Business Development Director Food Protection and Preservation

About Kerry

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

About the role

Food protection and Preservation (FP&P) is a growth platform for Kerry and is a global market leader in this area. FP&P has various industry leading technologies and along with a remarkable combination of technical capabilities, innovative applications, and consumer insight understanding, we are solving customer problems and creating a world of sustainable nutrition. Food Protection & Preservation (FP&P) focuses on all aspects of extending shelf life and reduction of pathogen outgrowth in food as well as focused on overall Freshness including all related aspects of Food Design. FP&P is the strategic growth trajectory and as part of this accelerated growth, we are seeking a Business Development Director for the Food, Pet, Beverage. This role will lead, develop and grow Kerry´s FP&P technology business across relevant markets in North America and global Petfood area. This role will involve direct hands-on business development work with customers in addition to partnering with Kerry sales team members and EUM teams, R&D teams.

Key responsibilities

Drive Market Growth & Pipeline Management:

• Lead growth in sustainable nutrition, aiming for market leadership in Food Protection and Preservation Technologies along with Sales and EUM teams.
• Develop robust strategic growth plans for FP&P technology across Foods, Beverage, Petfood markets.
• Provide compelling market positioning and right to win clarity for the technology. Drive 20%+ market share expansion in 3 years.
• Proactively partner with sales leaders, customers, marketing & R&D to drive collaborative innovation identifying opportunities, market scale to inform our FP&P portfolio strategy.

Strategic Influence:

• Shape End-Use-Market strategies for a clear, competitive technology strategy.
• Position Kerry FP&P as a leading player across the industry, universities, industry boards, and other relevant platforms.
• Build strong relationships externally to drive strategic growth.

Innovation and Value Proposition:

• Drive innovation for better taste and nutrition, communicating technology value.
• Pipeline growth and delivery are key targets for this role. Be technically credible & confident to independently lead customers discussions pertaining FP&P applications.
• Support the launch & generate excitement in region for new innovations including sales training, execution plans and positioning with customers.
• Be an energetic ambassador & educator internally on FP&P developing strong relationships with all functions to execute projects.

Financial Optimization:

• Responsible for pricing strategy and leading industry standard in our business.
• Have a strong sales mindset partnering with Kerry’s commercial teams and customers to deliver the forecasted revenue and margin targets while building a robust pipeline.
• Owns end to end execution of Strategic growth plans of FP&P:
• Responsible for credible Product Strategy and roadmap execution, Market Research and Analysis, Competitive Mapping and Monitoring, Portfolio management and business review and performance.

Qualifications and skills

• Industry knowledge and expertise in the FP&P portfolio with a core focus in growth business.
• Commercially driven with an aptitude and track record delivering business growth.
• Experience converting complex technical projects winning with key CPG & emerging accounts.
• The candidate should have strong communication skills, proactively progress business initiatives and collaborate across a matrix structure consisting of many teams and channels.
• Entrepreneurial spirit and curious mindset to solve problems.
• Strong execution skills yet displaying the ability to adopt a strategic approach.
• Have substantial (>10 years) business development experience with a strong technical foundation in Food Protection and Preservation space.
• Bachelor’s Degree Required. Life Science / Business qualified, at Masters level or above will be an advantage.
• The ideal candidate will have strong insights into the North American (and global) preservation market, with excellent industry knowledge, have a strong network of contacts and recognized as a subject matter expert in the areas of business.
• This position will require 65%+ travel.