R&D Maintenance and Expansion (ME) Graduate at Reckitt Benckiser Nigeria

Job Type: One (1) year contract
Department: Research and Development

Job Purpose:
This the Research and Development (R&D) function responsible for products once they are launched on the market. The teams are based all around globe, working closely with R&D product development teams, supply, procurement, global/regional/local marketing & commercial teams in order to deliver projects to grow and protect the existing business in addition to increasing the profitability of our products through cost saving programs. In Maintenance and Expansion (ME), we truly develop people by you giving responsibility as soon as you join the team. The job is dynamic and complex, and the challenges you will face will give you the possibility to develop quickly, laying a strong foundation for your future career.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

• Assume leadership for low risk R&D ME projects in relevant category, ensuring the implementation at regional/local level by ensuring all required formulation, feasibility work, analysis, validation, stability testing, industrial trials and dossier preparation are performed on time and to the required internal and external standards and market conditions
• Maintain good communication with marketing, supply, R&D categories and shared service functions to accomplish objectives

Key Challenges:

• Support maintenance of appropriate levels of communication with all RB upper management
• Self-starting and capable of working independently
• Assist with determination of resources to support project delivery
• Good level of multi-cultural experience/understanding

Professional Qualification/ Experience:

• Technician Certificate, Associate Degree , Bachelor Degree equivalent to the region  in chemistry, pharmacy, chemical engineering or other relevant science
• Experience in a FMCG company desirable
• Project management, prioritization and problem solving skills desirable
• Good formulation knowledge and understanding of chemical interactions

Key Skills & Competencies:

• Skills
• Good negotiating and interpersonal skills
• Good organizational and problem solving skills
• Ability to identify and communicate risks
• Capable of building strong working relationships and strong networking skills
• Good analytical skills
• Strong intellectual curiosity, appetite for exploring new and previously uncharted territories
• Good communication skills both written and oral in English and good presentation skills
• Performance testing and market research knowledge desirable
• Application of quality, sustainability and regulatory standards

Competencies
Product Development:

This involves the ability to design and manage an end-to-end product development process that includes:

• development of innovative concepts, claims, formulations and packaging;
• application of quality, sustainability and regulatory standards;
• effective selection of scale-up strategies, equipment and process parameters;
• market research and performance testing;

Technology Management:
This involves the ability to manage a technology portfolio and create competitive advantage by:

• Identification of possible relevant innovative technologies (outside innovation);
• Mapping technologies to business and market needs;
• Communication and implementation of technology strategy in the product development process;
• Recognising when to invest in technology development and when to withdraw to ensure constant value of the product to the consumer;
• Guidance to production and operations management, project management, quality control, safety and health issues, statistics, and sourcing;

Project Management:
This involves the ability to achieve complex goals by finding and adapting the best possible methodology of planning, organizing, motivating, negotiating, communicating, controlling resources and procedures to ensure optimised cost, risk, quality and speed of delivery.

Consumer Science:
Ability to identify consumer unmet needs, understand motivations and behaviors by effective selection and implementation of consumer research methods. Translation of insights into actionable product measures, enabling the R&D team to design products for maximum success on shelf and in home.

Finance
Ability to manage, control and optimise budgets for teams and projects by planning, predicting and analysis of expenditure.