Inside Arla

Research & Development

Meet Sirina

Head of Open Innovation, Supplier & Start-ups in R&D

Sirina’s job in 3 words: Collaborative. Creative. Dynamic.

Sirina is originally from Australia and has an MSc in Food Science and Nutrition with over 9 years of experience in FMCG, which led her to join Arla 5 years ago. Today, she lives in Denmark working as the Head of Open Innovation with Suppliers & Start-ups at the Arla Innovation Centre. 

Accelerating innovation performance through partnerships 

Sirina is part of the Open Innovation team who mobilise external networks to accelerate Arla’s innovation agenda. “We see innovation as collaborative and recognise that to solve complex problems, we cannot rely solely on our internal capabilities. Therefore, we bring partners from suppliers, start-ups and research organisations into our innovation community to complement our R&D team. Through these partnerships, we are involved in early stage concept development and commercializing new technology.”

Specifically, I am responsible for managing the relationships we have with our strategic supplier base and facilitating our joint innovation development projects. I am also leading our accelerator programme where we engage with start-ups and entrepreneurs to collaborate on new bringing new, bold innovation to market.    

"Building our innovation projects on strong consumer insights and strategic business needs is key, as is utilising the unique capabilities of our partners to ensure we find the best solutions possible."

Being an innovation-driven global citizen

Sirina strongly believes her work can have an impact which is why she is so passionate about driving the innovation agenda, while also growing as a leader within Arla. Being part of Arla’s global talent accelerator programme, Sirina is advancing her functional and leadership skills to move forward to the next step in her career. What drives her work is being involved in bringing great ideas to life and solving real problems for the food industry. “I work with brilliant people  inside and outside the organization, and have the chance to learn and grow every day”  

 

Career opportunities within Research & Innovation

  • Research Scientist
  • New Product Development Manager
  • Senior Research Scientist 
  • Research Technician
  • Commercial Innovation Manager
  • R&D Manager
  • Food Technician

Go to our recruitment system to see our present vacancies within Research & Innovation. 

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