Senior Manager, Consumer Sensory Science

About Liquid I.V.
At Liquid I.V., our purpose is to elevate the vitality of people and the planet. An ambitious goal? Yes! But by playing to win, holding the bar higher, championing wellbeing, and always thinking with a pioneering mindset we can go further together to leave a lasting mark.

Our products are stocked in over 80,000 retail doors, including the world’s leading specialty, big box, and online retailers such as Costco, Walmart, Target, Amazon, and many more. In just over 10 years, our growth has been exponential. And as part of Unilever, we’re continuing the expansion of Liquid I.V. into a global brand.

We’re also passionate about cultivating solutions for equitable clean water access, a healthier planet, and thriving communities. We contribute over 1% of our company revenue to our Impact Program through which we provide partnerships and grants to organizations that expand access to clean and abundant water locally and globally. By 2026, our goal is to help ensure access to clean water for 2 million people around the world.

About our Team:
We are a world-class team of innovators and passionate changemakers, looking to develop transformative hydration solutions and make a meaningful impact on the world around us.

At Liquid I.V., we are committed to building an inclusive culture of belonging that not only embraces the diversity of our people but also reflects the diversity of the communities in which we work and the customers we serve.

Our team members enjoy a flexible and inclusive working environment, a highly collaborative and innovation-forward culture, generous benefits and perks that empower employees to champion their wellbeing every day, as well as an infinite supply of Liquid I.V. for extraordinary hydration.

About the role:
Liquid I.V. is looking for a creative and highly technical sensory leader to represent consumer voice in the product development process. Reporting to the Senior Director of Product Development, this role will manage and have the support of sensory scientists.

As an integral member of the LIV R&D organization, you will have cross-functional collaboration within all levels of the business. The ideal candidate will be obsessed with our customers and will hold the bar high in delivering innovative products with undeniable product superiority. They are well informed and plugged into industry trends and are a skilled taster with a mastery toward flavor creation.

As a Senior Manager, Consumer Sensory Science, you will lead and influence strategic and tactical initiatives to build best-in-class consumer and sensory research capabilities. You will be a strong advocate for consumers and product integrity on the cross functional innovation team. You will work through ambiguous situations and demonstrate your strong agility in adjusting to evolving business needs.

Functions and duties of this role include, but not limited to:

• Develop and lead all sensory program deliverables across innovation, resilience and research pipelines.
• Develop and lead an agile, high performing sensory team to objectively deliver the ‘product superiority’s measures.
• Deliver sensory presentations and conduct product tastings with leadership teams, cross functional partners, and customers, as required.
• Coach sensory talent to develop skills, deliver business objectives, OKRs and individual performance goals.
• Collaborate with your manager to build out annual operating plans, sensory strategy, and effectively manage sensory budgets.
• Collaborate with product development and consumer insights teams to identify consumer and sensory research needs.
• Support new in-house capabilities to advance consumer co-creation and product demonstrations.
• Translate learning of sensory and consumer research to actionable insights and serve as subject matter expert on cross functional innovation teams.
• Lead and influence capability building including all internal and external testing panels, own budgets and vendor relationships.
• Collaborate with product development team to harmonize formulations and support international launches.
• Analyze data using statistical principles, evaluate results, form conclusions, and implement process…