Senior Manager, Formula Intelligence, GDI

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Position Overview

The Senior Manager, Formula Intelligence is a senior individual contributor and product owner responsible for translating product development and formula governance needs into scalable digital and data‑driven solutions. This role leads the design, piloting, implementation, and scaling of digitalization initiatives that enable more agile, predictive, and data‑driven product development and formula governance processes.

Working at the intersection of Product Development, Formula Governance, Platform Services (PS), and Innovation & Technology Strategy (ITS), this role ensures that digital solutions are grounded in strong data foundations, connected knowledge repositories, and clearly articulated business requirements.

The Senior Manager acts as the primary business interface and product owner for Formula Intelligence initiatives, defining use cases, functional requirements, success metrics, and adoption plans. In addition, this role serves as a key insights provider to Product Development, leveraging ingredient and formula data to identify optimization, harmonization, and rationalization opportunities.

With strong expertise in formulation processes, data analytics, and digital enablement, this role accelerates the evolution of product development toward iterative, insight‑led, and automation‑enabled ways of working, while ensuring solutions align with regulatory, governance, and operational constraints.

Key Responsibilities

Product Ownership & Digital Enablement (Core of the Role)

• Act as Product Owner for Formula Intelligence digital initiatives, owning use‑case definition, requirements, backlog prioritization, and value realization.

• Translate product development and formula governance needs into clear solution briefs and functional requirements for PS and ITS teams.

• Define success criteria, KPIs, and adoption metrics for digital solutions.

• Lead pilot design, execution, evaluation, and scaling of digital tools and AI‑enabled capabilities.

Data Foundation & Analytics Enablement

• Identify, connect, and structure ingredient, formula, and process data sources required to enable analytics, modeling, and AI use cases.

• Enable descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive analytics to inform formulation design, optimization, and decision‑making.

• Partner with data analysts and platform teams to develop dashboards, reports, and analytics products that support product development teams.

• Ensure data quality, traceability, and fitness‑for‑purpose in collaboration with formula governance teams.

Digitalization of Product Development & Governance Processes

• Map end‑to‑end product development and formula governance processes to identify opportunities for digitalization, automation, and simplification.

• Drive enhancements to proprietary systems (e.g., PICASSO, KOcreate) as they relate to analytics, workflow enablement, and decision support.

• Ensure digital solutions integrate seamlessly into existing product development and governance workflows.

• Support change management, training, and adoption for new digital capabilities.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration & Influence

• Serve as the primary link between GDI, Formula Governance, PS, and ITS for Formula Intelligence initiatives.

• Facilitate alignment across R&D, SRA, CPS, QA, Supply Chain, and external partners on digital use cases and data requirements.

• Communicate complex technical and data concepts in a clear, business‑relevant manner to diverse stakeholders.

• Represent Formula Intelligence initiatives in regional and global forums as needed.

Continuous Improvement & Capability Building

• Identify emerging digital, analytics, and AI trends relevant to formulation and product development.

• Capture learnings from pilots and implementations to continuously improve digitalization approaches.

• Contribute to the development of standards, guidelines, and best practices for digital product development enablement.

Data‑Driven Insights & Value Optimization

• Leverage ingredient, formula, and product development data to generate actionable insights that inform formulation and innovation decisions.

• Develop analytics and reporting to identify opportunities for:

  • Formula design optimization (Design‑to‑Value), balancing cost, performance, quality, and compliance.
  • Formula harmonization and reapplication across brands, markets, or platforms to improve speed‑to‑market and reduce complexity.
  • Ingredient portfolio rationalization, identifying duplication, underutilization, and standardization opportunities.
  • Formula portfolio rationalization, highlighting redundancy, complexity drivers, and opportunities for simplification.

• Translate insights into clear recommendations and use cases for product development and formula governance teams.

• Partner with R&D, CPS, SRA, and Supply Chain to validate insights and support decision‑making.

• Embed insights into dashboards, decision‑support tools, and digital workflows to ensure sustained adoption and business impact.

Required Qualifications:

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Data Science, or related field.

• Advanced degree preferred.

Experience

• 7-10 years of experience in product development, formula governance, R&D operations, or related technical roles in food or beverage.

• English proficiency is a must.

• Demonstrated experience acting as a product owner, digital lead, or business translator in digital transformation initiatives.

• Proven track record leading cross‑functional digital or analytics projects from concept to implementation.

• Strong understanding of formulation systems, ingredient data, and product development workflows.

Preferred Skills & Competencies

Digital & Data Fluency

• Experience with data platforms, analytics tools, and AI‑enabled solutions.

• Ability to define analytics and AI use cases without being a software developer.

Product Ownership & Delivery

• Strong backlog management, prioritization, and pilot‑to‑scale execution skills.

• Familiarity with agile or hybrid delivery methodologies.

Business & Technical Translation

• Ability to convert complex technical needs into actionable digital requirements.

• Strong storytelling and stakeholder alignment skills.

Influence & Collaboration

• Proven ability to influence without authority across technical and commercial teams.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Problem Solving

• Systems thinking, learning agility, and comfort working in ambiguity.

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Skills:
**Product Development; Leadership; Chemistry; Continual Improvement Process; Environmental Science; Researching; Microbiology; Food Sciences; Waterfall Model; Food Technology; Communication; Laboratory Testing; Data Compilation; Quality Control (QC); Food Safety Management; Green Solutions; Sensory Testing

Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage:15
Annual Incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.