Senior Manager, Technical Consumer Research in Brussels, Belgium

Working as a key business partner with the Global Development & Innovation (GDI), Marketing, and Human Insight teams, the Senior Manager Technical Consumer Research (TCR) will develop and lead comprehensive sensory and consumer research to guide and validate the development of complex consumer-centric innovation and renovation projects related to beverages, packaging, and equipment to deliver an exceptional consumer experience in alignment with consumer trends and our business strategies.

She/He will be responsible to develop and implement research strategies to acquire advanced foundational knowledge to understand and define fundamental consumer and sensory requirements for specific beverage categories and to inspire our short term and long-term Innovation and Renovation pipelines for Europe, Eurasia, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Key responsibilities

Create sensory and consumer insights to support innovation and renovation projects

• Build cross-functional relationships and be recognized as a key business partner on critical projects to drive a consumer centric research plan and influence project success.

• Develop and lead end-to-end complex sensory and consumer research projects to gain actionable insights to provide technical guidance to the development team.

• Translate business needs into an actionable sensory and consumer research plan. Build and lead, end-to-end research learning plans, with appropriate consumer and sensory approaches and methodologies, grounded in sound data, to enable effective business decisions.

• Use appropriate statistical analysis techniques and data analytics to decode research data (such as ANOVA, factorial analysis, and various modeling tools) and draw meaningful conclusions.

• Provide data-driven strategic recommendations on business solutions based on strong technical consumer research and deep understanding of the business environment. Identify, evaluate, and mitigate technical risks along the research process to increase confidence in final business decisions.

• Define solutions based on an in-depth understanding of the consumer needs and competitive landscape. 

• Communicate with clarity and precision by using data-driven storytelling to drive change and influence stakeholders.

• Understand and define fundamental consumer and sensory requirements of your categories and inject this knowledge into solution development. 

Proactively Build knowledge on categories you are responsible for to support short term and long-range business plans

• Co-develop with the GDI category team a multiyear research plan to create critical category sensory and consumer insights to support the EMEA innovation agenda. Build and leverage product sensory, consumer, and category understanding to optimize the current portfolio and identify new opportunities in collaboration with the GDI category lead.

• Conduct in collaboration with the GDI team competitive benchmarking and product/packaging evaluations to maintain a thorough understanding of the competitive dynamics within your categories. Identify drivers of liking and potential white space for future growth.

• Design and execute experiments to uncover the key drivers of consumer preference and optimal sensory user experiences for beverages.

• Be a strategic business partner

• Work as a close partner with the R&D categories team, Marketing and Human Insight team. Build cross-functional relationships to drive consumer centric solutions and development within the assigned categories.

• Be an active member of the global TCR category team to set up processes to build global and regional consumer and sensory insights. Lead regional and global projects on assigned categories.

• Build and leverage knowledge :

• Take an active part in the GDI global TCR community and partner on research-on-research global projects.

• Be externally focused: Actively participate in the identification, development, and adoption of new methodologies, including innovative and agile methodologies, data sciences…etc.

• Continuous review and development of current best practices, research methodologies, and development of creative solutions to complex challenges. Be curious, identify, and try innovative alternative tools that bolster competitive advantage and deliver market leading results. 

Qualifications & Requirements:

Education requirement:

• MS/ PhD in market research, food or sensory science, behavioral psychology or related fields

Related Work Experience:

• Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in sensory or consumer research.

• Proven track record in delivering consumer centric results working in a matrix organization including R&D, Marketing and Human Insight.

Functional skills and competencies

• Human centric research

• Sensory & consumer research methodology

• Sensory user experience

• Social & Behavioral Sciences

• Data analysis

• Statistical data analysis, modeling tools.

• Data analytics, data visualization.

• AI & machine learning principles.

Communication

This role communicates internally with the GDI network, Regional Category Marketing,, and TI&SC teams. External communication with agencies, suppliers, and universities.

• Strong written and oral communication skills to be able to simplify complex information in a concise format that is appropriate for the audience.

• Storytelling and building concise business recommendations from data and insights.

• Advanced influencing skills

Business partnerships

• Cross functional & strategic interactions: Experience interacting with, influencing, and providing guidance to business partners and cross functional peers.

• Strong problem-solving skills

• Strong organizational and time management skills

• Build and maintain a strong cross-functional network across the company.

Travel requirements

• 20-30%

Skills Leadership; Product Development; Continual Improvement Process; Influencing Skills; Sensory Analysis; Researching; Food Sciences; Food Technology; Communication; Laboratory Testing; Data Compilation; Quality Control (QC); Sensory Testing; Sensory Research

Pay Range Not Available

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.