About us

We're a truly international company, fourth largest in our industry and operating across 119 markets. An inclusive, innovative global FMCG business supported by 26,000 employees. As we embrace a new era of growth, we are transforming. Our ways of working and culture are driven by a challenger mindset, constantly questioning the status quo where people can bring their best selves to work. Our agility and collaboration are driving our ambitions, innovation and success all supported by our award-winning development programmes that creates exciting and rewarding career opportunities for all.

As we move forward, our consumers will be at the heart of what we do, evolving to needs and expectations and committing to a more meaningful contribution to harm reduction by building a successful NGP business. Integral to our long-term success is our sustainability strategy, behaving responsibly and supporting our ambitions, all underpinned by high governance.

Encouraging inclusion at local levels and supporting a developing and robust diversity agenda globally, we’re fully committed to creating and maintaining an environment that celebrates and respects difference.

The Role

To contribute to development of the next generation formulation and product technologies which are required for the company’s ambitious innovation programme and growth plans.

To undertake tasks such as testing and preparing of formulations.

Additional Information:

The Imperial Brands business is going through a major transformation, with a new CEO setting an ambitious and exciting vision for the future. One major change is the creation of a new Chief Consumer Office (CCO) – a central function which covers Innovation, Insight, Marketing and Portfolio Management and Imperial’s next-generation propositions (NGP).

The Innovation function forms a critical part of this CCO structure. The department will be organised around key innovation capabilities, with one Innovation team delivering across all categories (Combustibles, EVP, HTP and OND). The role of Innovation will be to enable Imperial to deliver consumer-centric, commercially viable innovations that are aligned with the business strategy. Innovation will achieve this through:

• Delivering R&D activities: End-to-end technical design and delivery of innovation products and packs, leveraging both in-house capabilities and external parties to facilitate the launch of category-led, consumer-centric innovations into market.
• Developing partnerships: The Innovation function will collaborate closely with Procurement to build strong relationships with partners and third parties to underpin a lean and agile delivery model that enables speed to market.
• Facilitating development of the innovation funnel: Guide Imperial to make the right business decisions about innovation projects through identifying future technical solutions and supporting cross-category generation, qualification and prioritisation of solution opportunity areas based on consumer, competitor and market insights.
• Stewarding the innovation pipeline and process: The Innovation function oversees Imperial’s innovation process, from Ideation to Launch. The Process and Governance pillar of the Innovation function owns this enterprise-wide process and drives continuous improvement to ensure more efficient and effective delivery of innovation. The team will also manage the portfolio of projects through the stage gates, ensure adherence to the relevant branches of the process and run the governance forums to ensure timely, insight-led decision making and OTIF delivery.

To have impact on the innovation programme, the Formulation Technician needs to demonstrate curiosity, broad and deep technical skill-set, collaborative mindset, excellent influencing and team building skills.

Principal Accountabilities

• Prepare samples of a range of formulation types (e.g. slurries, liquids, granules, powders) using development scale equipment and test them using appropriate methods
• Prepare prototypes for assessment analytically, via sensory, employee panels or consumer studies, including oral products e.g pouches, HTP products e.g. sticks and EVP products e.g liquids and pods or any other Novel prototypes
• Provide ongoing support across the categories as required e.g. EVP, HTP, OND.
• Ensure all work conducted is documented in laboratory notebooks and/or protocols.
• Contribute ideas and opinions to project discussions and team meetings
• Raise COSHH and risk assessment for new materials and processes prior to undertaking any work
• Read and understand COSHH and risk assessment prior to undertaking any work
• Prepare protocols for routine and/or complex activities e.g. pod filling, prototype preparation, design of experiments
• Prepare technical reports to document and record findings of work completed
• Conduct larger pilot production studies in preparation for full scale manufacture.
• Perform and record detailed physical/analytical assessments of formulation characteristics to determine the acceptability of formulations and prototypes.
• Apply knowledge to develop and implement appropriate test methods to support formulation and prototype assessment
• Support dispatching and logistics of materials, equipment and prototypes to factories, lab networks, consumer studies, etc
• Sourcing materials, maintaining stock of formulation consumables, book materials into logs on receipt
• Maintain all formulations laboratory areas and equipment to an appropriate standard e.g. maintain housekeeping of work areas & equipment
• Work according to documented procedures, policies and safety standards.
• Contribute to the formulation team meetings.
• Ensure stock management is maintained when using materials e.g. tobacco logs
• Perform corrective and preventative maintenance on associated equipment as required or arrange for it to be performed.
• Suggest and implement ideas for continuous improvement
• Raise, review and provide ideas/inputs for new and updated SOPs
• Maintain individual training and train others as required

Key Relationships

Internal

• Mechanical & Physics, Electronics & Firmware, Discovery, CTI, Design and Formulations Teams
• Innovation
• Project Managers
• Insights
• Procurement
• MSC Realisation
• Legal/IP
• Categories
• MSC, Quality and Regulatory teams
• Packaging Development Teams
• Project Teams as required

External

• Partners
• Key Suppliers

Education, Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• Basic chemistry/engineering qualification, HNC or good equivalent experience
• Experience in liquids formulation, processing, filling and characterisation
• Experience soft solids formulation, processing (e.g., extrusion, casting, etc.) and characterisation
• Planning and completing work to agreed standards
• Time management, report writing and team working skills.
• Ability to breakdown activities into achievable tasks and provide effective solutions.
• Candidates must have a drive for learning; continuous improvement and open to new ideas and techniques.

What we offer

Imperial Brands offer a competitive package of salary, bonus scheme, pension and 25 days holiday (with an additional 4 days on top to cover the Christmas period and bank holidays) and hybrid work.

Next steps:

Interested applicants should apply with their CV highlighting their suitability for the role.