Global R&D Lead (m/f/d) - Colours and Coatings

Are you interested in high-quality, natural, and tasty nutrition?

We are! It’s our ambition to shape the future of nutrition.

Döhler is a leading global producer of natural ingredients and solutions for the food, beverage, lifestyle and nutrition industries. We use innovative technology to process plant-based raw materials and enrich products such as lifestyle drinks, cereals, dairy, and confectionery goods for almost every well-known brand. Close to 10.000 dedicated employees in more than 70 countries share one common goal - to ensure that millions of people around the world enjoy the products created by us.

We strive to inspire and empower our employees in everything we do, and we invite you to join our team – together WE BRING IDEAS TO LIFE.

Your Role

• You are transforming the R&D Colors and Coatings unit into a global center of excellence, bridging and aligning complex laboratory operations across three continents. You will drive talent succession planning and organizational design to prepare the department for future scalability
• You are responsible for leading and developing a qualified teamacross borders and cultures, acting as an inspirational coach to motivate your team delivering best-in-class results
• You lead the strategic innovation roadmap, helping to secure Döhler’s market dominance 3–5 years from now
• Your expertise is required in the development and optimization of processes for the production and formulation of coloring products suchas dye mixtures, color emulsions, coloring concentrates in liquid and powder form with the best properties in terms of stability, colorstrength and handling. In doing so, you evaluate the research results and coordinate the preparation of reports and the development ofrecommendations for action
• You coordinate and lead the research and development work in the areas of food colors and coatings and you are able to transfer existingproducts into novel application environments such as petfood and cosmetics
• You have experience in evaluating and characterizing new formulations with regard to their physicochemical and coloring properties usingspectrophotometric and other analytical methods and transfer the results into specification recommendations
• Cross-plant coordination and communication with departments such as the business unit and product management, production and qualityassurance are an essential part of your job
• You provide technical support in scaling the processes from laboratory and pilot scale to industrial production
• You focus on Commercial & Technical synergy, bridging the gap between R&D capabilities and commercial strategy
• The continuous maintenance and sharpening of our efficient raw material portfolio, the standardization and optimization of processes andthe market-oriented maintenance of product data are part of your daily business

Your Profile

• You have successfully completed your studies in food technology, food chemistry or a comparable field, ideally you have been able toenrich your academic experience with a Master's or PhD thesis
• You possess strong management and project execution experience, demonstrating a clear ability to manage complex operations across borders and diverse cultures.
• While professional experience in the field of natural colors (in the B2B or B2C environment, with a focus on food and beverages, personal care, and pet food) is considered a huge benefit, your leadership, execution, and project management skills weigh higher for this specific challenge
• You are an impulse generator for innovative approaches and product solutions and proceed with a proactive and creative attitude inshaping the available development scope
• You combine a good sense for customer needs as well as market trends with a high analytical and conceptual competence, experience in"engagement" with customers on an international level is desirable
• You can lead convincingly by setting clear goals, you are confident in decision making and you come equipped with experience inencouraging leadership in both people as well as subject matters
• Your colleagues (m/f/d) appreciate your reliable and independent way of working
• You show business acumen, commercial fluency and have experience with change management
• Due to your open and communicative nature, you quickly succeed in building up a professional and cross-departmental network

Your Benefits

• Culture: Friendly and informal atmosphere, family-owned company, flat hierarchies, short communication channels, and helpful colleagues
• Impact: You are an integral part of our business success and make an important contribution to the future of nutrition
• Empowerment: You can fully unleash your potential and have the opportunity to take on responsibilities
• Digitalization: We maintain excellent partnerships with market-leading innovators, allowing you to access and work with state-of-the-art technologies
• Anniversary and special payments
• Employee referral bonuses
• Additional benefits: Christmas parties, events, financial benefits, and online shop discounts (e.g., IT leasing, mobile phone contracts, shopping, and travel discounts, etc.)

Equal opportunities for all

We welcome applicants, who are just as diverse as we are - regardless of age, ancestry, disability, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, social background or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.

Become a part of our team and apply online trough our career portal to the attention of Luisa Rhein. Please note that we are unable to consider or return application documents sent by mail.