Head of Nutrition, NPD & Business Development at Unga Holding

Role Purpose:

• The Head of Nutrition, NPD and Business Development role purpose is to be the driver of nutrition (formulations), innovation, new products, margins optimization, business development and partnerships that are beneficial to the organization.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

People and Culture

• Drive a culture of integrity, customer/consumer first and speed of execution within the nutrition and business development team.
• Lead, inspire, guide and motivate the nutrition and business development team to achieve excellence and be high performing in their roles.
• Coach and train the team on nutrition and business development.

Nutrition

• Own and manage formulations/diets for all animal types/products in the business.
• Continuously review and update formulations/diets for performance and cost.
• Ensure that formulations developed are optimal for both performance and cost Simplify formulations for the business to enable easier material planning and sourcing.

Business Development

• Be the business’ key representative on industry bodies and industry seminars and conferences and ensure the company’s profile is elevated
• Identify and engage with potential businesses that we can partner with to advance research, product development or potential distributorship for their line of products
• Ensure that Unga Farmcare’s profile as a thought leader and go to partner for Animal Nutrition is well established to enable us to attract potential customers and partnerships
• Work with the field team sales to win over major accounts/customers by delivering and implementing diets/formulations and technical solutions that solve their problems.

New Product Development and Innovation

• Develop a new product pipeline for the business and work towards launch of the same with the quality, marketing, supply chain, production and sales team
• Keep abreast of changing market trends and innovations and propose adoptions for the business

Market Intelligence and Knowledge Deepening

• Carry out research and keep abreast of new industry developments and advise the business accordingly to make relevant adjustments
• Curate and develop and seek out relevant training for the field salespersons and have the same implemented
• Manage technical expertise and professional networks by maintaining relationships with animal health institutes, laboratories, universities, research bodies, feed additives suppliers, equipment supplies etc.

Sourcing, Quality and Milling Support

• Provide technical support to the production team on addressing milling challenges occasioned by raw materials and new formulations 
• Work with QA team to get to the root cause of customer complaints and address the technical issues if any surrounding product quality issues
• Simplify materials that the business uses to enhance production efficiencies and to ensure availability brought about by focused sourcing
• Support procurement by directing them to the right sources of raw materials based on requirement, price, quality and availability
• Support procurement team with the clearing and registration of imported raw materials

Job Requirements

Qualifications & Experience
Critically Required

• Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Health and Production and/or Nutrition
• At least 10+ years’ experience in animal science/health/nutrition/technical sales of which at least 5 must have been in animal nutrition
• Demonstrable experience in handling feed and minerals formulations
• Experience with laboratory tests and techniques relevant to checking feed quality and nutritional values
• Wide knowledge of relevant feed additives and their suppliers
• Membership of industry bodies e.g. AKEFEMA