Senior Manager, Rdsa

Overview:
STATEMENT

The Research & Development and Scientific Affairs (R&DSA) Senior Manager will execute the technical activities associated with development of Herbalife’s products in (foods / supplements / skincare). The position’s accountabilities include leveraging existing or new knowledge or technology to create product formulation in various forms to meet the business requirements.

Specifically, the incumbent will lead and manage key R&D projects, which include innovation and/or turnkey projects to develop new products to support Herbalife’s business in all APAC markets. The primary responsibilities for this position, include early phase of concept evaluation and feasibility studies with internal stakeholders (i.e. R&D and Scientific Affairs, marketing, regulatory, product science, QA, packaging and engineering team, etc) and external vendors (i.e. ingredients, flavouring, etc) or contract manufacturers at pre-PFR (Project Feasibility Request) and/or PFR stages, to ensure higher success rate(s) in the New Product Development phase. Key R&D activities will include the development of bench-top or pilot prototypes / samples with different formulation options to meet functional, sensorial, stability and cost feasibility of the targeted product(s). This role will see through the “end-to-end” product development from initial bench-top formulation to working with internal Herbalife team as well as 3rd party partners (e.g. ingredient or flavor suppliers, contract manufacturers, etc) to conduct pilot or scale-up production(s) that would lead to on-time product launches in various APAC markets.

The current R&D role has another important component, which is to ensure ingredient or product safety as well as product claims that are scientifically substantiated to meet regulatory requirements in various APAC markets. Additionally, the incumbent will represent APAC’s R&DSA in cross-functional technical and business expert meetings for collaboration and/or acquisition of new technology and/or novel ingredients with suppliers or vendors. Essentially, this position is important to ensure continuous feeding of innovation projects into the product pipeline for the region.

The Senior Manager will also help to generate monthly reports, provide forecasts & generation of budget for R&D projects, and the ability to manage all product development work assigned via the Herbalife’s AGILE-Product Portfolio Management (PPM) system.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:
The incumbent has direct-line management responsibilities.

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Interact with Worldwide Scientific Affairs, Global Product Science, Worldwide Research & Development, Worldwide Regulatory Compliance and Product Safety, Global Regulatory Affairs, Regional & Local Legal, Product Innovation, Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Regional & Local Marketing, Country Management, Procurement, Project Management, Global Sourcing, Packaging Engineering, Manufacturing.

DETAILED RESPONSIBILITIES/DUTIES:

- Work closely with regional and marketing teams to review, evaluate and develop new product concepts / ideas.
- Development of product safety dossiers and scientific substantiation for the APAC markets.
- Conduct literature search from reputable scientific databases and prepare reports to support the scientific substantiation of product safety and claims.
- Review and approval of all marketing collaterals and materials.
- Collaborate with Regional Marketing, GRA, Legal and local business teams to identify & review potential & appropriate turnkey products, technologies, and/or contract manufacturers for speed-to-market product launches in APAC.
- Work with APAC sourcing team to screen and search for cost effective new or existing functional ingredients, excipients, or flavouring ingredients to support the innovation-turnkey projects.
- Ensure formulas, processes, ingredients and documents that are used by the turnkey partners comply with Herbalife’s internal guidelines / requirements.
- Post-PFR, to work with Project Manager to support timely development of turnkey and innovation projects as well as on-time delivery of new product launches.
- Plan, coordinate and conduct technical feasibility study on formula, ingredients, manufacturing processes, packaging materials and to produce initial prototypes (i.e. bench-stop or pilot) for evaluations by the marketing team(s).
- Collaborate with NPD team to support project execution with turnkey partners, which include development of prototypes, scale-up or pilot trials, stability studies and production of GMP-grade product samples for consumer testing.
- Review and ensure scientific substantiation to support safety, efficacy and claims for all new and existing products.
- Support regulatory team in the preparation of scientific dossier to support product registration, license renewal and enquiries by local regulatory bodies.
- If needed, to support and coordinate clinical studies with external p