Materials Expert

Expert Materials

Location: Business Innovation Center, Nivelles
Travel: 30-50 % in Europe
Reporting to Head of Materials Europe

The Role

The Expert materials will be responsible for anticipating and understanding market trends and dynamics with the aim of identifying growth and value creation opportunities. Will be in charge of coordinating & delivering advanced technical support to the EU Divisions, providing technical and economical market intelligence, coordinating regional marketing & branding and driving innovation projects (new products, services or applications).

Present role also requires a close follow up on the standardization environment to assure our products and their functionalities are rightly referenced. The focus of the role is to evolve and expand the Lhoist offer to meet existing needs and future market requirements.

Objectives:

• Anticipating and identifying market needs to drive innovation and development work,
  Remain at the forefront of industry breakthroughs, with the aim of anticipating Lhoist’s role and developing new applications,

• Fostering cross-fertilization by identifying, documenting and driving sharing of applications between our geographies,

• Providing advanced technical expertise to our teams and customers in EU

• Contributing to the continuous improvement of existing applications,

• Establishing, developing and maintaining a close relationship with key internal and external stakeholders,

• Coordinate the efforts in lobby and standardization relevant to the covered market.

• Identifying relevant partners to cooperate with,

• Creating functional strategies and specific objectives and develop budgets/policies/procedures to support the functional infrastructure.

• Manage in close cooperation with the Head of Material the EU New Business and Innovation Forum

Experience / Background:

• 10 years of professional with at least 5y of experience in a materials company or institute in a technical, lobby or sales & marketing role

• Expertise and/or experience with regards to sustainability, climate and CO2 challenges

• Strong technical/scientifical skills combined with marketing concepts and customer centricity.

• Management of technical and/or advanced support to commercial teams

• Previous exposure to different countries in a medium/large Multinational company

Behavioral skills:

• Strong influencing skills: must be able to establish positive dialogue and be able to convince internal stakeholders (LHOIST sales teams across EU) as well as external (clients, investors, contractors, centers of influence authorities, research centers, standardizations bodies, etc.)

• Strong leadership skills & Team Player (cross cultural): ability to thrive in a multi-cultural environment.

• Business Acumen

• Innovation management

• Strategic Ability

• Customer oriented, negotiation skills with external authorities

• Able to operate in a complex environment.

• Open minded and able to interact with different cultures.

• Demonstrates a balanced, realistic, rational attitude towards business challenges.

• Establishes high service, quality and efficiency standards.

• Fluent in English and preferably French as well (any other European language is an asset)