. This position carries with it the responsibility to lead team members and grow their capabilities for contributing to the organization while owning and managing the efforts of the Analytical, R&D and Product Innovation teams to meet the business goals of the assigned categories and overall company.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Responsible for the development of the Finlays Innovation and Research Strategy, to create a pipeline of product offerings to support the growth strategy in partnership with the business units.
• Develop and implement a governance framework for project management within the Research and Development, Analytical and Processing research and Innovation teams.
• Establish, track and report on KPIs with business leads – guide team to evaluate and accelerate business opportunities based on results and insights.
• Leads teams with business unit leadership to develop and deliver new products while meeting food safety and quality standards and cost metrics.
• Serve as a technical leader with strategic and critical customer knowledge of product requirements relative to Finlays process and product capabilities and partners cross collaboratively to drive growth pipeline.
• Manage the healthy tension between Technical and Commercial functions to ensure data driven decisions and appropriate scientific tools are deployed in development programs.
• Develop and manage departmental budgets alongside department heads.
• Drive cross functional teams to develop comprehensive commercialization plans outlining key milestones, resource requirements, budget allocation, and risk mitigation strategies.

• Works closely with Finlays leadership, sales, food safety, and supply chain teams to align product development timelines and marketing strategies.
• Use category understanding and emerging technologies to lead the identification of portfolio growth opportunities, packaging sustainability and value engineering opportunities.
• Responsible for execution of changes to product and package for cost savings, supply chain issue mitigation, regulatory mandates, environmental, social, and corporate governance goal attainment and evolving customer criteria.
• Conduct thorough market research and analysis to identify emerging technologies and trends that can be leveraged for product development.
• Encourage and facilitate continuous learning, exploration and innovation of new ingredients, processes, techniques, and more.
• Champion Finlays purpose & values, develops team capabilities & processes, and partners across the organization to deliver dependent projects.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Minimum of 15 years of experience in research and development, with a proven track record of successful product development.
• Master's degree in a relevant field is preferred.
• Experience in a high-volume Manufacturing environment, preferably in the food / beverage space
• Extensive experience in product commercialization with a track record of successfully launching new products and business growth.
• Strong leadership skills, ability to inspire and motivate a team of leaders, researchers, scientists, and innovation teams.