Principal accountabilities

EHS

The job holder will ensure that all activities within his area of responsibility are in compliance with regulatory and company standards.

Quality systems

The job holder will develop and implement working systems and procedures that will allow the TPU ATC organisation to become part of the business-wide ISO9001 registration. He will be responsible for the development & maintenance of and the adherence to the procedures relevant to his area of responsibility.

He will ensure that the work processes in his area are being monitored and improved where possible.

Regional Leadership Team

The job holder will be one member of the APAC leadership team. Together with other function leaders such as commercial, marketing, operation, HR, etc, the regional leadership team will implement global strategy, prepare regional delivery plan and execute the plan to deliver business growth.

People management & organizational development

In close co-operation with management and the local sales & marketing management, the job holder will be responsible for building an effective and knowledgeable team of development/TS resources in line with the strategy and the needs of the region.

This is will be a challenging task as it will take a mixture of identifying experienced people with know-how in the field of TPU, as well as high potential graduates, transferring the knowledge existing in Osnabrück and Derry onto this team.

The job holder is responsible for effectively managing the people in his team. He will ensure that all HR processes are being adhered to (Perf Review, Talent Dbase, ..) and that career opportunities are being developed where appropriate.

Development Projects

• Project assessment & selection

Requests for projects could come through marketing, GBDT, sales and/or through own ideas of the development team.

The job holder will be responsible for the assessment of the technical aspects of potential new projects. This assessment will serve as an important input in the project selection process.

• Project set-up

Upon selection, the job holder will, in close co-operation with the Derry and Osnabrück colleagues and his management, nominate a technical lead for these projects.

More specifically, he will be mainly responsible for projects that fall within the Shanghai based competencies (initially footwear and film). However, this will not be a strict rule and projects may be assigned otherwise depending on work load/customer needs.

He will also ensure that the NPI process is being initiated and followed through.

• Project execution and project/resource management

The job holder will ensure that projects within his area of responsibility will be defined in terms of expected outcome, timing and resource needs.

He will ensure that projects are being managed according to the plan and are being regularly reviewed. He will be responsible for implementing/proposing corrective measures if a project deviates from its original plan (additional resources, reprioritisation of projects, re-assessing the projects starting assumptions and even its validity).

• Project Hand-over

Upon project completion, the job holder will ensure that all relevant technical data are being handed-over to the production and marketing department (data for PDSs).

Link into the GBDT/ABDT

The job holder will function as the main link into the EBDT/ABDT.

He will ensure that assistance is being sought for high level projects in which specialised/detailed technical work could have to be done by the GBDT.

He will also ensure that there is a seamless transition from those projects that have been initiated by the GBDT and need further work in the product development area, providing the ELT chooses to support these projects.

Manufacturing support

The job holder will provide manufacturing support whenever an in-depth chemical understanding is necessary.

This will be the case during start-up, with the qualification of raw materials and with complex production problems (eg the presence of certain contaminants that lead to process problems or off-spec materials).

Furthermore, support needs to be given with the scale-up of development projects.

Link into the academic world

The job holder will be responsible for developing and maintaining a good working relationship with local universities specializing in (thermo)plastics. This is specifically important in terms of potentially “outsourcing” some projects to these universities as well as using these relationships to attract high level graduates.

Special Features

The job holder requires a PhD in chemistry and at least 10 years of experience in the field of thermoplastics (preferably TPU).

The job holder needs to be able to demonstrate a proven track record of having built a technical organisation in a similar field.

A proven ability to manage staff with technical competence, credibility and sensitivity.

The jobholder requires good interpersonal management skills to be able to build a team with both his management, colleagues in other locations and sales/marketing.

A proven track record of successfully managing product development projects.

The ability to work in a multi-cultural environment

Excellent organisation skills are needed to handle multiple projects and requests to the satisfaction of the internal/external customers.

The job holder must speak English fluently and preferably Mandarin. Knowledge of German would be an advantage.