Job Description

Responsibilities: Main Purpose

The R&D Solutions Portfolio Lead, based in Hyderabad (HBS), will be responsible for overseeing R&D solutions teams across Hyderabad and Mexico City, in order to ensure exceptional service is provided in support of R&D across multiple teams and customers globally. R&D Solutions Portfolio will include capabilities for Specification Management, Technical Project Management, Market Analysis and Knowledge Management, Digital Solutions, Data Administration & Reporting, Legal, Financial & Presentation/Training Support. This role will lead a team of 250+ associates, serving as the primary touchpoint for R&D leadership to provide feedback and collaborate on strategic initiatives and continuously identify opportunities to drive efficiency and enhance output quality.. This role will lead a team of 250+ associates, serving as the primary touchpoint for R&D leadership to provide feedback and collaborate on strategic initiatives and continuously identify opportunities to drive efficiency and enhance output quality.

Accountabilities

Summary of Accountabilities:
Develop new R&D capabilities and continuously drive optimization of existing capabilities by leading the R&D HBS and MBS teams responsible for:

• Specification Management: Product and Packaging specification creation, supplier coordination and documentation management, Global standards adherence, workflow administration, and internal stakeholder coordination and approval collection
• Market Analysis: Scientific, market, and consumer secondary research and analysis synthesis in line with global requests and ad hoc inquiries
• Knowledge Management: Consistent practice of data and documentation collection (e.g., post market analysis research, project output), documentation / knowledge cataloging, and knowledge provisioning to all R&D stakeholders via core platforms
• Digital Solutions: Application development in support of R&D functional needs, back-end and front-end maintenance of legacy systems, existing solution and application maintenance and updates, and supporting the R&D global digital architecture

Functional Responsibilities

• R&D Solutions Delivery Strategy

o Lead the execution and evolution of playbooks for Global Specification Management, Market Analysis & Knowledge Management, Digital Solutions, and Technical Project Management
o Craft the future vision of the overall team, strategize workforce planning and evolve capabilities as the organization builds in sync with parent R&D structural changes
o Work with Global R&D to manage best practices for the technology and methodology to execute the playbooks
o Act as a POC (point of contact) for GBS R&D delivery to in-market R&D teams; Build strong strategic relationships with the R&D market stakeholders and other global capabilities around technology and analytics and oversee partner management
o Manage resource count and resource utilization in order to meet the pipeline of requirements from R&D sectors and functions
o Identify and report on areas of significant business impact and improvement opportunities to in- market stakeholders
o Act as liaison between capability leads and market leads to bridge the gap between data, business knowledge, and insights generation
o Support communications, idea sharing, and learning between MBS and HBS towers and collaborate with other service delivery leads to ensure deadlines and required output quality are met and process efficiency is continuously maximized for Specification Management, Market Analysis & Knowledge Management, Digital Solutions, and Technical Project Management
o Support simplification, standardization, and digitization efforts (in cooperation with global and sector stakeholders)

• Process management

o Create and evolve communication processes with Business Partners (e.g., project planning, workflow monitoring, quality checks, on-going changes)
o Partner with Business Partners to develop and finetune internal processes (e.g., work-flow mapping, pain-points, and bottlenecks management) related to service delivery and internal center operations
o Identify potential areas for process improvements to make recommendations to R&D in-market leadership
o Improve existing processes based on frequent end-user and Business Partner feedback loop

People Responsibilities

• Develop the team capabilities, motivation and engagement levels

o Serve as the employee leader for R&D Solutions (e.g., set hub professional development goals and performance criteria)
o Support subordinates and peers through mentoring and coaching to ensure continuous growth in functional skills, capabilities, employee motivation, and retention rates
o Define and monitor performance goals for evaluation of direct subordinates
o Provide timely feedback on team member performance and provide subject matter or market-specific expertise when necessary
o Build meaningful developmental / career paths for subordinates
o Report on best-practices and gold standard work within and across teams and hubs to build consistent levels of excellence across HBS and MBS

• Capability development

o Support onboarding and on-job trainings for new hires
o Enhance internal knowledge and team efficiency through productivity optimization and digitization projects
o Address any gaps in team competencies (e.g., training and development) together with forming developmental plans for existing workforce and potential external talent search
o Support grassroot self-development efforts (e.g., highlight access to training, Lunch & Learn sessions, etc.)
Qualifications: Key Skills/Experience Required

• Experienced working in the CPG industry, with deep understanding of business performance outputs and causal measures, their relationships, and how to bring business performance insights to life visually
• Master’s degree required; PhD in Economics, Engineering, or Business Management preferred
• 15+ years of prior work experience in a similar or related field
• Fluent in English
• Proven global BPO delivery experience, R&D experience, or scientific research experience in a combination with strong operations skills
• Experience working with stakeholders in North America, Europe, LATAM, APAC, or AMESA markets
• Comprehension and ability to execute on relevant digital technologies impacting business operations
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite
• Ability to manage time effectively across multiple priorities, projects, and stakeholders, requiring a high degree of organizational and communication skills to ensure requests are delivered in a timely manner
• Strong leadership skills and influencing profile in line with Insights Leader of the Future definition: Motivates action through fact-based, inspirational material and has a track record of identifying and championing new processes for improving fact-based decision making; Formulates a strong POV and can articulate future scenarios through exceptional storytelling
• Collaboration skills and strong interest in working with others; Actively creates and participates in opportunities to co-create solutions across markets; will be willing and able to embrace Responsive Ways of Working

Differentiating Competencies Required

Essential:

• Prior experience working in a global shared services environment
• Proven supervisory and workstream management skills working with parallel teams or functional leads in different time zones and locations
• Experience building a highly engaged team, with exceptional stakeholder management skills and a high degree of organizational skills
• Proven track record of identifying and championing new initiatives to standardize work and drive process optimization through a solution-oriented approach
• Depth and breadth of custom and syndicated research / analytical skills, with a complete understanding of internal & external data sources that supply Market Analysis and Knowledge Management
• Ability to lead and understand differentiated capabilities in parallel while continuously supporting capability leads equitably
• Strong analytical thinking with proven ability to connect data and insight from category consumption, brands drivers, macro & micro trends, and future forces of consumer change and deliver clear outlook scenarios along with implications for the business

Good to have

• Fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Cantonese