Senior Director, Product Development - INSWA

Location(s):

India

City/Cities:

Gurugram

Travel Required:

00% - 25%

Relocation Provided:

No

Job Posting End Date:

January 15, 2026

Shift:

Job Description Summary:

Location: Gurugram, India   

Role Type: People Leader/ People Manager  

Please note: This role is not a fully remote position. The selected candidate will need to be based in Gurugram, India and follow our hybrid work setup—3 days onsite and 2 days working from home each week. This is a People Leader/ Manager role.

The Senior Director, Product Development for INSWA leads the end‑to‑end Innovation, Productivity, and Business Continuity agenda across one of the Company’s most dynamic and diverse growth regions. The role shapes future‑back innovation strategies, builds consumer‑centric pipelines, strengthens technical rigor, develops organizational capability, and orchestrates cross‑functional and external networks to deliver advantaged, scalable solutions. This leader partners closely with Global GDI, OU Marketing, Strategy & Insights, TI&SC, CPS, R&D centers, Bottlers, and external partners across the INSWA ecosystem. The role has accountability for a robust multi‑year innovation pipeline, regulatory readiness, ingredient productivity programs, and superior product experience initiatives.

Scope & Impact:

• Lead innovation, productivity, and continuity strategies for all key categories across INSWA.

• Drive top‑ and bottom line value creation through a robust multi‑year pipeline aligned with OU and global strategy.

• Ensure consumer‑centric, technically superior product and package innovations built through rigorous science, insights, and external benchmarking.

• Strengthen INSWA’s innovation capabilities, including digital acumen, future‑back thinking, agile ways of working, and cross-system collaboration.

• Build a high-performing INSWA GDI community and lead the broader technical ecosystem across the region.

Key Focus Areas:

Innovation Leadership & Strategy

• Shape future‑back innovation strategies (product, package, platforms) that drive INSWA growth, productivity, and business continuity.

• Oversee all GDI activities across INSWA categories, making strategic decisions on priorities, allocations, progress, and risk mitigation.

• Lead consumer‑driven front-end development to ensure initiatives are built around real needs and deliver full enterprise value.

• Ensure global alignment and seamless connection with Global GDI and Category teams.

• Build advantaged pipelines through early technical feasibility, competitive landscaping, and emerging technology scouting.

• Strengthen technical rigor and ensure innovations adhere to the highest standards of quality, safety, and scientific validation.

Technical Excellence & Execution

• Partner with Research‑to‑Experimentation to design and scale next‑generation solutions through clinical studies, consumer validation, and scientific due diligence.

• Drive superior product experience and continuous quality improvement programs.

• Oversee creation and stewardship of technical specifications (ingredients, formulas, processing instructions, shelf‑life).

• Ensure close integration with supply chain, TCR, packaging, business continuity teams, and CPS to deliver fit‑for‑purpose, scalable solutions.

• Collaborate with SRA to secure regulatory readiness and novel ingredient approvals across diverse INSWA markets.

Capability Building & Ways of Working

• Build an innovation culture across INSWA—future‑oriented, curious, bold, and consumer‑centric.

• Develop the GDI team’s capabilities in digital acumen, technical rigor, agile experimentation, and future‑back planning.

• Continuously refine ways of working to drive prioritization, efficiency, and speed-to-market.

• Lead capability programs that build long-term organizational strength across INSWA.

External Ecosystem & Partnerships

• Bring the outside‑in by monitoring external trends, technologies, threats, and opportunities.

• Establish strong strategic partnerships across the Singapore innovation ecosystem, academia, start-ups, suppliers, and the bottling system.

• Drive external inspiration and actively integrate global and local best practices into INSWA innovation strategies.

Network Leadership & Governance

• Orchestrate a connected GDI and TI&SC network across geographies to optimally resource innovation activities.

• Build cross-functional routines and governance that ensure alignment across Marketing, SRA, SC, CPS, BI, and Global GDI teams.

• Lead robust pipeline and project management practices, ensuring prioritisation based on consumer and business impact.

Key Responsibilities

Innovation Leadership

• Drive Big Bet innovations with clear KPIs and impact commitments.

• Lead front-end development with strong consumer, technical, and commercial integration.

• Ensure early engagement across TI&SC, CPS, Marketing, and bottlers.

• Provide thought leadership on change, innovation, and technical strategy.

• Represent INSWA in global technical conversations, steering group reviews, and strategic decision forums.

People Leadership

• Lead, build, and inspire a high-performing GDI team across INSWA—leader of leaders.

• Drive talent development, capability building, succession planning, and performance management.

• Be a role model for the extended technical community and foster a culture of experimentation and learning.

Stakeholder & Communication Leadership

• Maintain strong communication and alignment with the OU, global GDI, category teams, TI&SC, and bottlers.

• Influence and negotiate with senior stakeholders to drive agreement on short- and long-term category strategies.

• Provide clear, timely updates on innovation strategy, risks, opportunities, and resource needs.

Qualifications & Requirements: 

• BS/MS in Food Science, Engineering, or related field.

• 15+ years in beverage or food innovation, including leadership of complex regional/global pipelines.

• Proven track record in consumer‑centric R&D, technical development, product creation, and competitive landscaping.

• Strong experience in managing cross-functional, multi-geography teams and programs.

• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and drive decisions in matrixed environments.

• Experience managing large teams, remote teams, and sizable budgets.

• Strong global exposure (18+ months overseas assignment preferred).

• Expertise in portfolio management, program management, and agile innovation.

• Experience in regulatory engagement and ingredient approval processes is a plus.

Functional Skills

• Beverage product development

• Front-end innovation & platform strategy

• End-to-end innovation delivery

• Innovation portfolio creation & management

• Ingredient productivity & continuity solutions

• Technical rigor & consumer-driven design

• Competitive landscaping & emerging technology scouting

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.

• Externally 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:

Communication, Continual Improvement Process, Critical Control Points, Food Chemistry, Food Safety and Sanitation, Global Collaborations, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Microsoft Office, Packaging, Process Control, Process Engineering, Product Specifications, Quality Assurance Systems, Quality Inspections, Quality Metrics, Quality Reporting, Shipping, Statistical Process Control (SPC), Supply Chain, 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.