Sensory Panel Manager at British Tobacco

SENSORY PANEL MANAGEMENT AT BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO

Southampton

We have a great opportunity for a Sensory Panel Manager to join our Sensory team in the Research and Development function based in Southampton.

The purpose of the role is to plan and direct all sensory activities required for the execution of Product Development and/or Innovations Projects across all categories.
Also, to ensure the quality of sensory response data and its interpretation in the context of project objectives.

Principal Accountabilities

Operational accountabilities

  • Plan, direct and supervise sensory activities for Sensory Panels to ensure that project timings are met.
  • Responsible for ensuring that all Panel Maintenance activities are executed where sensory panels are in operation.
  • Maintain a high level of expertise in all aspects of sensory evaluation of tobacco and NGP products.
  • Act as the principal contact for sensory panels and ensure that sensory best practises are integrated.
  • Issues recommendations to stakeholders based on aggregation and interpretation of sensory data and in-depth understanding of project objectives through close collaboration with Project Teams.
  • Responsible for the quality of the Sensory results and the implementation of Sensory “Best Practice” within all panels.
  • Drives the change management and understanding of sensory within his/her sphere of influence.
  • Strives to create a consumer-centric culture in line with the Global Sensory Ambition.

 

 Guidance and Consultancy

  • Provides consultancy to ensure in-depth understanding of project objectives through close collaboration with various project teams in order to execute the correct sensory approaches.
  • Engages & interacts with relevant stakeholders to identify demand signals as well as opportunities for Sensory to cover X-Category projects and initiatives driven in the Centre.
  • Is a member of the Virtual Global Sensory Team engaging in knowledge sharing where appropriate

Sensory Governance 

  • Forecast, plan & track spend and adheres to financial process and controls.
  • Enhances own and sensory team capabilities by attending relevant external training and conferences to ensure state-of-the-art expertise.
  • Ultimately responsible for the leadership and management of day to day Sensory Panel activities, whilst ensuring best practise implementation, alongside agreed priorities and aligned to the Global Sensory Strategy.

Essential requirements

The job holder should be educated to degree level in a scientific background with relevant working experience in a product related position or relevant experience within the food/flavour industry.
The job holder should have a good working knowledge of product development.

  • In-depth Technical Knowledge of sensory methods and broad understanding of consumer research methods.
  • In-depth understanding of applied statistics & tools.
  • Broad understanding of Combustible and new categories products and their component parts and understanding of how consumers interact with these products
  • In-depths sensory knowledge for category as defined per centre of excellence for each region.
  • Relevant understanding of BAT business model and the ability to align technical requirements with the X-Category business drivers.
  • Experience of managing people and technical team.
  • Motivation of team and panellists
  • Creative, entrepreneurial, dynamic, tenacious, resilient, receptive to change, focused
  • Presentation and communication with other experts on a sophisticated expert level

 

Desirable requirements

Basic knowledge and understanding of the key business activities relating to the composition, manufacture, product design and evaluation of products to meet consumer and commercial needs within legislative and operational constraints. This can be provided by OTJ training.

 

Working at BAT

British American Tobacco is all about freedom of choice — whether it’s our people or our products. Combined with our entrepreneurial spirit, it’s what’s driven our phenomenal success.  We started trading tobacco over a hundred years ago. Today, we’re a multibillion dollar company with more than 200 brands in our portfolio. With robust positions in each of our regional markets, our future looks equally bright too.

There’s no doubt our industry is controversial — we’re the first to admit that. But rest assured, we take a responsible approach to our trade. In each of our markets, we observe every local law regarding tobacco (in many cases going further through our own voluntary code). Not only that, we treat our farmers fairly, invest in the environment and help to sustain local communities.
We also excel at developing our own people into leaders of the future. As a firm with a high-performance culture, we’ll expect a lot from you. But we’ll support you every step of the way to help you deliver. If you’re passionate and ambitious, rapid career progression is a reality here. And because we’re such a large firm (we employ more than 55,000 people worldwide), there are plenty of exciting opportunities for you to develop a truly extraordinary career.

Contact: Corina Dumitrescu <corina_dumitrescu@bat.com>

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