Sr Principal Scientist

Sr Principal Scientist   

Trumbull, CT

Unilever’s mission is to add Vitality to Life.  We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

Unilever is among the Top 70 of the Fortune Global 500 Companies.  We are also one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods in foods, household and personal care products.  Our purpose is to meet the everyday needs of people everywhere – to anticipate the aspirations of our consumers and customers and to respond creatively and competitively with branded products and services, which raise the quality of life.

Job Summary

This position is responsible for developing and executing the Strategic plans on Consumer Science/Sensory Evaluation and Claims program for global design projects. The primary purpose of the position is to reveal consumer technical insights and claims opportunities as related to consumer use of Skin products, including their interactions at a fragrance, packaging, and emotional level.

This position is Global and is a part of the Skin CTI-Claims Design under the Skin GDC. Skin category is strategically one of the most important categories for Unilever HPC and therefore the category will be pursuing many new approaches to consumer testing and claims ambition. This position requires the management of the CTI testing plan and Claims Strategy for key projects with the technical project manager within set budget parameters

Duties and Responsibilities

1) Develop strategic understanding plan that will cover appropriate Consumer plan and testing program to support Category Design/Discover projects.

2) Develop long term claims strategies with Brand and R&D leadership teams.

3) Design and deliver Claims support Strategies that meet internal and external requirements.

4) Develops, agrees and implements Strategic Understanding plans with CI partners.

5) Extract consumer knowledge from multiple sources and be able to combine with science/ technical understanding and category/brand strategy to identify business opportunities and threats.

A. Consumer Quantitative/Qualitative/Sensory Evaluation

• Designs the appropriate consumer plan and testing programme to meet the project's demands and timescales, ensuring that technical objectives are met with minimum risk

• Applies consumer research techniques and learnings to support business processes

• Designs and manages holistic and ad hoc research projects.

• Extracts competitive advantage from data capture and reporting

• Develops and applies appropriate consumer testing methodologies.

B. Claims

• Work with marketing and R&D leadership teams to develop a long term strategy for claims and communication.

• Agrees and deliver claim support strategies and dossiers that meet regulatory and legal standards.

• Applies category and business knowledge to the generation of creative claims. Use the full range of tools for creative claims development and drives integration with marketing to contribute to the advertising development process.

• Ensure robust methodologies are in place for claims substantiation.

• Brings technology to life through generating supportable innovative products claims/ demos

• Leverage competitor and market intelligence to anticipate, assess, forecast and successfully prosecute and defend competitor claims challenges.

C. General Skills

• Leverage Unilever CI Networks

• Capable of defining Unilever CI and Industry Best Practices

• Provides authority for brands and categories and novel communication strategies derived from expert knowledge base.

• Identifies those new methods suitable for roll out to the wider Unilever CI community and works with best partners (internal & external) to develop the package.

• Promotes the use of CTI insights in the business.

• Drives change based on strategic understanding on Consumers, Shoppers, Categories.

• Ensures business decision making is based on strong market, consumer and technical insights.

• Helps create compelling long term product and service visions for categories and brands.

• Demonstrates knowledge of a wider range of CTI techniques.

D. Communication Skills

• Must have strong communication skills and be able to express thoughts in a clear and concise manner.

• Independently initiates communication to disseminate, inform, and clarify a variety of issues.

• Prepares comprehensive technical and business reports (ie powerpoint presentations) and memos.

• Actively participate in and effectively conducts meetings with technical and non-technical personnel.

• Must have demonstrated the ability to present information to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Key Requirements

Master's degree in Psychology, Nutrition Science, Sensory Science, Market Research, Biology,

Minimally 10+ years on consumer insight/ sensory work and/or product claims experience.

Unilever offers a competitive compensation package which includes:  Medical & Dental Plans, Life Insurance, including spouse & children, Health Care Flexible Spending, Dependent Care, Retirement & Savings Plans, Tuition Reimbursement, Paid Vacation and Holidays.

Visit our website at www.unileverusa-careers.com or to apply now, click on the link below.

https://recruitment.unileverservices.com//MAIN/careerportal/job_profile.cfm?szOrderID=19493

Unilever is an equal opportunity employer.  It prohibits discrimination based on age, color, disability, marital or parental status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status or any other legally protected status in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.

Employment is subject to verification of pre-employment drug-screening results and background investigation.