Our Employees:
Mark Lawson, R&D Director, Shared Services
“R&D is an excellent area of the business for you to establish and develop your chosen area of technical expertise e.g. Analytical, Formulation, Quality etc. However, the most important aspect of R&D is that regardless of your technical area you gain experience of the whole product development lifecycle (including Category Marketing and Supply) by being part of multi-disciplinary project teams.
I started my career in Analytical and getting an early understanding of how product development works helped me to manage my own career and take the right opportunities in the business when they came around.”
Careers in Research and Development
A typical career in Research and Development will see you start as either a graduate trainee, or perhaps an experienced analyst, stepping up to an associate position, then Research and Development manager with a team of direct reports and then a director level role.
Though you may opt to focus on a specific technical area of expertise (such as clinical studies or toxicology), we are more likely to see you progress along the generalist route, which provides a broader scope of development across many learning areas and a greater number of career opportunities. Again with international mobility in mind, next steps from here could include global category Research and Development Group Director and, for the most successful, Research and Development Senior Vice President.