Head of Technical Services - Singapore, Kemin Animal Health & Nutrition

Kemin Industries, Inc., is a profitable, progressive, privately held international life science company, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, with a vision to “improve the quality of life by touching half the people in the world, every day, with its products and services.” Kemin Industries, Inc., has annual worldwide sales of US$800 million and employs more than 2,500 people. To achieve such impressive results, Kemin takes pride in ensuring that the applied science behind its products and services are rigorous and current. For the next 25 years, one of Kemin’s go-to-market focuses is to build a strong strategic marketing culture that is rooted in science.

Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health Asia (“KAA”) is the Asia Pacific regional headquarters of Kemin Industries, Inc. based in Singapore. With a sales turnover of US100 million, KAA operates in 15 markets comprising ASEAN, Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Taiwan. The Singapore regional headquarters house all the key functions of sales, marketing, human resource and finance. It is also the manufacturing and R&D powerhouse for all the 15 Asia Pacific markets. Technical Service is not only a core competency of the company but remains a clear differentiator to build the trust and confidence of KAA’s customers in the livestock industry, i.e. the integrators, commercial feed mills and farms.

Accountability

Based in Singapore, the Head of Technical Services reports directly to the Marketing Director. The incumbent is accountable for the overall achievement of KAA in net sales and gross margin by exercising his responsibilities in the following areas:

1. Training of the sales team towards technical competency and confidence.
2. Technical Support as a key differentiator to build customers’ trust and confidence.
3. Kemin^® brand as a solid and innovative science-based company to build trust and confidence in the marketplace.

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• TRAINING
  • Design and implement a yearly training curriculum.
  • Collaborate with IT to take advantage of digital technology in rolling-out the curriculum.
  • Provide continuing training to the sales team which includes country heads, sales managers and in-country TSMs.
  • Assess the technical competency of individual sales managers and in-country TSMs, track their progress with the monthly BD7 report and recommend remedial actions to the Marketing Director.
  • Collaborate with the Platform / Product Managers (PMs) and, if necessary with the WW Technical / Product Managers, on the content of the training curriculum and align with the value propositions.
• TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  • Contribute actively towards all strategic and go-to-market decisions on product life cycle management, including product development and product marketing.
  • Participate actively on key projects by CLS.
  • Travel to meet Top 20 APAC customers to resolve difficult technical issues.
  • Align all technical service managers’ activities to the company’s strategic plan focus.
  • Provide scientific rigor to a) marketing and commercial trial protocols before implementation; b) CLS analyses so that results are conclusive; c) R&D managers’ in vitro and in vivo trial protocols before implementation.
  • Collaborate with Marketing-approved key opinion leaders (KOLs) on well-defined projects that are aligned to the company’s strategic plan focus.
  • Keep abreast of recent technologies, both in-house and out-house.
• KEMIN BRAND
  • Ensure a high standard of technical accuracy in all marketing collateral, including web contents.
  • Secure an oral presentation at one Marketing-approved high-impact, scientific event, annually.
  • Vet and edit the technical accuracy of all SDs, TDs, TLs, trade-magazine publications, abstracts, posters, and approve them before going to print or submission for WWCSTM (Marketing Director will give the final sign-off on the relevance of the contents vis-à-vis the value propositions).
  • Publish at least one article in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, annually, either as principal author or co-author.

As this is a senior position in the company, the incumbent must fulfill the following qualification and experience:

• Have at least 10 years of working experience in a technical and management capacity in livestock industry and a PhD in Animal Nutrition, Animal Health or related discipline.
• Have at least 5 years of working experience in managing direct reports and/or cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrate technical and managerial competency.
• Be an effective leader, motivator and communicator, e. the ability to present ideas effectively and communicate well with peers and all levels of the company.
• Have an entrepreneurial business mindset, e. be Accountable, take Initiative and calculated Risk.
• Have a proven track record in consistently achieving financial targets.
• Have a high degree of personal motivation, a desire to make an immediate contribution and possess a distinct sense of urgency.
• Be confident, driven, dynamic, creative and a problem solver.

Decision Making and Working Conditions

The Head of Technical Services is involved in a range of products and has decision-making freedom within the area of responsibility. Together with the Marketing Director, he/she will agree to focus on key platforms for the year, meaning that he/she will spent 75% of his time on these focused platforms agreed a priori. The incumbent has indirect reports, and possibly direct reports, and is responsible to manage projects across functions professionally and timely. All in-country technical service managers (TSMs) will have a dotted reporting line to the incumbent.