Director, R&D Specialties WE

About the role

The R&D Director Specialties Western Europe is accountable for creating, driving and executing Western Europe’s strategy on Specialties, Decorations and Inclusions, and for shaping, prioritizing and delivering the Global Innovation portfolio. The role owns the end-to-end New Product Development (NPD) funnel, from opportunity identification and customer co-creation through to industrialization and launch readiness. By combining portfolio governance, cross-functional execution and direct customer engagement, this role ensures that innovation initiatives deliver commercial value, technical feasibility and operational excellence, while fully complying with regulatory and internal standards. The R&D Director Specialties creates new market opportunities by leveraging the customer network and product innovations. The R&D Director Specialties is responsible for inspiring, leading, and supporting the growth and development of the involved R&D network organization, anticipating, and providing guidance in critical situations in the short and long term.

Key responsibilities include

• Regional Innovation Strategy, Portfolio & Governance
  • Designs, executes and drives the regional WE NPD portfolio for Specialties, including Innovation Platforms, funnels and project portfolios.
  • Define and steer global innovation priorities, ensuring disciplined project selection, prioritization and resourcing.
  • Provide strategic, commercial, and project progress reporting to senior stakeholders to support timely decision making.
• Portfolio Execution & Cross‑Functional Delivery
  • Acts as business partner to all commercial teams, collaborates with heads of various functions (including marketing, supply chain, sustainability, and quality), and delivers Specialties growth ambition on both volume and profit. Make sure to maintain a good overview of customer and BC capabilities[JD1] , product portfolio, future projects, and launches.
  • Ensures end‑to‑end execution of innovation projects, extending beyond formulation into industrialization and packaging implementation.
  • Drive resource allocation and portfolio reviews, balancing speed, feasibility, value creation and operational constraints.
  • Negotiate, moderate, and drive decisions across stakeholders to meet customer requirements without jeopardizing operational excellence.
• R&D Community Leadership & Ways of Working
  • Inspire, lead, and coach the Specialties R&D network as the face to the customer by advising customers on applications and choice of the right product range, suitable to the installation, and physical environment of the customer’s plants
  • Participate and lead –when applicable- topics for the Global Product Innovation Meetings[JD2]  for Specialties, ensuring clarity of decisions, ownership and follow-up.
  • Collaborate across global R&D communities, defining common project structures, platforms, and ways of working. Establishes one uniform R&D approach and way of working for Specialties in partnership with the Global and Regional R&D teams.
  • Take leadership on global initiatives (e.g. SKU reduction), translating strategy into executable actions.
  • Take the lead in organizing/running training, assigning the right people and involving other R&D sub-departments where necessary – for customers and potentially internal staff as well.
  • Report the ongoing actions/topics in Specialties to the broader Western Europe / Global R&D community, to perform and operate as one team
• Customer Co‑Creation & Market‑Driven Innovation
  • Act as direct customer interface for co‑creation, innovation and complex problem solving.
  • Proactively identify and shape innovation opportunities, translating customer and market insights into robust project briefs.
  • Promote Barry Callebaut’s proactive innovation agenda, enabling joint project evaluations where relevant.
  • Assure development of internal and external client relations and maintain communication. Present findings, such as customer needs and views, internally to achieve shared goals
  • Be the face to the customer by advising the customer in application and choice of the right product range, suitable to the installation and physical environment of the customer’s plants
• Compliance, Quality & Decision Authority
• • Ensure all R&D activities comply with internal standards and external legislation, including labelling, composition, food safety, health and environmental requirements.
  • Take decision authority on new raw materials and packaging solutions linked to new product and packaging development, within governance frameworks.

About you

• Master’s degree in food science, Engineering, Chemistry or equivalent. R&D background experience is a must
• 10+ years of experience in the food industry with at least 5 years in a leadership role
• Commercially savvy, able to listen to the needs of customers, provide solutions, and follow up. Successful experience in customer interaction 
• Good knowledge of working tools (MS Office, Salesforce, SAP…)
• Proven experience leading global NPD portfolios and complex, cross‑functional innovation projects.
• Strong exposure to customer‑driven innovation and co‑creation in B2B environments.
• Solid understanding of industrialization, packaging and scale‑up processes.
• Experience in cocoa, chocolate, confectionery or ingredients industries.
• Experience operating in matrixed, global organizations.
• English is a must - any European language is a plus