Sr Director

Business Unit Overview

Here's what all the hype is about: Premier Nutrition Company (PNC) is one of the fastest-growing companies in the convenient nutrition space showing clear leadership in the category of protein shakes and protein powders. We make the brands Premier Protein, Dymatize , and PowerBar, which is sold internationally, and we are part of our holding company, BellRing Brands (NYSE: BRBR).

We have a simple, yet powerful, formula for our success, which we've been nailing for over 15 years. We start off with an organization powered by our company purpose- Changing Lives with Good Energy . Then our purpose-driven people are given the support and autonomy to develop and grow. Next, we are super-intentional about designing a culture where everyone feels like they truly connect and belong , which is one of our five company core values. Purpose-driven, connected employees who are consistently mastering new skills deliver amazing business results. And winning companies with amazing people and thriving cultures attract and retain top talent, so the cycle becomes self-reinforcing or what we call our regenerative culture .

We don't mind sharing our formula since, as people who we believe in the power of changing lives with good energy , we think the world would be a better place if more workplaces treated adults like adults and gave them the platform to do the best work of their lives-alongside some truly amazing colleagues. Why don't more companies do this? It takes deep-in-your-bones conviction to your people, products, and purpose to pull it off. It also takes resisting the urge to try to control people, and instead trusting them to make the right decisions. The results of our vibrant culture speaks for themselves: We were certified as a Great Place to Work for the 7 th year-running in 2023. And we currently rank on Fortune Magazine's Best Workplaces in our category, and in the top 12 for each of the last 5 years.

We have a long list of ways we take care of our people, but here are some crowd-pleasers that our employees often say they love most: Year-round day Fridays, in-office massages, free lunches & snacks, dogs in the office, month-long cultural annd diversity celebrations, monthly over-the-top in-office events like bring your kids to work day, 6% 401k match after 1 year, as-needed sick leave, generous paid family leave regardless of gender, all positions bonus-eligible, company-wide volunteer days, company-matched charitable donations, no employee handbook, no dress code, coaching conversations instead of performance reviews, walking meetings, free exercise classes, and company-paid gym membership for Emeryville-based employees.

PNC seeks individuals who will flourish in this type of work environment and will add to our culture and help build this high-growth company for the next phase in our amazing journey. Does this sound like you? Then read on

Responsibilities

The role you're interested in

The successful candidate is a well-versed R&D people leader who guides team members and shepherds various types of projects and initiatives (processing engineering, commercialization, and R&I documentation) with tight alignment across the organization.

This position is a senior-level position, is a key member of the Research and Innovation (R&I) Leadership Team and will directly lead a team of managers and scientists (7+) at various levels (e.g. associate scientist to principal scientist with PhD) and works closely with R&I cross-functional partners and third-party resources.

This position will have direct and indirect responsibility for ensuring successful execution of several key strategic initiatives. This position will also be instrumental in streamlining R&I activities at PNC and capturing technical expertise within R&I organization.

This position works with limited supervision and has accountability for significant decisions made jointly with senior leadership in R&I and other functions.

On a typical day you may find yourself brainstorming on future state of R&I record management, delving into trial summaries to ensure success criteria are met and resources and timing are in place, supporting team members to identify ways to improve their workstreams, and then guiding a third party through key deliverables overview. If you are ready to flex your thinking between technical problem solving, guiding, and coaching team members, and driving efficient and clear cross-functional collaboration, then welcome aboard.

The work environment

So, what's it like to work here? If you're based in the greater Bay Area, you'll walk into our Emeryville office each Tuesday morning and start the in-person portion of our hybrid work week at our weekly all-company meeting and find close to 200 of your colleagues sitting on sofas, beanbag chairs, or the floor excitedly talking through the week ahead and watching a newer teammate tell their personal life and career journey followed by a quick update on any hot topics that might be relevant to the week ahead.

We are a dynamic, HYBRID workplace so every employee who lives within 100 miles of our offices is expected to come in each TUESDAY through THURSDAY. We aligned on these days way back in 2021 to be intentional about connecting in person for things like innovation, impromptu collaboration, having respectful challenges to get to better decisions, leadership role-modeling, and culture building. Great work cultures are built on stories about what great looks like in practice, and great stories on Zoom meetings are few and far between. The expected pay scale for this role is $220k to $240k, which may vary based on relevant experience, qualifications, geographic area (if applicable), and internal equity for the role.

Our modern 50,000 sq. foot headquarters straddles the border of the cities of Emeryville, Oakland, and Berkeley, California with free onsite parking and many transportation options.

You're excited about this opportunity because your time will be filled with

R&I Leadership: 50% of your time
•   Driving projects successfully to completion through leadership on setting project expectations, aligning on project plans and timelines, performing risk assessments, and developing risk mitigation and contingency plans, identifying proper workload balance, and ensuring ability to pivot as needed.
•   Responsible for growth and development for direct reports through thoughtful conversations, coaching in the moment and building and overseeing development and/or stretch plans for each direct report. Balancing the WHAT (technical) with the HOW (good energy and radical candor approach).
•   Ensure PNC values are embraced in daily activities along with opportunities to connect in the work, learn and collaborate. Build strong network and connections at various levels in organization with cross-functional partners.
•   Key leader in R&I, active contributor in R&I Leadership Team and co-mentor for R&I Management Team. R&I Project: 30% of your time
•   Strategic Initiatives and Project leadership:
•   Initiates, develops and/or oversees workstreams for Group (co-man qualifications and improvements, processing engineering, commercialization, and documentation).
•   Responsible for project execution against internal and external standards and deliverables through collaboration with OPS, QA, IT, and other parties.
•   Enlist appropriate resources (internal or external) for feasibility studies, capability studies, testing/validation plans and timely troubleshooting.
•   Identifies, communicates, and ensures alignment on risk management and contingency plans.
•   Captures learnings and shares knowledge through effective communication e.g. reports, SOPs, training material.
•   Build PNC PD expertise and excellence to support current activities and building the future in these areas:
•   Qualifications of new or improved manufacturing lines or sites from processing and packaging technology point of view
•   Scale-up process (Bench to Commercial scale) validation through capability and qualification studies
•   Commercialization and R&I partnerships with Manufacturing network
•   R&I Tools and documentation to support all areas of R&I
•   Robust network of external experts and key vendors as strategic partners for PNC R&I team
•   Identification of improvement opportunities, constraints, hurdles, or gaps and acting upon them and/or providing recommendations to leadership
•   Driving thought leadership and staying on top of relevant trends through individual research, seminars and maintaining a network of professional, business, and industrial contacts. The daily stuff that everyone does but few quantify: 20% of your time
•   Attending meetings and presentations
•   Participating in company-wide activities and events galore
•   Impromptu conversations with colleagues
•   Administrivia like email, calendaring, expense reports, and other non-value-added work Qualifications

What are we looking for?

Education:
•   Master's degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, Chemical Engineering or similar field required Experience:
•   12+ years of experience in the Food/Beverage industry, which includes substantial experience in R&D, Manufacturing/Scale- up/Commercialization, R&I IT tools and workflows, Project Management, and formal R&D leadership role . click apply for full job details