At Natura Life+Science, we believe that cannabis is a gift from nature perfectly designed to enhance our lives. Our mission is to deliver that gift to you by utilizing our incredible team, pharmaceutical-grade facilities, processes, and the best technology available.
Service is the key to significance. We lead by serving others. We encourage and invest in our team’s growth and education. We understand that our team is what differentiates us from everyone else. Our workplace is a safe, open place where exceptional people can share their talents, dreams, and ideas.
Summary
The Head of New Product Development and Formulation is directly responsible for leading a team of high performance scientists to effectively create, develop and commercialize new state of the art science-based product formulations for Natura Life Science, Champion collaboration with other cross-functional leaders and teams to rapidly develop novel consumer relevant products that will mainstream marijuana usage, strengthen our culture of innovation by championing new and novel ways to ideate new products, provide mentoring to ensure team engagement, growth, talent identification for a strong foundation for future growth.
Essential Functions
Build and mentor a high-performance product development team with skill sets that align with Natura's culture and strategy.
Lead team to create science-based robust product formulations to deliver new and innovative cannabis products which exceed consumer expectations and provide a consistent user experience.
Create and institutionalize a process to ensure all key stakeholders and cross-functional partners are fully aligned on new product deliverables.
Champion collaborations with the executive team to ensure formulations, products and timelines meet internal expectations.
Champion processes and develop strategic partnerships (internal and external) to deliver rapid prototypes to marketing and executives.
Manage state of the art R&D Product Development Lab to deliver new and novel products and to excite visitors.
Create and manage succession plan to ensure team is fully engaged and has a transparent career path to ensure R&D team has a strong foundation for growth.
Institutionalize a culture of innovation within R&D and entire organization.
Create forums where employees and external partners can share and pitch ideas to marketing and executive.
Identify and implement processes and metrics to measure meaningful KPI’s for R&D Product Development team which demonstrates business impact.
Manage R&D formulation budget, employee training, and administrative responsibilities
Create and file IP for new formulas and/or processes.
Competencies
Proven track record for on-time development and commercialization of new products
Strong leadership and managerial skill sets
Strong technical acumen
Strong communication and presentation skills
Motivational
Strong executional skills
Highly collaborative within R&D and with executive leadership teams.
Strong bias for action
Decisive
Flexible, adaptive to change
Required Education and Experience
Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Pharmacology, Chemistry or related field. Master’s degree preferred.
10 years of experience in Food/Pharmaceutical/Cannabis sector
Additional Eligibility Qualifications (certifications, etc.)
Strong knowledge of cGMP’s and GLP’s
Food safety and labeling requirements
