General Manager- New Product Development -Food International Business

Position: General Manager- New Product Development (Food)

Department: International Business

Reporting to: President- International Business

Location: Ahmedabad- Corporate Office

Salary: Open for discussion

Bond -3 Years

Job Summary

The person for New Product Development (NPD) in the food processing sector, specializing in Food technology, will play a key leadership role in driving innovation, product design, and market entry strategies for dairy & Food based products. With a strong techno-commercial background, the person will oversee the entire NPD lifecycle, ensuring product feasibility, cost-efficiency, and commercial success. This role also requires substantial experience in managing third-party operations, vendor development, and supplier relationships to ensure that product development and production align with operational standards, cost targets, and quality control requirements.

Job Description:

Responsible for management of New Product Development, Procurement, Vendor Development, and contract management for all Projects related to International Business.

• Understands the market priorities of the organization and provides inputs to support the formulation of procurement and new product development strategy based on the criticality of requirements, cost control norms, and quality specifications.

Develops strategic plans for efficient procurement process and translate them into standard processes and systems to improve operation efficiency and cost and efforts.

• Oversees the techno-commercial negotiation with identified vendors/suppliers for major/ critical procurement to ensure the best possible terms of sourcing for the organization in terms of price, quality, and services by evaluating offers and giving counter offers based on industrial standards.
• Review the key performance metrics of the function on a periodic basis and intervene as and when necessary

Monitors performance of the function against set goals and against the budget on a periodic basis

• Drives cost efficiencies in the operations; identifies new and innovative ways to drive cost reduction in Procurement.
• Third-party operations management viz, ordering, inventory control, close coordination with the concerned department.
• Ensuring timely fulfilment of orders and backward working at the supplier end to ensure smooth operations.
• Identify, source, and manage R&D for new ingredients to develop new formulations and make improvements to existing products, and develop new products as per market requirements.
• Optimize and scale up manufacturing operations for new products to support the growth of the organization.
• Responsible for the timely and right execution of product development activities including formulation development, supporting pilot & and plant trials, sensory evaluation, and R&D documentation.
• Coordinating and conducting value-added audits of the third-party manufacturing units and any other essential audits as per business requirements.
• Based on Audit findings, encourage and support the vendor to get all non-conformities overcome and get the vendor facility up to date as per norms.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory documents as prescribed by the exporting country.
• Support Third-party operation and QA to resolve ingredient, formula, label, and process issues.
• Manage product specifications, documents, and system entries in (SAP).
• Investigate, report, and make sound recommendations on technical issues based on the data analysis, QC findings, and Third-party inputs.
• Cost control through ongoing review of formulation, developing vendors for improving operational efficiencies, identifying bottlenecks, and providing solutions to have the best efficient sourcing.
• Keeping track of Third-party account ledger, receivables, payment, stock, etc. Ensure commercial agreement with the third party is in place and being followed religiously.
• Ensures timely goal setting, monitoring, review of performance parameters, and feedback to team members; ensures the same across the department.
• Monitors the performance of employees within the department and takes action wherever necessary.

Desired Candidate Profile:

• Minimum Graduate in Food Technology or Food Science.
• Minimum 20+ Years of work experience work experience in the areas of product/process development, ingredient research, product formulation, specification development, analytical measurements, scale-up, and commercialization.

• Techno-commercial skills who understand business prospects and opportunities to improve spending with a better value of money.

Candidates with relevant experience in new product development in R&D, possessing techno-commercial knowledge and a food technology backgroun, are invited to apply or send their resume to vqthr@vadilalgroup.com.