Career Opportunities at Kerry

About the role

• The Senior Scientist, Beverages for South Africa will work very closely with Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Application teams, and other key stakeholders to provide the best technical support to our customers. They will need to push existing portfolio, drive the development of new portfolio initiatives, and support sales and marketing effort to win with key customers. They will be required to build strong customer intimacy.

As a senior member of a RD&A team, they shall mentor and provide an adequate level supervision to Application technologists by providing technical leadership and mentoring.

Key responsibilities

• Conducts basic research for the improvement of existing products, and the development of new products, outlining procedures and specifications.
• Ensures that ingredient functionality into final products fits the purpose of the customer. 
• Oversees sensory tasting and application screening to support new solutions and sales.
• Implements industry recognised methods.
• Keeps up to date on best practice requirements, develops methods for analysis and provides insight into consumer trends.
• Responsible for product development from initiation to launch. Confers with product engineers, flavour experts, sales staff, marketing and End Use Market teams, suppliers, manufacturing, customer and packaging and marketing specialists to resolve problems.
• Develops beverage system formulations and related applications stability performance through demonstrated understanding of beverage formulation and chemical interactions.
• Interacts and troubleshoots with customers on application concerns.
• Fosters relationships with peers at key accounts, building the image of the company as a leader in the field.
• Develops application knowledge within assigned beverage categories and becomes recognised as a solutions partner by product developers. 
• Ensures applications are acceptable in the regional or global markets where sales are expected, including any special criteria such as organic, allergen and GM.
• Participates in designated RDA projects.
• Ensures appropriate documentation of experimental trials and outcomes to facilitate scale up and product transfer to manufacturing. 
• Ensures good laboratory practices and lab protocols are being met globally. 
• Evolves record documentation and methodology into appropriate database.
• Maintains the calibration of laboratory instruments, proper calibration records and laboratory supply stock.
• Documents all research notes in lab books and computer databases, documents key learnings from work.
• Maintains laboratory, including upkeep of equipment, stock of supplies and general cleaning of work areas.
• Actively participates and drives quality improvement of the function. 
• Builds further scientific knowledge through interaction with RDA managers and directors and/or academic reviews, literature reviews, regulatory monitoring and application studies. 
• Leverage relationships to identify potential new hires and/or resources that may be valuable to the company.
• Attend trade shows, conferences, scientific meetings and short courses as necessary, making credible presentations to educate customers, students and industry contacts.
• Provides coaching and mentoring to a team of scientists.

Qualifications and skills

• Completed Degree in Food Technology, Food Science or equivalent.
• Minimum 5 – 8 years of related experience in a similar position within the Food and Beverage industry, with a minimum of 3 – 5 years specialising in the Beverage industry.
• Computer literate
• Experience in building of Customer-Supplier relationships
• Background in product costing (advantageous)

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About The Role:

• The Commercial Finance Graduate will work closely with Commercial team to develop and implement Pricing Strategies for the SA business across market/technology portfolio that sustain and develop the business growth model.

The position will be based in Hillcrest, KZN. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Margin Control: Monthly review of cost and pricing movements (VPC) and lead continuous improvement plan in areas that require redress
• Risk Management: Work in collaboration with procurement and operations teams in understanding movement of key cost metrics. Create and deliver mitigation and recovery plans to maintain business profitability
• Deliver high quality and timely output of pricing support to sales organization with the market pricing teams
• Identify Opportunity & Risk for business growth and proposals and solutions to maximize or mitigate where necessary
• Provide commercial partnering through using insights on sales trends, future forecasting and external market data to improve and drive business growth at market level
• Support business growth through analysis and appraisal of new methods for growth, capital investment, and new market development 
• Delivery on annual pricing renewal process
• Responsible & accountable for costing and pricing of new product opportunities ensuring alignment to business margin expectations
• Ensuring accurate and timely response to pricing requests, to ensure that the customer receives information quickly
• Assist Commercial team in order to support, develop and maintain catalogue Price List
• AR and AP liaison to enable working capital management

Qualifications, Experience and Skills:

• Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Accountancy / Finance with 1-2 years’ work experience, ideally in a manufacturing environment - Fresh Graduates are also encouraged to apply
• Studying towards CIMA qualification will be advantageous
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel is required; familiarity with data query/data management tools will be extremely helpful (Microsoft Word, Power Point, Access, SQL, Business Objects)
• Knowledge of ERP, ideally SAP and SAP BW reporting, and related data analysis tools are an added advantage
• Excellent communication skills, high attention to detail and the ability to work in a dynamic environment and meet tight deadlines

Competencies:

• Proactive and disciplined 
• Problem Solving - enquiring mind, lateral thinking
• High level of accountability
• Analytical and problem solving in a fast-paced environment 
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team 
• Ability to prioritize under tight deadlines 

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About the role

The primary focus of the Production Scheduler is the preparation, execution and monitoring of production plans.
In this role, you will strategize and convey the tasks required for designated area(s) to align with the production schedule and meet customer delivery requirements.

Key responsibilities

• Develops and maintains daily, weekly, and monthly production schedules.
• Plans and establishes manufacturing sequences based on product characteristics and requirements.
• Authorizes and releases daily production process orders with all necessary materials in place.
• Plays a pivotal role in addressing emergent issues that may impact the schedule and customer commitments.
• Collaborates with cross-functional teams to conduct root-cause and gap analyses and find effective solutions.
• Monitors production schedules, ensuring compliance with relevant requirements, and adjusts schedules to accommodate unforeseen conditions in order to meet committed delivery dates.
• Coordinates with cross-functional teams regarding Bill of Materials (BOM) requirements and the setup of new products.
• Manages scheduling, rescheduling, and order creation for areas of responsibility to support the Supply Network Plan (SNP).
• Develops and maintains a comprehensive understanding of the company's products and processes.
• Reviews and maintains planned scheduling parameters such as lead times, lot sizes, safety stocks, and delivery times for scheduled items.
• Leads production meetings to review and communicate the SNP.
• Monitors, analyzes, and reports on the performance to schedule of production activities, utilizing data from material and production control reports and systems.
• Notifies the production and warehouse teams promptly in the event of plan changes.
• In this critical role, you will ensure the seamless execution of production plans, contributing to the efficiency and success of our operations while meeting our commitment to customer satisfaction.

Qualifications and skills

• Diploma in Production Cost Management, Transport Management, Production, Supply Chain, Logistics, or a related field.
• A minimum of 2 years' experience in Production planning and project planning specifically within a Food environment.
• Proficiency in utilizing ERP and MRP II systems, along with skills in using MS Office applications. Any prior experience with SAP PP module and APO is notably advantageous.
• Strong emphasis on data analysis and metrics.