Senior Director, Vice President R&D Meat

About Kerry

It’s an exciting time to join Kerry’s growing team and we are hiring a Senior Director, VP of Research & Development, Meat. The Senior Director, VP of Research & Development leads the North America RD&A team, driving Kerry’s “Go to Market” strategy for meat technologies. 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

The Senior Director, VP of Research & Development focuses on innovation, application development, and technical execution across the Meat category, ensuring alignment with business growth strategies and customer engagement. The Senior Director is accountable for commercial execution, fostering strong customer partnerships, and delivering application excellence. Additionally, this leader builds a high-performance culture by engaging the team, developing talent, and ensuring robust succession planning.

Key responsibilities

-Lead and facilitate an innovation insight-led process through market intelligence, trends research, benchmarking, collaboration with RD&A and cross-functional teams and translating this into a business strategy in conjunction with business leader to meet business growth aspirations.

-Responsible for the Meat Research, Development & Applications (RD&A) team, team and process development, pipeline execution, capacity & resources to develop

-Play a key role in customer engagement both individually with key top to top relationships but also through the role RDA plays to drive business wins directly with the customers.

-Create and deliver new Taste technologies with Flavorist Creation teams, Preservation systems with FFP Team and working with needed Product development and Application teams to deliver the Meat EUM value proposition build technology propositions for future growth of Meat business.

-Drive collaborative partnerships with needed RDA / Innovation teams, ensuring seamless integration of technologies into the Meat NA region, fostering a culture of continuous learning and cross-functional knowledge-sharing.

-Implement organizational design for growth, succession planning, and capability building.

-Collaborate with global RD&A and foundational technology teams to leverage expertise and resources.

-Represent RD&A in senior leadership forums and customer engagements to influence strategic decisions. Take a leading role in our NA CTO leadership team to further develop culture and structure as needed.

Qualifications and skills

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Food Science, Meat Science, or related discipline.

• Minimum 10+ years in RD&A leadership roles within the meat industry, with proven success in innovation and commercialization.

• Strong knowledge of meat processing technologies, sensory science, and preservation techniques. 

• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage complex projects.

• Strong history of people leadership with development of next generation talent

• Based in commutable proximity to Beloit WI for hybrid working schedule, and up to 30% travel.

The typical hiring range for this role is $177,068 to $311,396 annually and is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, location, etc.  In addition to your pay, Kerry offers benefits such as a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and retirement contribution (all benefits and incentives are subject to eligibility requirements).