Principal Flavourist Lead - Savoury EU (m/f/d)

About Givaudan

Givaudan is a global leader in Fragrance & Beauty and Taste & Wellbeing. We celebrate the beauty of human experience by creating for happier, healthier lives with love for nature. Together with our customers we deliver food experiences, craft inspired fragrances and develop beauty and wellbeing solutions that make people look and feel good. In 2023, Givaudan employed 16,260 people worldwide and achieved CHF 6.9 billion in sales with a free cash flow of 13.3%. With a heritage that stretches back over 250 years, we are committed to driving long-term, purpose-led growth by improving people's health and happiness and increasing our positive impact on nature. This is Givaudan. Human by nature. Discover more at www.givaudan.com

As Principal Flavourist Lead, you will serve as the leading expert for the European Savoury segment, driving innovation, technical excellence, and best practices across the flavour creation community. You will develop and mentor talent to build future capabilities, strengthen commercial and business expertise, and create differentiated flavour solutions that reinforce Givaudan's competitive advantage in the savoury market.

You will be based in Kemptthal and reporting directly to the Creation Director Europe.

In this exciting role you will:

Functional Leadership of the Savoury flavourist Community

• Lead the European flavourist community, promoting knowledge sharing, collaboration, and innovation.
• Represent Region in global expert communities of practice to ensure regional relevance in flavour innovation.
• Accountable for talent and development process within the regional flavour community, by active participation in training and learning programmes for flavourists.

Creation Excellence and Innovation

• Define and oversee strategic frameworks, tools and design identity goals supporting flavour excellence and innovation. Aligning them with our performance goals.
• Be the spokesperson for Savoury flavour expertise, representing the function to other teams, industry associations, and key customers.
• Integrate new digital tools into flavour creation processes, being a champion to the wider community to promote use and to enhance efficiency.

Regional Innovation and Customer Partnership

• Lead mid-term development programmes, connecting with the sub-regions to understand their needs, then translating global S&T plans into successful and profitable commercial solutions for the region.
• Partner with cross-functional teams (Commercial, S&T, Procurement, Regulatory, Operations, Pricing & Controlling) to improve and deliver superior flavour performance.
• Serve as a strategic partner to strategic customers, representing Givaudan's creation capabilities in top to top strategic discussions.

Your professional profile includes:

• Bachelor or Master's degree in food science, Chemistry, Biology or similar
• Minimum 20 years of experience as a flavourist - majority within the savoury segment
• Experience across multiple countries
• Experience technical leadership, innovation and community engagement
• Advanced expertise in flavour formulation and sensory evaluation, delivering innovative flavour solutions that meet market needs and guide commercial success
• Engaging communicator, translating complex topics into clear, applicable insights that influence decisions and foster organizational agreement
• Expertise in digital tools, data analytics, sustainable sourcing, and modelling to accelerate speed to market, and deliver customer value
• Experience connecting technical innovation to strategic results, influencing investment decisions, and strengthening market leadership

Your benefits in Kemptthal:

• Excellent opportunities for progressive learning and development
• 40 hour working week
• 1 remote working day per week
• Additional paid days off
• Favorable pension fund contributions
• Subsidized meals in the Staff restaurant
• Sport and leisure club (amenities/showers on site)
• Discounts at the company shop
• Subsidized: REKA vouchers and SBB half fare travelcard
• Worldwide private accident coverage and free choice of hospital
• Worldwide private accident insurance
• Additional family/education allowance

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