Lead of Pilot Plants

Location: Wageningen Hybrid **About the position** This role ensures seamless connections of Upfield's pilot plants with the broader R&D and Supply Chain organization. This role is also responsible for the facilities of Upfield's Global Food Science Center in Wageningen, continuing to move the needle in driving an active ecosystem culture whilst maintaining and further driving state of the art facilities. You will have three direct reports: - The Lead of Pilot Plants establishes one global way of working for all Upfield pilot plants. The Wageningen pilot plant is the central location for global product development, remote pilot plant prepare implementation in remote manufacturing sites. - The Upfield Food Science Centre Site Leader oversees the facility, offices and pilot plant on the Wageningen University Campus. - The Experience Center Manager hosts external visitors, and leads and coordinates the internal preparations for these. Responsibilities and accountabilities: - Establishing one global entity for pilot plants way of working, incl. remote locations and trial planning & reporting; - Effective partnership with Global Product Design and capabilities teams (eg packaging, Lab Services) to enable pilot plants for fast prototyping - Ensuring the facility incl. pilot plant adheres to all government and campus guidelines and regulations; - Close partnership with engineering and manufacturing teams, to enable transferability of pilot plant work to factories, and for establishing a future-proof digitization of operations - Building and managing strong partnerships with equipment suppliers - Accountable for the site budget and financial performance of the facility to meet business targets and expectations; - Promote and foster a positive and safe work environment at office and pilot plant, lead risk elimination/ reduction activities; - Promote and foster UFSC BREEAM outstanding status, proactively shaping the future needs of the site **So, what does it take to be successful in this role?** - Strong strategic thinking, critical thinking, and analytical ability; - Bachelor's Degree in Business Related Field or equivalent work experience; - Thorough knowledge of plant operations and procedures, includes government relationships at the local and federal level; - A "data first" mindset - having a proven track record of establishing data baselines that will enable modelling and prediction of trials, and transferability to SC Operations - Ability to navigate with speed, efficiency, and strong communication across the overall Upfield organisation - High degree of integrity and judgment; - Proven highly effective Operations Leadership; - Bias for action - this role is fundamentally about managing and driving output and process improvement through efficiency and change; - Excellent understanding of company systems and tools; - Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate to all levels; - 10+ years of leadership / management experience; - Proficient in Microsoft Office; **What is next?** - Upfield is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias._ - No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Upfield. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, colour, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics._ - #LI-HYBRID_