Applied Research Director

Join us and celebrate the beauty of human experience. Create for happier, healthier lives, with love for nature. Together, with passion and imagination, we deliver food innovations, craft inspired fragrances and develop beauty and wellbeing solutions. There’s much to learn and many to learn from, with more than 16,000 employees around the world to explore ideas and ambitions with. 
In France, discover the empowered passionate professionals who made history creating our legendary perfumery school. Feel the heritage. Acquire knowledge and experience, gained in our renowned European Creation Centre, or from any of our 17 innovative sites across the country. Every day, your commitment, your humility, and your risk-taking will shape our future. Every essence of you enriches our world. We are Givaudan. Human by nature.

As Applied Research Director, you will lead and deliver the CIR needs for France, driving innovative fragrance research that connects science, technology, and creativity. You will oversee the delivery of annual CIR returns across Consumer Products and Fine Fragrance, while guiding a team dedicated to turning data and commercial insights into new scientific and technical discoveries. Your leadership will ensure robust experimentation, strong collaboration with key stakeholders and impactful fragrance innovations that advance Givaudan’s Innovation excellence.

The position is based in Argenteuil, France, and reports to our Global Head of Science and Technology - Fragrances

Your Role:

In this role, you will:

• Lead and deliver France’s annual CIR returns, guiding Innovation initiatives across Consumer Products and Fine Fragrance.
• Collaborate across key functions – Development (Perfumery, Evaluation, Applications) and Ingredients management as well as S&T - to identify target projects, explore synergies, and ensure efficient coordination in the delivery.
• Support the collection and documentation of data required for CIR research reports, ensuring that insights gained from key projects are captured and shared widely across teams.
• Transform collected insights into actionable commercial knowledge by identifying formulation trends and building predictive models that advance our science and accelerate our development capability.
• Identify IP opportunities when possible.
• Manage the day‑to‑day activities and the development of the team to meet both business and CIR objectives.
• Ensure that all technical and scientific activities are thoroughly documented to make them eligible and easily exploitable within the CIR context.
• Promote and embed EHS guidelines and best practices.

Your Profile:

You are relentlessly curious and driven by action, always focused on what matters most to achieve your goals. You have a strong sense of urgency and a passion for achieving results that make a real impact. You possess sharp business acumen and remain confident when navigating ambiguity. You inspire, develop, and motivate those around you, leading with integrity and high ethical standards in everything you do.

Your professional profile includes:

• PhD or University degree in a relevant scientific discipline (Physical chemistry preferred).
• Significant experience in the fragrance industry, with deep understanding of Fragrance Sciences and the CIR process
• Strong IP literacy
• Experience in people leadership, cross functional collaboration and project management.
• Outstanding communication and organisational skills.
• Fluent in English and French

At Givaudan, you contribute to delightful taste and scent experiences that touch people’s lives.
You work within an inspiring teamwork culture – where you can thrive, collaborate and learn from other talented and passionate people across disciplines, regions and divisions.
Every essence of you enriches our world.
Diversity drives innovation and creates closer connections with our employees, customers and partners.
Givaudan embraces diversity and is committed to building an inclusive environment where everyone impacts our world.