R&D Manager - Product Development Paris Fr H/F - Amcor

Position Job Title: R&D Manager - Product Development

BG and BU: Amcor Flexible Europe, Middle East and Africa

Function: Research and Development

Location: Open in Europe

Line Manager's Job Title: Product Development Director

Contract Type: Permanent

Job Purpose and Dimensions:

- Lead the Dairy Product Development team and own the dairy segment product and project portfolio. Partner with Sales to deliver innovative, market-ready solutions; drive cost-out through raw-material optimization, value engineering, and simplification; and ensure business continuity by qualifying alternatives and adapting to regulatory and compliance requirements.

- Ensure efficient resource allocation and project execution aligned to business objectives, balancing short-, medium-, and long-term priorities.

- Manage internal and external partners, with a strong focus on customer needs.

- Business partner to the Meat & Dairy BU, leading dairy product development across yoghurt, desserts, processed cheese, soft cheese, and dairy specialties.

- Part of the Global Protein Growth category.

Key Responsibilities:

- Technical Specification and Product Development Portfolio:

- Own the project portfolio, contributing to profitable growth through innovation and sustainability, simplification, compliance, and cost-out initiatives aligned to the business strategy.

- Lead the execution of the approved R&D pipeline through the Stage-Gate process, delivering to committed timelines and enabling strong cross-functional teamwork across multiple functions and sites.

- Prioritize and allocate resources based on project complexity, value, and strategic importance.

- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure successful delivery of key business initiatives.

- Actively contribute to global Protein technical portfolio leverage.

- Provide technical support for existing products.

- Lead the deployment of Global and BG R&D programmes, KPIs, processes, and tools.

- Team and Culture:

- Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team.

- Cultivate a collaborative, innovative culture and ensure effective communication across regions, business units, functions, and markets.

- Champion safety and customer focus.

- Drive process management and compliance.

- Intellectual Property Management:

- Manage IP strategy and confidentiality agreements.

- Oversee the patent-filing process in coordination with Legal.

- Protect company innovations from competitive threats.

Key Challenges:

- Translate diverse customer needs into commercially viable packaging solutions, and respectfully decline requests that are not viable.

- Build and lead cross-customer project teams to deliver high-impact results (end-to-end processes, raw-material simplification, BCP, and portfolio management) across diverse regions and cultures.

- Balance short-term and long-term priorities through effective resource allocation and a strong drive for results.

Qualifications/Requirements:

- Good scientific background, preferably Master's Degree in chemistry, engineering, material science or equivalent.

- Min 5 years' experience in people leadership within product development environment, preferably in a matrixed B2B.

- Project management experience in matrix organization.

- Experience in innovation and competitiveness portfolio management, with strong data analytics understanding

- Proven customer engagement and stakeholder management.

- Willingness to travel around 30% of time (primarily in Europe)

Specific Skills and Abilities:

- Strong project and resource management skills.

- Ability to coach and mentor

- Excellent interpersonal, negotiation, and presentation skills.

- Solid understanding of market trends and customer dynamics.

- Strong business acumen and strategic mindset.

- Comfortable working in complex, matrixed organisations with global reach and interaction