Technical Innovation Manager

**Missions**:

- Act as a **technical interface **to support and **facilitate an agile collaboration **between the Innovation structures and the various entities within PR Operations (R&D, NPD, Procurement, Production teams of Brand Cos and other manufacturing affiliates) and outside PR Operations (ingredients suppliers, 3rd party manufacturers ) during project technical development, from prototyping till industrialization and launch, developing strong relationships across all functions, ensuring collective technical knowledge is reused whenever necessary and timelines are met.
- Support the development and deployment of Group standardized tools and ways of working in innovation, and ensures those are consistently implemented and adapted to the technical and innovation needs, in the context of project Tomorrow.
- Support the Group technical teams to perform initial **feasibility and risk assessments **of projects, build the most realistic projects’ timelines and ensure these are accurately reflected in Stage Gate documents and decisions..
- In coordination with the Innovation structures and, the HQ Technical coord. Team, **advise on allocation of projects **to the most relevant Group technical team, considering the nature of projects, technical expertise, capabilities, forecasted industrialization set up, teams workload and other criteria. Contribute to the implementation of the Group Innovation process, including proper fact-based prioritization of projects
- Help to resolve technical roadblocks in projects by identifying knowledge and resources across the internal/external network that can be leveraged to provide solutions. Provide continuity and arbitration between different Operations teams to ensure projects move smoothly through development and the Stage Gate process.
- In close collaboration with the regional Innovation structures, keep track and **ensure technical follow-up of projects **from the Innovation pipeline.
- Cultivate a **deep knowledge of all technical capabilities **and expertise across the Group (prototyping, small scale production, industrial capabilities, sensory and analytical capabilities, specific expertise ), as well as external resources (copackers and other external technical partners).
- Capitalize **learnings from projects **to contribute to cross-fertilization across Innovation Hubs, NPD Community and Group Technical Networks.
- Develop awareness and share knowledge with Innovation teams on technical topics related to expertise, processes, and technical matters, with a view to develop a **common technical culture **supporting innovation.
- Keep himself/herself aware of **Innovation trends and technical developments **to be able to advise and propose proactively innovation opportunities and solutions.
- Identify areas of **prospective R&D **needs and propose potential R&D projects/partners to be implemented to feed future innovation.

**Skills**:

- Minimum 7 years of experience in the Food Industry in technical areas: production site, Research & Development, ideally within an international context
- Experience in R&D - New Product development (beverages)
- Experience in production or QSE in beverages technology, expertise in processes, ingredients, flavoring, quality, NPD process
- Strong leadership, especially in project management and tracking. Respectful of cultural differences. Ability to communicate easily and collaborate with various types of people, from marketing, technical, legal and finance backgrounds. Ability to translate marketing needs into achievable technical actions. Ability to work independently.
- Deep knowledge of all aspects of alcoholic beverages production: production processes and costs, production organization, improvement tools, regulatory and legal aspects, environmental constraints, products characteristics (sensory/chemical/ingredients).
- Deep knowledge about Pernod Ricard technical ecosystem: technical expertise on processes, production capabilities, testing and analytical capabilities, troubleshooting, external partners and copackers, innovation tools and ways of working