About this role
Job Description:
Location: Oud-beijerland Segment: Mars Food & Nutrition Reports To: Vice President, Global R&D – Mars Food & Nutrition
About Mars Food & Nutrition At Mars Food & Nutrition, we are dedicated to our purpose: Better Food Today. A Better World Tomorrow. We are a segment of Mars, Incorporated, proud to produce some of the world's most beloved and iconic brands, including Ben's Original™, Dolmio®, Tasty Bite®, MasterFoods™, and Kevin’s Natural Foods. Our mission is to scale our global business by delivering foods that are Tasty, Accessible, and Healthy.
The Opportunity We are seeking a visionary Global Head of Science & Technology (S&T) to join our executive R&D leadership team. In this role, you will be the primary bridge between cutting-edge scientific discovery and commercial business growth. You will shape and execute our global S&T strategy over a 1-to-5+ year horizon, translating complex science into scalable, proprietary technology platforms that deliver our short, medium, and long-term business objectives. As a key member of the Mars Science Leadership Team (MSLT), you will also collaborate across our sister segments (such as Snacking and Petcare) to shape enterprise-wide scientific strategies and champion our future technical talent pipeline.
What are your key responsibilities?
• Drive the S&T Strategy: Define and execute a 1-5+ year technology roadmap that directly supports our business growth and scales our portfolio of Tasty, Accessible, and Healthy food solutions. • Lead Pipeline & Scale-Up: Oversee the end-to-end S&T pipeline from proof-of-concept to commercial hand-off. Take operational ownership of our global R&D labs and pilot plant facilities to ensure seamless scale-up to global factories. • Global Process Standardization: Govern global process specifications and partner with Global Engineering to standardize technologies across our global manufacturing sites. • Pilot Plant & Scale-Up Governance: Provide operational leadership for global R&D labs and pilot facilities, ensuring safe and seamless technical scale-up. • Open Innovation Ecosystem: Build strategic relationships with universities, research institutes, suppliers, and start-ups to accelerate proprietary scientific breakthroughs. • IP Protection: Proactively safeguard and patent breakthrough technologies, securing our global freedom to operate. • Inspire and Develop Talent: Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing, diverse global team of scientists and process engineers, preparing the capability pipeline for our future R&D needs.
What are we looking for?
• Education: Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Chemical/Process Engineering, or a closely related scientific discipline. • FMCG Track Record: 15+ years of progressive R&D leadership experience in a global fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) or food ingredients environment. • Commercialization Success: Proven experience taking proprietary food technologies from early-stage discovery to successful, large-scale commercialization in complex global manufacturing environments. • Travel: Ability to travel globally 20% to 30% of the time. • Strategic & Business Acumen: You know how to translate scientific opportunities into clear growth strategies, balancing long-term exploratory pipelines with short-term business deliverables. • Technical Mastery: You bring expertise and knowledge in food chemistry, scale-up methodologies, and advanced process engineering. • Innovation Leadership: You create an environment that encourages creativity and experimentation, driving breakthrough innovation while managing execution excellence. You champion external collaboration and open innovation. • Scientific Communication: You are a highly effective communicator who can build deep, strategic relationships with external research partners and easily explain complex science to non-technical business partners. • People Leadership: You have a passion for mentoring and developing multidisciplinary teams, fostering a collaborative culture of scientific excellence and continuous learning
What can you expect from Mars?
• Work with diverse and talented associates, all guided by The Five Principles. • Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today. • A strong focus on learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University. • An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.