Head of Product

Our client is a food technology company that specializes in R&D production and sales of bakery ingredients - especially non-dairy whipped cream.

They are seeking a driven and organized Head of Product with a strong background in the bakery ingredients industry especially for dairy and non-dairy whipped cream products. In this role you will work closely with executive leadership sales marketing R&D technical application manufacturing quality and supply chain teams to develop and execute the companys product strategy across the entire product lifecycle. The ideal candidate should possess immense experience managing bakery ingredient product portfolios identifying market opportunities and driving commercialization to meet the evolving needs of commercial bakeries food manufacturers and foodservice customers.

Strong professional working fluency in English and fluency in Portuguese is REQUIRED.

Finally please note that only candidates who have significant product management experience in the bakery ingredients industry will be selected for interviews.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop and execute the companys product strategy and roadmap for bakery dairy and non-dairy whipped cream products ensuring alignment with overall business objectives and market opportunities.
• Own the full product lifecycle from market opportunity assessment and business case development through product launch commercialization portfolio optimization and product retirement.
• Identify new product opportunities by analyzing customer needs industry trends competitive products emerging technologies and changing consumer preferences.
• Define product positioning customer value propositions pricing recommendations target customer segments and commercialization strategies.
• Work closely with R&D and Technical Application teams to translate customer requirements into commercially viable product specifications and successful product launches.
• Lead cross-functional stage-gate or product development processes to ensure projects are delivered on time within budget and in accordance with commercial objectives.
• Prioritize product development initiatives based on market demand profitability strategic value manufacturing capability and resource availability.
• Develop product business cases including revenue forecasts margin analysis pricing strategies investment requirements and return-on-investment projections.
• Collaborate with manufacturing and supply chain teams to ensure new products can be efficiently produced while maintaining quality consistency and cost competitiveness.
• Conduct regular portfolio reviews to optimize product mix improve profitability identify underperforming products and recommend portfolio rationalization where appropriate.
• Support strategic customer meetings by presenting product roadmaps innovation pipelines technical capabilities and long-term partnership opportunities.
• Monitor product performance through commercial KPIs including sales growth profitability market share customer adoption and product lifecycle performance.
• Represent the company at customer meetings bakery exhibitions food ingredient trade shows technical conferences and industry events.

REQUIREMENTS:

• At least 10 years of experience in product management for the bakery ingredients industry.
• Extensive experience managing dairy and/or non-dairy whipped cream product portfolios is highly preferred.
• Strong understanding of commercial bakery operations industrial food manufacturing HORECA foodservice and ingredient solution selling.
• Deep understanding of dairy and non-dairy whipped cream applications including whipping performance overrun foam stability texture mouthfeel shelf life freeze-thaw stability and product functionality.
• Proven experience managing products throughout the entire product lifecycle from market research and concept development through commercialization and portfolio optimization.
• Experience developing product strategies based on customer insights competitive analysis profitability and long-term market opportunities.
• Strong understanding of food manufacturing processes ingredient sourcing formulation considerations and production scale-up requirements.
• Experience supporting customer product trials technical evaluations and new product commercialization is highly preferred.
• Willingness to travel nationally and internationally to support customers manufacturing sites suppliers and industry events.
• Strong professional working fluency in English and fluency in Portuguese is REQUIRED.
• Bachelors degree in Food Science Food Technology Business Marketing Engineering or a related discipline; an MBA is highly preferred.

If you are qualified and interested we kindly invite you to apply! In the meantime please consider following our company page for more updates and relevant job opportunities.