About Us

We're a truly international company, fourth largest in our industry and operating across 119 markets. An inclusive, innovative global FMCG business supported by 26,000 employees. As we embrace a new era of growth, we are transforming. Our ways of working and culture are driven by a challenger mindset, constantly questioning the status quo where people can bring their best selves to work. Our agility and collaboration are driving our ambitions, innovation and success all supported by our award-winning development programmes that creates exciting and rewarding career opportunities for all.

As we move forward, our consumers will be at the heart of what we do, evolving to needs and expectations and committing to a more meaningful contribution to harm reduction by building a successful NGP business. Integral to our long-term success is our sustainability strategy, behaving responsibly and supporting our ambitions, all underpinned by high governance.

Encouraging inclusion at local levels and supporting a developing and robust diversity agenda globally, we’re fully committed to creating and maintaining an environment that celebrates and respects difference.

The Role

The role of Process Technologist is to contribute to development of the next generation product and process technologies which are required for the company’s ambitious innovation programme and growth plans.

As Process Technologist you will be the link between the product development and production line, with responsibility for making sure that new products make a smooth transition from trial and testing stages to full production.

Additional Information

The Imperial Brands business is going through a major transformation, with a new CEO setting an ambitious and exciting vision for the future. One major change is the creation of a new Chief Consumer Office (CCO) – a central function which covers Innovation, Insight, Marketing and Portfolio Management and Imperial’s next-generation propositions (NGP).

The Innovation function forms a critical part of this CCO structure. The department will be organised around key innovation capabilities, with one Innovation team delivering across all categories (Combustibles, EVP (Electronic Vapour Products), HTP (Heated Tobacco Products) and OND (Oral Nicotine Delivery)). The role of Innovation will be to enable Imperial to deliver consumer-centric, commercially viable innovations that are aligned with the business strategy. Innovation will achieve this through:

• Delivering R&D activities: End-to-end technical design and delivery of innovation products and packs, leveraging both in-house capabilities and external parties to facilitate the launch of category-led, consumer-centric innovations into market.
• Developing partnerships: The Innovation function will collaborate closely with Procurement to build strong relationships with partners and third parties to underpin a lean and agile delivery model that enables speed to market.
• Facilitating development of the innovation funnel: Guide Imperial to make the right business decisions about innovation projects through identifying future technical solutions and supporting cross-category generation, qualification and prioritisation of solution opportunity areas based on consumer, competitor, and market insights.
• Stewarding the innovation pipeline and process: The Innovation function oversees Imperial’s innovation process, from Ideation to Launch. The Process and Governance pillar of the Innovation function owns this enterprise-wide process and drives continuous improvement to ensure more efficient and effective delivery of innovation. The team will also manage the portfolio of projects through the stage gates, ensure adherence to the relevant branches of the process and run the governance forums to ensure timely, insight-led decision making and OTIF delivery

To have impact on the innovation programme, the Process Technologist needs to demonstrate curiosity, broad and deep technical skill set, collaborative mindset, excellent influencing, and team building skills.

Principal Accountabilities

• Engage with the company behaviours and policies
• Provide ongoing support for NGP projects such as: e-liquids, Heated Tobacco, and Oral Nicotine products.
• Work with the Innovation team to develop and improve processing technologies and methods for manufacturing and testing of NGP prototypes.
• Design, develop and implement manufacturing processes that are suitable for prototype development and adaptable for commercialisation
• Support and conduct investigations, RCA
• Work with external partners for solutions where relevant
• Provide support and advice to other teams for scale up of new processes
• Develop methodologies to establish process and product critical parameters, collaborating with innovation, H&S, engineering, and quality functions
• Prepare technical reports and communicate activity updates at project team meetings
• Where new equipment is required, work with the engineering department and develop user requirements specification ensuring that any equipment required for the project is sourced from suitable suppliers, is of an appropriate grade and delivery dates are in-line the project plan.
• Prepare risk assessments for products and processes
• Raise review and generate documentation required for projects
• Contribute ideas and opinions to project discussions and development of innovative technologies, to influence projects and turn ideas into reality
• Train in activities before they are performed and train others as necessary to ensure work is performed safely

Key Relationships

Internal

• Mechanical & Physics, Electronics & Firmware, Discovery, CTI, Design and Formulations Teams
• Insights
• Procurement
• GSC (Global Supply Chain)
• Legal/IP
• Categories
• Quality and Regulatory teams
• Packaging Development Teams
• Project Teams as required

External

• External suppliers & Partners

Education, Qualifications, Skills & Experience

• BSc in process engineering, chemical engineering or Equivalent
• To work as an individual and collaborate with purpose
• Take accountability with confidence and be authentic and inclusive to all
• Experience in prototype development
• Planning and completing work to agreed standards
• Time management, report writing and problem solving
• Ability to breakdown complex problems into achievable goals and provide effective solutions
• Planning and completing work to agreed standards
• Candidates must have a drive for learning; continuous improvement and open to innovative ideas and techniques.

What We Offer

Competitive salary, bonus scheme, pension, and 25 days holiday (with an additional 4 days on top to cover the Christmas period, and bank holidays), flexible working policy, corporate discounts, Health Cash Plan, and other wellbeing initiatives.

Next Steps

Interested applicants are encouraged to apply, highlighting their suitability to the above post.