Regulatory Affairs and Nutrition SEA

Overview:

• The incumbent is responsible for the development and execution of all components of the regulatory plan and influencing the nutrition and regulatory environment in the Southeast Asia Region. 
• The focus of this role is to leverage nutrition and regulatory expertise to enable business growth, to communicate our nutrition story, ensure product registration of innovation and renovation initiatives by defending our ability to sell our foods.
• This role will also be responsible for labelling and regulatory compliance and influencing the external regulatory environment to provide better opportunity to operate and protect our brands.
• The incumbent will work closely with the SEA Associate Director R&D and Regulatory Affairs and other senior leaders in the Company to provide strategic leadership and counsel on:
• Product registrations by liasioning with distributors, external regulatory authorities (e.g., FDA and Halal bodies)
• Nutrition & health developments and opportunities that may impact base brands, innovation, and product renovation
• Current and emerging food, nutrition, health, science and regulatory issues that may represent threats or opportunities to the business and plans to influence them, both internally and externally
• Regulatory compliance for nutrition claims and nutrition label information.
• Opportunities to tell our nutrition story with consumers, HCP, customers and nutrition-relevant organizations
• This role reports to Associate Director – R&D, Nutrition and Regulatory affairs in SEA with 1 direct report: Executive, Nutrition & Regulatory Affairs - SEA.
• Peer Relationships: R&D Food and Packaging Managers, Launch Program Managers, Sales Managers, Marketing brand managers, Quality Managers, Consumer insights lead, Internal and External Legal Counsel.

This incumbent will also work with external groups and agencies as needed, like, but not limited to:

• Govt Health and Nutrition Policy Dept’s– eg Health Promotion Board Singapore, Malaysian Dept Health
• Industry Marketing to Children Pledge Groups in Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia
• Nutrition and Dietetic Associations– e.g. Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics Assoc., Food and Nutrition Regulatory Bodies – e.g. AVA Singapore, Thai FDA, other SEA industry groups
• Food Industry Asia, ASEAN Food & Beverage Association.

Responsibilities:

Regulatory:

• Leads food registration in the required markets (TH, MY, SG, PH, VN and ID + Exports business including pacific Island, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia)
• Guides the sourcing plants on Halal registrations and Halal certification management (CICOT in Thailand and MUI/BPJPH in Indonesia)
• Works in partnership and collaboration with Individual markets of SEA sales and distributor teams for registrations of local entities (e.g. license to operate or import, bureau of customs approval)
• Identifies implications of proposed changes to regulations and nutrition & health policy
• Influences the development and evolution of relevant public health guidelines and policies to enable consumer access to our products and shapes a positive outcome for company via strong relationships with decision-makers and key opinion leaders in the region.
• Works with trade body associations (e.g. FTI in Thailand, PH chambers of commerce, FMM in Malaysia, GAPPMI in Indonesia, FIA in Singapore), other government agencies (e.g. Health promotion board in Singapore) and consultants to drive the regulatory agenda of the company
• Leads the development of plan for the management of regulatory issues & Labeling that have the potential to impact the SEA business
• Coordinates crisis management support and communicate incidents happening around region and globe
• Develops and implement a risk identification and management program and early response systems that prevents or limits incidents and drive continuous improvement and ultimately eliminates recalls.

Nutrition Labeling and Claims:

• Accountable for, all aspects of the development of nutrition labeling and nutrient content, relative and regulated health claims and ensures full compliance with applicable local, state and federal laws and company policies in the SEA region.
• Leads issue resolution for SEA by proactively identifying and driving ideas and solutions to ensure regulatory compliance.
• Oversees special projects related to nutrition labeling and artwork change management.
• Works closely with Marketing and R&D to identify and assess compelling nutrition and health claims and substantiate the claims with appropriate technical and regulatory justifications for seeking approval with concerned FDA registration bodies
• Establishes critical control points to verify nutrition labeling is based on documented formula, product and ingredient information aligned with SEA R&D and company processes to reduce risk of errors and recall.
• Proactively assess the external regulatory environment and supports Reporting manager to develop strategic direction to address nutrition labelling trends or issues to further business strategies.
• Represent, and advocate for, company’s position externally to further support and strengthen the company’s nutrition reputation and long-term strategy.
• Proactively monitors, evaluates, and leads development of comments, as appropriate, on new labeling regulatory proposals, notices and rules with relevance to the company.
• Maintains nutrition labeling procedures, programs, processes and systems and data integrity. Provides insightful food labeling and claims regulatory compliance expertise and guidance to R&D, Marketing, Legal, Logistics, Procurement, Plant Operations, Corporate Communications, and Consumer Affairs, as subject matter expert for the markets.
• Helps create and implement corporate policy statements for nutrition labeling and regulatory issues given Company business objectives.
• Liaises with regional and global technical counterparts to share best practices and ensure global alignment where required
• Trains, mentors and educates personnel on regulatory compliance.

Requirements:

• Deliver Results: Acts with a sense of urgency and determination with the end result in mind.
• Must have an eye for detail especially when dealing with artwork approvals and product registration approvals.
• Collaborate: Builds trust, relationships and effective networking both within and outside the organization.
• Strong Negotiation skills with internal and external stakeholder.
• Requires excellent verbal and written English communication skills to convey detailed information to multiple individuals. [Knowledge of other Asian languages like Thai, Tagalog or Bahasa is a plus]
• This job typically requires a bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology or Nutrition and Dietetics with at least 8-10 years of prior experience working within a regional regulatory department of a multinational company.
• Candidate must possess detailed understanding of regulations and product registration requirements of SEA countries.
• Ability to work in rapidly evolving business environments, with constantly changing priorities, high pressure and short deadlines.
• Strong sense of urgency
• Demonstrated ability to develop relationships with key people and organizations.
• Strong interpersonal, organizational and communication skills.
• The individual must be self-motivated and a self-starter.