Sensory Panel Specialist

CTI Sensory Panel Specialist - Foods

Job Title: CTI Sensory Panel Specialist - Foods

Location: Unilever R&D Bangalore

BUSINESS CONTEXT AND MAIN PURPOSE OF THE JOB:

Consumer technical Insight (CTI) is a strategic capability for Unilever Research & Development (R&D). Its main remit is to generate and translate product insights into innovation and growth opportunities for the business across several expertise areas (product qualitative research, product testing/quantitative research, claims and demonstrations, sensory evaluation, laboratory testing). CTI is one of the core functions within R&D which represents the voice of consumers to the business and translates consumer insights and language into actionable technical understanding to help in decision making.
The Sensory Panel is one of the core capabilities that we have within the CTI function. The Sensory Panel is used for evaluations of products for shortlisting options, and also for providing guidance for future product development.

MAIN ACCOUNTABILITIES:
We are looking for an appropriate candidate who can take up the responsibility of managing the Foods sensory panel in Bangalore. The person will be accountable for the daily operations of the panel, necessary training, quality control and delivery of results. The person needs to have sensory acuity and be passionate about pursuing a career in sensory science.
While the key responsibility would be to manage, maintain and train the sensory panel, the candidate is also expected to help out the CTI Manager in the management of consumer insights workstream within Foods (consumer research qualitative and quantitative) as needed.

The specific responsibilities are listed below:

• Manage the sensory panels for Foods to enable the delivery of sensory insights

• Guide the team on product development based on the correlation of consumer and sensory insights.

• Build the sensory capability and expertise on site. Understand and interpret sensory panel data to help the team make the right choices.

• Ongoing maintenance and training of the sensory panel to improve the quality of the QDA panel.

• Have an in depth understanding of the consumers, category, brands and market to generate, develop and support insights from a sensory perspective. Represent the voice of CTI in product development forums, to bring in the sensory perspective.

• Support the CTI Manager in the management of Foods consumer insights workstream; for all key projects and activities.

• Independently manage and co-ordinate consumer studies from end to end to support project networks.

• Engage with key stakeholders for communication of insights and results of sensory studies on a regular basis.

• Engage with cross functional teams to understand requirements and suggest suitable actions, appropriate for the problem, in the sensory space.

• Cataloguing of information to ensure access to information by all in a transparent manner.

• Work with a cross-cultural team with ease.

Key R&D Interfaces:

• India Foods CTI team

• India Foods R&D team

• Project team network (Marketing project leader, Technical PL, CMI)

• Global CTI community

• External agencies/service providers

Key Skills:

• Sensory orientation and acuity

• Effective communication skills (verbal/ written)

• Excellent influencing skills

• Good interpersonal skills and a team player

• Attention to detail and good analytical power, aptitude for problem solving

• Proven project management skills

• Drive, energy to make a real contribution

• Proactive and enthusiastic approach

• Flexible and adaptive working style

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