Advanced degree in Engineering, Food Science, or a related technical field
Green belt or Black belt for Lean 6-Sigma is a plus
5+ years relevant experiences in food technology development, process & product scale-up and/or implementation
Proven track record of leading complex industrialization or commercialization projects from pilot to full-scale production
Project Management experience
What will be your key responsibilities?
Leads Self & Others
Lead, develop, and engage a WET PPI team, building deep technical capability, accountability, and a strong performance culture.
Role‑model Mars leadership behaviors, ensuring clarity of expectations, regular feedback, and growth of future leaders.
Deliver technical training to site teams on process principles, product quality, and performance standards.
Delivers Results
Translate R&D and Quest (our long-term innovation pipeline) strategies into clear regional Wet industrialization priorities.
Own delivery outcomes across the manufacturing network, ensuring disciplined execution and measurable business impact.
Ensures Quality & Safety
Own the deployment and sustained conformance of Wet product, process, and raw material specifications.
Safeguard food safety, quality, and performance in line with Royal Canin standards and the Mars Quality principle.
Follow and enforce pre-requisite actions for process validation as a requirement for Hand Over 0 (HO0) signature.
Decision Quality & Managing Complexity
Lead regional industrial risk assessment and decision-making for new materials, processes, products, and technologies.
Lead complex problem solving (troubleshooting level 2) related to raw material, product and process.
Drive robust, data‑based decisions to enable compliant, resilient, and scalable implementations.
Own the Hand Over 1 (HO1) signature for small/minor projects and support the Global Technology Specialist on major projects.
Leads Change & Industrialization
Act as the regional R&D leader for Wet industrialization, driving innovation scale‑up, portfolio transfers, and critical regional initiatives.
Implement robust processes for commissioning, capturing learnings, and establishing repeatable, best-practice ways of working.
Collaborates & Balances Stakeholders
Build strong, trust‑based partnerships with Quality, Food Safety, Regulatory, Engineering, Manufacturing, Planning, and Commercial teams.
Enable seamless execution through alignment, clarity of roles, and shared accountability.
R&D representative for the Commissioning, Validation, and Start-Up (CVS) process.
Support CVS and PPI teams with on-site protocol execution.
Thinks Long Term
Shape the future of Wet technology by contributing expertise and key learnings to global R&D and PPI communities.
Proactively strengthen future deployments by investing in team capability and establishing a knowledge transfer framework.
What can you expect from Mars?
Work with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by The Five Principles.
Join a purpose driven company, where we're striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.
Mars does not sponsor visas for this role.
Benefits
Performance bonus
Additional Information
Job Description:
The Product & Process Implementation (PPI) Manager - Wet is responsible to deploy R&D specifications needed for manufacturing of WET products on existing manufacturing standards and for new technology to achieve process specifications conformance and finished product specifications conformance.
What are we looking for?
Minimum Requirements
Bachelor's or in Engineering, Food Science, or a related technical field or equivalent
Demonstrated industry experience as R&D engineer or Quality & Food Safety Engineer
2+ years of experience in a people leadership role, with demonstrated ability to develop and engage a technical team.
2-3 years relevant experiences in food technology development, process & product scale-up and/or implementation
Working in a company with multicultural and international features
Mars · Usa-south Dakota-north Sioux City