Senior Specialist - Sensory/Product Experience

    

JOB SUMMARY: 

 

Provide robust sensory and consumer know-how to facilitate and influence complex, broad reaching, consumer-centric innovation and renovation projects in alignment with consumer trends and business strategies.  Ensure consumer expectations on product and packaging experience are met. Demonstrate sustained evidence of successful execution of advanced consumer and sensory research, from design to statistical analysis and visual storytelling to influence successful R&D and business decisions.  Build category product insights to inspire and influence Innovation & Renovation pipelines and business strategies. Provide

sensory expertise to technical research programs, ensuing advanced foundational knowledge is acquired to impact and fuel business growth. Continuously drive improvement of sensory & consumer research practices, processes, and capabilities. Serve as a trusted advisor, recognized as consumer and sensory subject-matter expert.

 

 

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

 

• Provide consumer & sensory insights to innovation and renovation projects: 
  • Assure early-phase collaboration between R&D and business to leverage existing category consumer knowledge.
  • Operate as a promoter of consumer perspective throughout the innovation / renovation development process.
  • Be key consumer/sensory business partner to R&D and Business Category Leads and help define questions and outcomes from a consumer and sensory insight perspective to add value and influence project success.
  • Provide guidance on choice and use of sensory and consumer research methodologies. Lead design, execution, statistical analysis, and visual storytelling to generate actionable insights for product design.
  • Play an active part in cross-functional project teams, from front-end innovation until launch. Ensure sensory & consumer knowledge is transferred effectively to industrialization, acting as an advisor in the setup of consumer-centric sensory specifications.

 

• Build sensory & consumer preference knowledge on product experience:
  • Build and cultivates foundational knowledge of the product category and target consumer with a focus on how/why consumer perceive and interact with products to generate relevant insights.
  • Develop knowledge and promote best practices for delivering taste preferences, sensory cues, and benefits to ensure effective product and package design.
  • Uncover learnings and understanding from internal and external sources (trends, competitive benchmarking, preferences, sensory mapping, etc.) to inform product and packaging design to maximize the consumer experience.
  • Apply strong analytical knowledge (i.e., design of experiment, statistics) and understanding to translate consumer responses into key drivers of liking and key sensory attributes to delight consumers.

 

• Manage and execute consumer and sensory research studies with excellence:
  • Lead complex projects of strategic importance, by designing fit-to-purpose sensory science, consumer research methodologies (quantitative and qualitative), procedures, and processes to provide key insights to answer objectives and communicate outcomes and their potential implications.
  • Define clear, time-bounded plans and prioritize resources available.
  • Manage studies: plan, design, then analyze results, and communicate high-level recommendations and implications for efficient, effective, and timely decision making.
  • Support the identification and communication of risks and opportunities while working collaborative to identify solutions.
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