R&D Team Director- CDI

🧀 A few words about us !

Nutropy develops the next generation of dairy products.
Nutropy is a Venture-Backed French company that develops an animal-free plug & play milk replacement for large scale dairy applications through our precision fermentation technology. We produce milk proteins and fatty acids identical to those produced by cows to enable the production of cheeses that taste as good as conventional cheese but are more sustainable, healthier and better for the animals.

🔎 Linkedin

📑 Job description

We are looking for a seasoned and skilled people leader who loves tackling challenging and impactful problems in a high-paced and collaborative environment. You’ll guide a multidisciplinary team by leveraging your managerial experience, skills in aligning & motivating team members, and ability to work with stakeholders across the organization. You’ll be responsible for hiring, retaining, growing and leading world-class scientists. You’ll supervise the teams’ work and ensure adherence to budgets and timelines.

At Nutropy, your job will consist in the following:

Support and Lead:

– Maintain clear planning routines for the team and ensure that commitments are documented
– Provide steady supervision of ongoing work and intervene early when tasks drift
– Set clear expectations in delegation and address performance gaps through structured conversations
– Make firm calls on priorities and stop or redirect work when needed to protect timelines and quality

Guide Technical Strategy:

– Participate in implementing the company’s global scientific strategy
– Enable the company to continuously adapt its development or manufacturing processes

Participate in Transverse Company Development:

– Participate in funding applications
– Mobilize and raise awareness about the company’s projects with institutional partners, investors and/or various audiences
– Undertake any other activities as needed by the business

🛠️ Skills we are looking for

Education & Experience:

– At least 5 years experience managing teams in a time bound and milestone driven environment, ideally in a scientific industrial environment
– Excellent management, leadership, organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills, with a strong execution focus
– Strong written and oral communication skills in English and ideally in French
– Master or PhD in biochemistry, microbiology, biochemistry, biotechnology or similar relevant tracks is a plus
– Experience streamlining effective processes to enable team execution of OKRs is a plus
– Experience in solving team skill gaps and hiring world-class technical talent from role design through conducting interviews is a plus
– Experience in managing and generating a strong IP portfolio is a plus
– Experience supporting team growth in regards to hard and soft skills and professional satisfaction and progression is a plus
– Experience in the food industry, ingredient or dairy industry, with food grade constraints is a plus
– Experience in strain engineering, fermentation / bioprocessing and downstream processing (DSP) for recombinant proteins, HTP assay development, analytics, dairy / colloid science, food science etc are a strong plus

Profile:

– Motivation to work in a demanding startup setting with clear goals and limited room for drift
– Comfortable taking ownership of planning routines, weekly check ins, and steady follow up on commitments
– Able to set priorities for a team, monitor progress in real time, and address delays through early corrective conversations
– Organized, precise, and able to keep several projects moving without losing visibility on deadlines
– Skilled in guiding both scientific and interpersonal problems toward clear next steps
– Clear and steady communicator with the confidence to address gaps in work or behavior directly
– Maintains a positive and supportive tone while upholding consistent expectations
– Interest for the alternative proteins domain
– High sense of confidentiality

💪 What we offer

When you come to work at Nutropy, your day-to-day is directly responsible for improving the quality of our products. Your role will be pivotal in bringing animal-free dairy to consumers worldwide, positively impacting our food system and planet. In return, here is what we can offer you:

• A supportive workplace
• A stimulating, fast-paced multi-cultural environment
• Salary and benefits
• Opportunities to learn and progress professionally

🗯️ Interviewing process

We will organize 2 to 3 interview rounds with the CSO, CEO and HR director, including reference checks and a site visit

As an equal opportunity employer, Nutropy welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunities policy, Nutropy is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed at all levels in the Organisation. At the time of appointment, preference between suitable candidates shall be given to the candidate of the gender which is under-represented in the relevant grades within the category to which the vacancy belongs. During the different stages of the recruitment procedure, specific measures shall be taken to facilitate access for candidates with disabilities.