Unilever Future Leaders Programme (UFLP) - Research and Development at Unilever

Key Responsibilities:

Formulation Development: Whether the product is a deodorant, shampoo or an ice cream, as a formulation technologist your role is to make the marketing idea come to life, ensuring all the sensorial properties (taste, aroma, appearance, feel, and smell) excite and delight the consumer.
Packaging Development: The battle for the “shelf” and the consumer’s attention will be won or lost through eye-catching and functional packaging. You will develop the best structural packaging design concepts for the brands, and then engineer these into workable designs using the latest technologies
Regulatory Affairs: ensures we can get Unilever’s products into the market place and keep them there by guiding project teams through country specific regulations such as advertising standards and, ultimately ensuring that we protect the consumer.

Consumer Technical Insights: The CTl role is to investigate how consumers’ ‘needs’ or ‘desires’ translate into a product. You will link the consumer to technology by commissioning product evaluation, sensory research, and consumer habit observation studies.
Processing Development (Engineering): With over three hundred factories worldwide, a vast array of process technologies are applied in order to convert raw materials into products. As the Process Engineer your role is to upscale from lab or pilot plant to factory and make sure the process you use is repeatable.

Chefmanship: As an Innovation chef you will draw on your extensive knowledge of regional and global food trends; fusion of flavours; and consumer needs to bring the power of meal times to life through brilliant products that taste as good as homemade.
Nutrition and Health: Do you know that Knorr is specially formulated so you get just the right amount of salt in your diet? As a Nutritionists in R&D you will lead the delivery of health benefits into our products as well as sound nutrition communication and marketing to consumers.
Specification Management: The specification management team within R&D is the custodian of the technical information that is stored to produce a great product. A specification details the “what” and “how” of the attributes and properties that an article must have to fulfil its purpose.

Deploy: Deploy is the eyes and ears of the R&D organisation within each local company. In deploy your role will cover all R&D disciplines. Your key role is to bring the innovations to life with your consumers and customers. The tools you use are demo’s and the product experience toolkits. This is done through close partnership with your R&D team and the Brand team. 

Minimum Requirements:

• Completed 4 Year University degree in Natural/ Applied Sciences and/or Engineering with a preference for BSc (Microbiology, Bio-chem, Cosmetic Sciences, Chemistry, Food Science etc.). BEng, Chemical & Mechanical engineering Degrees

• Completed 4 Year BTech Degree (NQF Level 7) in ​ Chemical & Mechanical Engineering; B Tech. Food Sciences & Microbiology, B Tech Chemistry

Please make sure you check your “Junk mail” or “Spam mail” for feedback relating to your application. 

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.