Description

What makes this a great opportunity?

• The spirits industry is an exciting, dynamic, and fast-paced business. Suntory Global Spirits is a top player in the spirits business and focused on driving both category and brand growth.
• Close partnership with the Technical Director to provide key leadership of liquid innovation strategy, optimization, quality and production of SGS's spirits portfolio.
• Close connection with the other multiple business regions to collaborate on global opportunities and broad global initiatives.
• Responsible for leading high-complexity, research related to the enhancement & expansion of product development capabilities, alongside cross-functional teams, to drive key strategic priorities. In many cases, this person will collaborate with scientists in other regions and at the Global Innovation Center.
• Opportunity to bring a global mindset, drive liquid integrity, and play a key role in bringing future forward thinking and actions to deliver against our ambitions in new and creative ways.

Role Responsibilities

This position directly reports to the Technical Director of Product Innovation and Technical Research and serves as a critical component in advancing our company's product innovation and quality initiatives. The role involves close collaboration with members of the Product Innovation and Technical Research team to execute responsibilities and strategies that align with the Suntory Global Spirits (SGS) ambition for Oceania and Global Markets. In this capacity, this position will engage with cross-functional partners to develop innovative, consumer- and customer-focused products and platforms, enhance quality, and identify cost-saving opportunities, all aimed at driving profitable growth and achieving business objectives. Additionally, the role provides R&D support to cross-functional teams, with a particular focus on product development for Ready-To-Drink (RTD) products.

Key Responsibilities
• Build and maintain relationships across the organization, cutting across functional and location boundaries.
• Develop and implement new products as part of cross functional project team, translating consumer/customer needs into relevant product design elements meeting consumer, cost, quality, manufacturing and regulatory requirements, with minimal guidance of manager.
• Collaborate with external suppliers and develop concepts to extend product possibilities and identify, evaluate, and implement new enabling technologies and raw materials.
• Proactively seek, demonstrate, and share understanding of the alcohol and non-alcohol market. Effectively incorporate this learning into business plans to drive new ideas and technology potential.
• Partner with the Global Center of Excellence in Kentucky, USA on project support and execution.
• Participate actively in team building and broader SGS and external initiatives.
• Continuous improvement mindset and ability to learn from past projects and external observations to find ways to reduce complexity, utilize learnings, and increase efficiencies within the process.

Qualifications

• M.S Food Science or related preferred with 4 years' experience, or B.S. degree with 6+ years' experience.
• Minimum 4 years work experience in food and/or beverage industry. Experience in research initiatives and in ready to drink alcoholic beverages or carbonated soft drinks a plus.
• Comfortable working and leading through ambiguous situations and many unknowns - pulling together the options and what-must-be-true to ensure delivery of business goals.
• Ability to develop strong cross functional relationships within R&D as well as with Marketing, Supply Chain, Quality, Packaging, Procurement, Engineering, etc. to drive strong collaboration and results.
• Culturally sensitive, with ability to work in a global multicultural cross functional organization, requiring ability to work effectively across cultures, time zones to accommodate global responsibilities.
• Must be able to taste limited quantities of alcoholic beverage samples in accordance with evaluation/research needs.
• Ability to work in office/lab at least ~60% of the time, balancing work from home, as business needs require. For the first 3 months of employment/training, the amount of time in the office will be closer to 80% to speed up on-boarding
• Ability to travel globally to partner in project work with internal and external clients, as well as support implementation at Suntory Global Spirits facilities - travel approx. 10-30% globally to various SGS locations, vendors, etc.
• Must train in Kentucky, United States, for first 30 days of employment. After training is completed, this role will be based in Sydney.
• Physically fit for work primarily in a lab, pilot plant and manufacturing environments, which includes long periods of standing, moving, and carrying or lifting up to 20 kilos.