Ingredient Localization & Manufacturing Partnerships Manager

About the Role

Palomba General Trading LLC is seeking an experienced Ingredient Localization & Manufacturing Partnerships Manager. This full-time position is based in Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and focuses on developing local manufacturing, formulation, and supply partnerships for specialty ingredients across the Food, Pharmaceutical, Nutraceutical, and Cosmetics industries within Saudi Arabia. The role requires 5-10 years of relevant experience.

Core Mission and Focus

The primary objective of this role is to identify how international ingredients or technologies can be adapted, manufactured, packed, blended, or finished more effectively for the Saudi market. This involves connecting international ingredient producers with suitable Saudi industrial partners to create competitive and scalable solutions. Projects will include local blending, packing, formulation support, contract manufacturing, toll manufacturing, local finishing operations, customer-specific ingredient adaptation, technology transfer, and supplier-to-manufacturer partnerships.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify Saudi manufacturers capable of supporting ingredient localization projects.
• Build relationships with Food, Pharma, Nutraceutical, and Cosmetics manufacturers.
• Evaluate local blending, packing, and contract-manufacturing capabilities.
• Map suitable CDMO, CMO, and industrial partners.
• Develop localization models for imported specialty ingredients.
• Coordinate technical discussions between international suppliers and Saudi manufacturers.
• Assess whether products can be locally blended, diluted, standardized, packed, or finished.
• Support customer-specific formulation and manufacturing projects.
• Evaluate production capabilities, MOQ, lead times, and commercial feasibility.
• Coordinate pilot projects and first local production batches.
• Support supplier qualification and technical documentation.
• Identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary logistics complexity.
• Coordinate technology-transfer discussions where relevant.
• Support commercial structuring of manufacturing and supply partnerships.

Ingredient Categories and Project Opportunities

Projects may involve a range of ingredient categories, including botanical extracts, standardized natural actives, liquorice extracts, saffron extracts, functional botanical blends, natural flavors, taste-masking systems, essential oils, citrus-derived ingredients, natural colors, fruit powders, functional food ingredients, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical ingredients, and cosmetic actives. Opportunities span Food & Beverage, Pharma & Nutraceutical, and Cosmetics & Personal Care sectors, focusing on local blending, premixes, formulations, packing, and contract manufacturing.

Manufacturing Partnership Assessment

The successful candidate will be responsible for assessing various aspects of potential manufacturing partners. This includes evaluating production capabilities, available equipment, batch sizes, GMP or relevant quality systems, technical expertise, formulation capability, packaging formats, MOQ, cost structure, production lead times, documentation, capacity for pilot projects, and scalability.

What We Offer

• Competitive fixed salary.
• Performance-based bonus.
• Responsibility for Saudi Arabia operations.
• Direct cooperation with international ingredient producers.
• Exposure to Food, Pharma, and Cosmetics manufacturing.
• High autonomy in identifying industrial partners.
• Opportunity to build new local supply models.
• Direct involvement in technology-transfer and manufacturing projects.
• Opportunity to create scalable Saudi-market solutions.