Job Description

Are you a senior sensory professional looking for an exciting next step in your career? Do you have experience of working with expert sensory panels and can see the potential of taking sensory to the next commercial level? Are you looking for a varied, fast paced role in a welcoming environment, that will enable you to be creative and analytical?

We are recruiting a Sensory Director to lead our Asia sensory teams consisting of MMR ad-hoc sensory panels and clients on-site sensory panels in Singapore, China and India. We are looking for someone with commercial savvy who can take the sensory team to the next level, who will drive forward our plans for innovation and development of our sensory tools and methodologies, who has excellent client liaison skills and the passion to grow our sensory business.

You will be based across our two main sensory offices in Singapore and Shanghai located (based in either) with some travel to India to support our new sensory team based in Mumbai. Relocation will be considered.

About MMR\xe2\x80\xa6

MMR is an independent, global consumer and sensory research agency specialising in food, drink, personal and household care research. We are industry leaders, guiding best in class innovation for our clients \xe2\x80\x93 partnering with over 50% of the top 100 global food and drink brands.

Our team of over 700 highly engaged, multi-disciplined employees are primarily dynamic research professionals, sensory experts and data scientists. We\xe2\x80\x99re a diverse bunch, with backgrounds in R&D, insight, marketing, sensory science, data sciences and psychology. We also boast a true global reach with offices in South Africa, UK, US, China, Singapore, Mumbai, Thailand, Columbia and Brazil.

We are a \xe2\x80\x9cpeople first\xe2\x80\x9d company that prides itself on collaboration, honesty and mutual trust. A company who obtained some fantastic feedback for company engagement and team spirit in a recent employee study with 80% of employees stating they\xe2\x80\x99re happy and proud to work for MMR.

And one more thing, we work with 50% of the world\xe2\x80\x99s food and drink brands so the chances are the last time you went to the supermarket, you bought something that we\xe2\x80\x99ve influenced on its way to the shelves.

About our role

MMR firmly believes that expert sensory panels are undervalued, and many clients do not understand the value of sensory diagnostics and the role that sensory panels can play in optimising product experience and product innovation or renovation. Your role will be to drive forward our sensory strategy, constantly seeking opportunities to innovate and to develop strong relationships with clients and potential clients.

Key to success is the management and development of your sensory team consisting of 10 sensory scientists, 5 MMR panels and a growing number of client panels, both conventional and agile panels.

Responsibilities include:

• Managing and developing the sensory team, in particular your key regional heads and/or facility managers.
• Developing internal relationships with key colleagues; bus development, commercial and account leads, to facilitate business development meetings with clients and potential new clients.
• Act as centre of excellence for sensory research including innovating / thinking outside of the box against client challenges to evolve and develop new methods / approaches and ensuring that innovations are adopted by both the sensory and research teams.
• Marketing sensory to a wide external audience utilizing MMR\xe2\x80\x99s method experts and commercial team and working together to create an on-going program of marketing and business development activity.
• Assume overall responsibility for all financial aspects of sensory Asia, including budget planning, management of work in progress, oversight of post-mortems ensuring actual costs against budgeted and timely invoicing and payment.

• Working directly with clients, discussing briefs, inputting on proposals to win the work, discussing potential client panel collaborations / panel consultancy and demonstrating her sensory expertise with clients. With the goal of winning client sensory work in whatever guise that would take.
• Overarching responsibility for the generation of consistently high-quality descriptive analysis data, outputs and reports for all projects and ensuring that MMR\xe2\x80\x99s story approach to proposals and debriefs is fully utilised by the sensory team in Asia.

Requirements

Crucial Requirements for this role are:

• Experience leading or managing expert sensory panels.
• A sound sensory background to at least Degree level.
• An enthusiasm for new ways to conduct research including using technology (e.g. video, online communities, chatbots etc).
• A problem-solving mindset and a willingness to figure out solutions to challenges.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to multitask.
• Excellent delegation skills and understanding of who is best placed to help on various challenges.
• Excellent team management skills and experience.
• Personable and enthusiastic manner in working with internal teams.
• Analytical skills in extracting information and insight from an array of sources to build commercially focussed insights.
• Research agency experience is essential for this role.

Benefits

Benefits

MMR offers an open, collaborative, dynamic, varied and non-hierarchical environment, where bespoke MMR Academy training is offered at every level, as well as a selection of fantastic employee benefits.

The salary for this role will be dependent on the candidate\xe2\x80\x99s experience.

Here at MMR, we are about building a workplace for the future. We believe in equal opportunities and celebrate diversity. We\xe2\x80\x99re an inclusive workplace, where everyone is welcome, everyone can be natural, and be the best versions of themselves.

MMR Research