The Product Scale-Up Lead is responsible for executing Product Development initiatives across our APAC manufacturing network, translating concepts into commercially successful products. Leveraging expertise in recipe development and scale-up, this role leads pilot, trial, and commercial production activities to ensure successful product commercialization.
The Product Scale- Up Lead will analyze laboratory and production data to drive continuous improvements in product quality, testing processes, and data collection practices. Success in this role requires close collaboration with cross-functional teams and global stakeholders to ensure technical alignment and seamless project execution.
This individual is accountable for delivering projects on time while proactively managing risks, communicating progress, and driving solutions to technical challenges. Based in Singapore, the role combines hands-on factory support with global collaboration to enable successful commercialization across our manufacturing network.
Key Responsibilities
Technical Product Scale-Up & Product Execution
- Lead technical, commercialization execution of product scale-up activities, translating approved product concepts and formulations into successful pilot, trial, and commercial-scale production.
- Ensure successful transfer of product knowledge, formulation intent, technical learnings, and key product attributes from development through scale-up and production.
- Lead trial planning and execution at partner manufacturing facilities and pilot facilities, including pre-trial technical alignment, on-site technical support, issue identification, and post-trial performance evaluation.
- Lead new factory and supplier onboarding activities from a formulation standpoint by ensuring formulations, product specifications, and critical product attributes are clearly understood and aligned for successful production.
- Drive product optimization and replication efforts across manufacturing sites, ensuring formula consistency, product quality, and alignment to established product standards.
- Troubleshoot product-related challenges during scale-up and production, leveraging technical knowledge, data analysis, and cross-functional collaboration to identify root causes and support effective solutions.
Product Knowledge, Data Analysis & Technical Expertise
- Analyze laboratory, pilot, and production data to evaluate product performance, identify trends, and generate insights that support recipe refinement, formulation decisions, and continuous product improvement.
- Translate technical data and learnings into actionable recommendations that maintain product intent, quality attributes, and consumer expectations.
- Develop a deep understanding of base brand product platforms, formulations, ingredient functionality, and technical knowledge (brand IP), leveraging this expertise to support product execution, technical decision-making, and product consistency across the network.
- Translate technical data and learnings into actionable recommendations that maintain product intent, quality attributes, and consumer expectations.
- Leverage product knowledge and base brand IP to strengthen laboratory methods, technical workflows, and SOPs that improve data quality, product evaluation, and knowledge continuity across the technical organization.
- Capture, document, organize, and apply technical learnings from trials, production runs, and product evaluations to strengthen future development initiatives and improve speed of execution.
- Provide technical guidance on ingredient functionality, formulation feasibility, product specifications, and technical risks during project execution.
- Maintain formula consistency and technical knowledge continuity across supplier and manufacturing networks, identifying opportunities for improvement and ensuring alignment to product standards.
- Support Quality team operations in critical decisions regarding new product's ongoing processes such aging stock management and product release decisions or troubleshooting.
- Own and maintain formula consistency across supplier networks, providing technical guidance for adjustments.
- Provide technical expertise and formulation-related assessments for consumer complaints, including investigation of product performance, ingredient functionality, stability, compatibility, and quality concerns.
Laboratory Interface & Data Ownership
- Own the interpretation of laboratory testing results, translating data into product-relevant conclusions and ensuring insights are used to drive development decisions.
- Compile and synthesize laboratory testing data into clear summaries and trend analyses that support cross-functional decision-making.
- Contribute on defining testing requirements for new products, briefing the laboratory on relevant methods, parameters, and conditions needed to generate fit-for-purpose results.
- Contribute on defining establishing new product shelf-Life acceptance criteria, including critical quality parameters, acceptable limits, and stability evaluation timelines.
- Define critical performance parameters per product (sensory, physical, chemical), serving as the reference framework for evaluating laboratory results.
- Contribute to the development of new testing methodologies, ensuring methods are appropriate for the product category and collaborating with the lab to adapt them where needed.
- Lead pass/fail interpretation of testing outcomes of new products, making product-led go/no-go decisions based on laboratory results data and ensuring rationale is documented and communicated for the Quality team and Laboratory teams.
- Maintain a structured record of testing results and their product-context interpretations, supporting ongoing benchmarking and future development decisions.
Project Coordination & Communication
- Collaborate cross-functionally with regional and global Product Development, Quality, Supply Chain, Technical teams to enable successful execution of product initiatives.
- Support APAC product execution activities by adapting global product strategies to regional requirements, supplier capabilities, and operational realities.
- Coordinate technical inputs, project deliverables, timelines, and risks to ensure alignment across stakeholders.
- Proactively communicate project status, technical risks, and execution challenges through established project management channels.
- Collaborate with global Product Development and project management teams to ensure knowledge sharing, alignment, and continuity across regions.
Documentation, Technical Systems & Processes
- Maintain comprehensive documentation of scale-up activities, trial outcomes, product learnings, technical recommendations, and key decision points.
- Contribute technical inputs into product development frameworks and ways of working, ensuring scale-up considerations and execution learnings are incorporated early in project planning.
- Support continuous improvement of technical workflows, trial methodologies, data capture, and knowledge-sharing practices across the organization.
- articipate and play an active role in the development and implementation of comprehensive product development processes, including clear input requirements, deliverables, timelines, and risk assessment protocols.
- Manage R&D and innovation processes in APAC, ensuring alignment with market requirements while adapting to the reality of the local conditions, partner operations and cross functional interactions.
- Drive the Product Development contribution to the VCTS framework, ensuring integration with broader company initiatives.
- Establishing and maintaining Recipe validation procedures to ensure that PD recipes are execute according to the expectations in our comanufacturing network.
Role Expectations
In this role, you will demonstrate:
- Strong technical understanding of formulation principles, product attributes, and scale-up execution.
- Ability to interpret technical data and translate insights into actionable recommendations for recipe and product improvement.
- Ability to connect product intent, formulation knowledge, and execution realities across development and production environments.
- Strong troubleshooting, analytical thinking, and problem-solving capabilities.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, balancing independent technical ownership with partnership across Product Development, Quality, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and technical teams.
- Effective project management skills, including risk identification, timeline management, and stakeholder communication.
- Ability to bridge technical requirements with business priorities while maintaining product intent and brand integrity.
- Excellent oral and written communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams. Willingness to travel around the region (60%).
Education and experience
- Bachelor's degree in food science, Food Technology, Chemical Engineering, Food Engineering, Nutrition, or a related scientific discipline.
- Strong academic foundation in food formulation, ingredient functionality, processing technologies, and product commercialization.
- Experience: 4-7 years food industry experience in R&D /Product development with CPG experience
Success in this role requires technical expertise, hands-on scale-up experience, and strong collaboration skills. This individual serves as a key technical leader within Product Development, ensuring products are successfully translated from formulation into consistent, high-quality products while preserving brand knowledge, technical learnings, and product intent.
