Global Material Science Process and Capability Lead

Location: Any Pet Care site across EU, the US and Mexico.

This is a transformational role designed to build the global operational backbone for Material Science at Mars Pet Nutrition. You will be the architect of our global ways of working for material risk assessments (MRAs) and ingredient specifications, designing the standardised process, governance and capability programs for our material science experts.

Your goal is to move us from regional ways of working to a harmonized, efficient and simplified global standard. You will achieve this by aligning stakeholders, deploying new ways of working and building material science capabilities that ensure the quality and resilience of our materials portfolio for the future.

Process Definition and Deployment:

• Design, align, and deploy a standardised global business process and governance model for MRAs and specifications.
• Clearly define and document roles and responsibilities between global and regional teams (R&D, Q&FS, SQA, Commercial, etc.) for processes covering innovation, NSQ (new supplier qualification) and novel material development.
• Partner with Central Q&FS to mandate ways of working through formal standard governance (D3 standard deployment) where applicable and document all processes with supporting materials to ensure clarity and consistency.
• Lead agile pilot of new global process on key ingredients to test, refine and validate the new global process
• Coordinate and execute global deployment and change management to embed the new ways of working across all OEs.

Continuous Improvement and Governance:

• Establish and track KPIs to monitor adherence to new processes and measure success.
• Lead governance and quality assurance activities such as peer reviews, calibration exercises and audits to ensure ongoing adherence and quality.
• Identify and execute opportunities for continuous improvement to drive efficiency, simplification, and effectiveness in all material science processes.

Capability and Knowledge Management:

• Act as the primary point of contact for process-related queries and provide ongoing training and capability development for the material scientist community.
• Develop and facilitate a global community of practice for material experts to encourage knowledge sharing and collaboration.
• Design and deploy a Material Science Competency Framework including onboarding, upskilling and ongoing competency building through trainings and mentoring.
• Build and maintain a global knowledge hub (processes, guidelines, training, knowledge harvests etc.) to capture and deploy knowledge.
• Establish and define the framework for cross-regional Community of Practice’s in each material category to share best practices, benchmark standards and identify opportunities for collaboration.
• Partner with Digital Technology to define functional business requirements for cPLM, dashboards and other digital solutions to drive efficiency and simplification.

The role is a critical to define and implement global, cross-functional ways of working. You will operate by:

• Partnering with OE teams: serve as primary partner to understand local needs, co-create pragmatic solutions, and provide the clarity and training for successful global deployment.
• Aligning with central and Corporate Q&FS: act as bridge to ensure processes and ways of working are fully compliant with global standards (e.g. MQM, MRA Procedure) and is integrated into the formal Q&GS governance framework.
• Clarifying cross functional ways of working: work with Global and OE cross functional teams (R&D, Q&FS, SQA) to establish roles and responsibilities for MRA creation, specification management, and critical processes such as NSQ and material verification.
• Capturing knowledge: collaborates with material expert community (RFM, SQA, COM) to document and deploy knowledge to support training and upskilling.
• Partnering with global innovation teams: collaborate with Global Innovation Design Teams and Novel Materials Team to define handover process and ensure future products are launched with high-quality, consistent MRA and specifications.
• Benchmarking with peer capability leads: connect with counterparts in Formulation, RC, Wrigley’s, to share best practices on operating models, competency frameworks and capability building.
• Influencing digital agenda: Partner with Digital Technology to translate business needs into functional requirements for our next generation tools (cPLM, AI, Dashboards etc), ensure they make our processes sipler and more efficient.

Education and Professional Qualifications:

• Minimal qualifications
  • BSc (or equivalent) in Food Science, Chemistry, Material Science, Nutrition or a related technical discipline
  • Advanced English required (written and verbal communication)

• Preferred qualifications:

• • Green Belt Six Sigma

Knowledge and Experience:

Required qualifications

• Experience in Food Manufacturing in R&D, Q&FS or SQA
• Deep understanding of raw material risk management concepts
• RFM/Material Science experience including writing MRAs and defining specifications
• Experience of designing, deploying and governing business processes (ideally in global and cross functional context).

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience of change management and deploying global processes
• Experience of working with digital team teams for new system development and deployment (e.g. SalesForce/Veritas/cPLM)
  
  
  

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