Director, JSK Sparkling & ARTD, GDI

Location(s):

Japan

City/Cities:

Tokyo

Travel Required:

00% - 25%

Relocation Provided:

No

Job Posting End Date:

March 27, 2026

Shift:

Job Description Summary:

Location: Tokyo, Japan  

Role Type: People Leader/ Manager

Immediate Manager: Senior Director, JSK GDI Center Lead

Please note: The selected candidate will need to be based in Tokyo, Japan. This is a People Leader/ Manager position.

Our Japan & South Korea (JSK) Innovation Center sits at the heart of The Coca-Cola Company’s next chapter of growth. We are committed to transforming and evolving our organization and ambitions — bringing our people closer to the consumer, continuously raising the bar, and embracing digitalization to enable sustainable growth. We are looking for a transformational leader to build, inspire, and empower high-performing teams that fuel the innovation pipeline with bold ideas and turn them into real-world impact. This role is not about maintaining the status quo; it is about setting direction, unlocking opportunity, and driving valuable breakthrough innovation at scale. You will lead diverse teams with deep expertise to deliver a strong and balanced portfolio of meaningful innovation — accelerating growth and shaping the future of the organization.

As Director of Sparkling and ARTD Category Product Development, you will shape and lead the technical innovation agenda for Coca‑Cola’s beverage portfolio across the JSK Operating Unit. You will define the front‑end innovation vision, inspire future‑back thinking, and elevate product ambition to create breakthrough beverages that win with consumers. Operating at the intersection of science, insights, technology, and market realities, you will translate global strategy into regionally resonant products and formats with speed, rigor, and excellence. This role leads a team of product developers and technical experts, building a culture where people thrive, experiment boldly, and deliver world‑class innovation. Additionally, the role coordinates cross-functional technical expertise across Global and JSK OU TI&SC—including Process Development, Consumer Research, Packaging, Regulatory, QSE, Supply Chain, Flavour Manufacturing, and CPS—to ensure seamless end-to-end execution.

What You’ll Do for Us:

Innovation Leadership

• Own the E2E innovation agenda for sparkling and ARTD beverages in the OU market, from early opportunity framing through proof‑of‑concept, technical validation to market launch.

• Develop 3 years innovation pipeline by identifying long‑range shifts in consumer expectations, ingredient science, sustainability, nutrition, and processing technologies through strong collaboration internally and externally.

• Convert global category strategies into locally relevant concepts, prototypes, and solutions that are technically feasible, scalable, and differentiated.

• Champion a culture of creativity, smart risk‑taking, curiosity, and high standards in product development.

• Develop innovation strategies to deliver JSK OU innovation pipeline for growth, productivity, and business continuity plans across multiple categories.

Strategic Partnerships & Cross‑Functional Influence

• Partner closely with OU Marketing, Commercial, Strategy, Human Insights, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, Supply Chain, Packaging, and Manufacturing to unlock category‑shaping innovation.

• Serve as a key link between OU and the global R&D network-sharing breakthroughs, aligning on platforms, and integrating global best practices.

• Engage bottlers, suppliers, technology partners, and universities to accelerate delivery and bring outside‑in thinking.

Technical Excellence & Operational Execution

• Oversee the front‑end technical development for multi‑category sparkling &ARTD beverage initiatives, ensuring scientific rigor, technical feasibility, and superior product performance.

• Embed digital tools - predictive modelling, rapid prototyping, accelerated testing, and data‑driven decision making - to increase speed and reduce complexity.

• Anticipate risks (stability, scalability, regulatory, IP, sensory, claims) and prevent downstream issues before commercialization.

• Ensure clear, high‑quality technical transfer to plants and market teams for first‑time‑right execution.

Market & Technology Intelligence

• Stay on top of technical, consumer and competitive trends and insights; Continuously scan the external landscape for emerging ingredient technologies, processing methods, nutrition science, packaging solutions, and consumer shifts that could shape the future of still beverages.

• Pilot and adapt cutting‑edge solutions for market realities, ensuring feasibility and competitive advantage.

JSK Center Control Tower

• Work with Sr director of JSK center and JSK GDI center LT to ensure GDI center has a holistic picture of innovation portfolio, resources allocation, compliance to existing innovation tools and processes to drive innovation excellence:

• Continuously assess/improve tools and processes to ensure visibility, agility, efficiency and speed to market; A key contributor to the local GDI center leadership team, support team engagement in facilitating ways of working through digitalization and connect with the APAC Control Tower leader and other center control tower leaders to bring harmonization and leverage synergies.

People Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead and develop a diverse team of product developers and technical specialists; set clear expectations, inspire growth behaviors, and ensure psychological safety so every team member can contribute at their best.

• Build future-ready talent by identifying high-potential individuals, offering stretch opportunities, and fostering cross-market mobility.

• Cultivate a learning culture grounded in collaboration, transparency, curiosity, and evidence‑based decision making.

• Strengthen technical and leadership capability across the broader R&D community through coaching, knowledge sharing, frameworks, and modern ways of working.

• Translates strategy into clear team priorities and executable plans.

• Ensures the team applies the right expertise to deliver strong outcomes; Guides the team through complex problem-solving and trade-off decisions.

What We’re Looking For:

• BS/MS/PhD in Food Science or Engineering.

• 10+ years delivering successful product innovation in FMCG/food/beverage, with proven leadership in multi‑market or regional roles.

• Demonstrated success converting insights into winning products, with strong consumer, technical, and commercial intuition.

• Strong cross‑cultural leadership and stakeholder influence skills; able to operate effectively across geographies and complex networks.

• Fluent in English; regional languages a plus.

• Willingness to travel regionally (up to ~25%).

What We Can Do for You:

Purpose With Impact

• We take a purpose‑driven approach that empowers our people to protect the environment, strengthen the communities we serve, and deliver safe, high‑quality products every day. Your work will contribute directly to creating positive changes.

Global Collaboration & Learning

• You’ll be part of a globally connected organization where ideas, expertise, and innovation flow freely across regions. This environment enables you to learn from others, accelerate your growth, and contribute to solutions that scale worldwide.

A Community of Belonging

• We foster a culture where people feel safe, valued, and empowered to bring their best selves to work. We believe that diverse perspectives and an inclusive environment drive better outcomes—for our people and our business.

Competitive Rewards & Benefits

• We offer a comprehensive and competitive compensation and benefits package, with core benefits beginning on your first day. We are committed to supporting your wellbeing, growth, and long‑term success.

Candidate Attributes:

Critical to our growth is the development and recruitment of modern technical leaders who will demonstrate specific growth behaviours. The key candidate attributes we will be seeking are:

• Curious — Keep seeking, never settle.

Staying curious about what is outside, and two steps ahead inspires us to challenge the status quo. Having the courage to look and leap is the way we grow. Because asking “what if?” pushes us to the next level as people and as a company. 

• Empowered — Make it happen.

True empowerment is the result of taking responsibility. This means giving yourself permission to see it, say it and do it, and owning the outcomes. Because we move forward faster when we all take action. 

• Agile — Push for progress, not perfection.

There are very few overnight successes. Greatness is borne of many little victories (and failures). Share v 1.0, test it, and make it better. Then create the next version. Because the moment we think something is perfect, it will be obsolete. 

• Inclusive — Include, value, and trust each other.

We are smart alone but together we are genius. This means being inclusive, giving the benefit of the doubt and being responsible for each other. Because, for our company to thrive for the next 100+ years, smart is not enough. We need genius. 

Why Join Us?

• Impact at Scale: Shape products enjoyed by millions across diverse APAC markets.

• Global Connectivity: Access world-class technical expertise, innovation labs, and global R&D networks.

• Digital Future: Lead with next-gen tools — from AI-driven formulation insights to virtual product design.

• Creative Freedom: Drive innovation that blends science, consumer desire, and brand vision.

• Legacy: Be part of a team building the future of beverages, with agility, ambition, and excellence.

What can help you to be successful in the role?

Growth Behavior:

• Growth Mindset: Demonstrates Curiosity. Welcomes failure as a learning opportunity.

• Smart Risk: Makes bold decisions/recommendations.

• Commercially Focused: Understands the upstream and downstream implications of his/her work.

• Performance Driven & Accountable: Has high performance standards. Outperforms her/his peers.

• Fast/Agile: Removes barriers to move faster. Experiments and adapts. Thrives under pressure and fast pace.

• Empowered: Brings solutions instead of problems. Challenges the status quo. Has the courage to take an unpopular stance.

Leadership Behavior

• Act Like an Owner: Deliver results, creating value for our brands, our System, our customers and key stakeholders.

• Collaborate with the System, Customers and Key Stakeholders

• Develops Self and Others: Develop self and support others' development to achieve their full potential.

• Drive Innovation: Generate new or unique solutions and embrace new ideas that help sustain our business.

What We Can Do For You 

• Career growth and development: Leveraging our boundaryless network, we provide access to educational platforms and provide coaching, mentoring and feedback, as a part of our Leadership & Development process.

• Diverse and inclusive culture: You’ll be embraced for who you are and empowered to use your voice to help others find theirs. We want to make our culture inevitable.

• International Experience: Become part of international projects and work along multicultural teams, through our global network.

Skills:

Chemistry, Communication, Continual Improvement Process, Data Compilation, Environmental Science, Food Safety and Sanitation, Food Sciences, Food Technology, Green Solutions, Laboratory Testing, Microbiological Test, Product Development, Quality Control (QC), Research and Development Operations (Inactive), Sensory Testing, Waterfall Model

Our Purpose and Growth Culture:

We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola.