R&D Director, Product Development, Juices

The Coca-Cola Company; Ciudad Valles; On-site; MXN 3,000,000 - 4,500,000; Full time

Job summary

The Coca-Cola Company LATAM Innovation Center seeks a transformational leader for R&D, Product Development, Juices. You will build and empower high-performing teams to drive a robust 3–5 year innovation pipeline across the Latin America Juice category, turning concepts into commercially viable products through expert technical rigor and cross-functional collaboration.

You will oversee strategy, prioritization, and resource allocation to accelerate bottom- and top-line growth, aligning with

Qualifications

• 10+ years delivering successful product innovation in FMCG/beverage/food, including senior leadership experience.
• Proven track record of turning insights into market-leading products.
• Fluent in English; regional languages a plus.
• Translate strategy into clear team priorities and executable plans.
• Stay on top of technical, consumer and competitive trends and insights.

Responsibilities

• Adapt global technical roadmaps into products, packaging, and processes with local resonance and regulatory alignment.
• Align on the prioritized initiatives for the category with OU Innovation Hub and Global category Leads.
• Prioritize and manage resources to deliver committed plans.
• Develop products for consumer test with the best ingredients and process to enable superiority, scalability, and profitability.
• Champion a culture of creativity, speed, and excellence in product development.
• Ensure Stage Gate process compliance.
• Anticipate and mitigate risks before they affect launch.
• Transfer critical technical knowledge to plants and market teams to deliver flawless execution.
• Drive project post-review and translate learning to an action plan for continuous improvement.
• Partner with Ou Hub and Category Leads to fuel the 3-5 years pipeline.
• Introduce digital efficiencies that enhance speed and elevate quality.
• Develop next-gen technical talent, embedding data fluency and collaborative innovation.
• Promote diversity, inclusion, and an entrepreneurial mindset within the innovation center.

Skills

Product development

Cross-cultural leadership

Stakeholder influence

Commercial acumen

Data fluency

Strategic thinking

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's/Master's in relevant field

Job description

Location: Mexico City

Our LATAM Innovation Center sits at the heart of The Coca-Cola Company’s next chapter of growth. We are committed to transforming and evolving our organization and ambitions — bringing our people closer to the consumer, continuously raising the bar, and embracing digitalization to enable sustainable growth.

We are looking for a transformational leader to build, inspire, and empower high-performing teams that fuel the innovation pipeline with bold ideas and turn them into real-world impact. This role is not about maintaining the status quo; it is about setting direction, unlocking opportunity, and driving valuable breakthrough innovation at scale.

You will lead diverse teams with deep product development expertise to deliver a strong and balanced portfolio of meaningful innovation — accelerating growth and shaping the future of the organization.

Job Purpose Summary

As R&D Director, Product Development, Juices, you will lead and develop a team of talented product developers, setting the strategy for product development in the Juice Category for Latin America and prioritizing resources to deliver key initiatives to accelerate bottom- and top-line growth. You will oversee a portfolio of high‑impact beverage innovations, ensuring concepts are translated into commercially viable products through strong technical rigor and cross‑functional collaboration. You will also build and drive a robust 3–5‑year innovation pipeline in close partnership with Global Category Leads and OU Innovation Hubs. This role balances strategic leadership with technical stewardship, coaching leaders, building team capability, and shaping critical decisions across formulation, quality, regulatory, and manufacturing readiness

What You’ll Do

• Adapt global technical roadmaps into products, packaging, and processes with local resonance and regulatory alignment.
• Align on the prioritized initiatives (new product launch, superiority, tax and regulation, productivity) for the category with OU Innovation Hub, OU TISC and Global category Leads.
• Prioritize and manage resources to deliver committed plans.
• Develop products for consumer test with the best ingredients and process to enable superiority, scalability, and profitability.
• Champion a culture of creativity, speed, and excellence in product development.
• Ensure Stage Gate process compliance.
• Anticipate and mitigate risks — from formulation stability to regulatory compliance — before they affect launch.
• Transfer critical technical knowledge to plants and market teams to deliver flawless, first-time-right execution.
• Drive project post-review and translate learning to an action plan for continuous improvement.
• Partner with Ou Hub and Category Leads to fuel the 3-5 years pipeline
• Introduce digital efficiencies that enhance speed, reduce complexity, and elevate quality.
• Develop next-gen technical talent, embedding data fluency, design thinking, and collaborative innovation.
• Promote diversity, inclusion, and an entrepreneurial mindset within the innovation center.

What You’ll Need

• Bachelor’s/Master’s in Food Science, Chemistry, Nutrition, Chemical Engineering, or similar.
• 10+ years delivering successful product innovation in FMCG/beverage/food, including senior leadership experience.
• Proven track record of turning insights into market-leading products.
• Strategic thinker with strong cross-cultural leadership, stakeholder influence, and commercial acumen.
• Ability to
• Translate strategy into clear team priorities and executable plans.
• Stay on top of technical, consumer and competitive trends and insights.
• Encourage creativity within the team and removes barriers to idea generation. Build 'out-side in" capability in the team.
• Ensure the team applies the right expertise to deliver strong outcomes.
• Guides the team through complex problem-solving and trade-off decisions.
• Lead, motivate, and develop a team to deliver consistent results. High level X- functional leadership.
• Make people and business decisions impacting team performance and business delivery (High impact and multi-year).
• Fluent in English; regional languages a plus.
• Regional travel up to 10–15%.