Regulatory & Scientific Affairs Manager

at  Westland Milk Products

Westland Milk Products is a well-known New Zealand end-to-end dairy manufacturer based in the beautiful South Island with offices and production facilities based in both Christchurch and Hokitika. Now part of the Global Top 5 dairy company Yili Group, in New Zealand Westland Milk has recently combined with its sister company Oceania Dairy (Glenavy) and subsidiary companies Pure Nutrition Ltd (Rolleston), Canary Foods (Hamilton) and EasiYo (Auckland) to create the Yili Oceania Business Division. The combined business produces over 170,000mt of finished goods which are then exported to over 40 countries, driving annual revenue well in excess of $1.3B - and growing.

Based in either Christchurch (Hornby) or Rolleston and reporting to the General Manager Quality on the Yili Oceania Business Division Executive Leadership Team, we are looking for an experienced regulatory superstar to fill our new role of Regulatory & Scientific Affairs Manager. This new groupwide role will be responsible for establishing robust regulatory processes and polices and leading change accordingly to ensure a consistent and unified approach to regulatory affairs across the group. The role will also be responsible for identifying, researching and navigating emerging regulatory risk, and for providing regulatory guidance to support new opportunities across the group.

More specifically, the Regulatory & Scientific Affairs Manager will:-

• Share with the business stakeholders a monthly regulatory review, identifying challenges and opportunities associated with any changes in local and overseas market access requirements
• Propose & implement action plans in response to regulatory changes in the market
• Work in close collaboration with the quality & compliance, innovation and sales & marketing teams, giving guidance to relevant developments in the regulatory space
• Help facilitate NPD from a compliance point of view
• Participate in and/or lead industry working groups, create position papers in close collaboration with key stakeholders in the business & actively influence regulation development
• Participate and take active part in the quarterly Yili Regulatory Affairs meetings, Infant Nutrition Council meetings, Industry-MPI working groups and other regulatory forums
• Initiate compliance process improvements