R&D Manager - Product Development

Position Job Title: R&D Manager - Product Development

BG and BU: Amcor Flexible Europe, Middle East and Africa

Function: Research and Development

Location: Open in Europe

Line Manager's Job Title: Product Development Director

Contract Type: Permanent

Job Purpose and Dimensions:

• Lead the Dairy Product Development team and own the dairy segment product and project portfolio. Partner with Sales to deliver innovative, market-ready solutions; drive cost-out through raw-material optimization, value engineering, and simplification; and ensure business continuity by qualifying alternatives and adapting to regulatory and compliance requirements.
• Ensure efficient resource allocation and project execution aligned to business objectives, balancing short-, medium-, and long-term priorities.
• Manage internal and external partners, with a strong focus on customer needs.
• Business partner to the Meat & Dairy BU, leading dairy product development across yoghurt, desserts, processed cheese, soft cheese, and dairy specialties.
• Part of the Global Protein Growth category.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Technical Specification and Product Development Portfolio:




• Own the project portfolio, contributing to profitable growth through innovation and sustainability, simplification, compliance, and cost-out initiatives aligned to the business strategy.
• Lead the execution of the approved R&D pipeline through the Stage-Gate process, delivering to committed timelines and enabling strong cross-functional teamwork across multiple functions and sites.
• Prioritize and allocate resources based on project complexity, value, and strategic importance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure successful delivery of key business initiatives.
• Actively contribute to global Protein technical portfolio leverage.
• Provide technical support for existing products.
• Lead the deployment of Global and BG R&D programmes, KPIs, processes, and tools.




2. Team and Culture:




• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team.
• Cultivate a collaborative, innovative culture and ensure effective communication across regions, business units, functions, and markets.
• Champion safety and customer focus.
• Drive process management and compliance.




3. Intellectual Property Management:




• Manage IP strategy and confidentiality agreements.
• Oversee the patent-filing process in coordination with Legal.
• Protect company innovations from competitive threats.

Key Challenges:

• Translate diverse customer needs into commercially viable packaging solutions, and respectfully decline requests that are not viable.
• Build and lead cross-customer project teams to deliver high-impact results (end-to-end processes, raw-material simplification, BCP, and portfolio management) across diverse regions and cultures.
• Balance short-term and long-term priorities through effective resource allocation and a strong drive for results.

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Good scientific background, preferably Master's Degree in chemistry, engineering, material science or equivalent.
• Min 5 years' experience in people leadership within product development environment, preferably in a matrixed B2B.
• Project management experience in matrix organization.
• Experience in innovation and competitiveness portfolio management, with strong data analytics understanding
• Proven customer engagement and stakeholder management.
• Willingness to travel around 30% of time (primarily in Europe)

Specific Skills and Abilities:

• Strong project and resource management skills.
• Ability to coach and mentor
• Excellent interpersonal, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• Solid understanding of market trends and customer dynamics.
• Strong business acumen and strategic mindset.
• Comfortable working in complex, matrixed organisations with global reach and interaction

Amcor Leadership Framework:

• Driving for Results
• Customer Focus
• Influencing Others
• Managerial Courage