Regulatory Affairs Specialist - AMEA
Regulatory Affairs Specialist – AMEA
Istanbul, Turkiye
Hybrid
About the role!
Flora Food Group is seeking an experienced Regulatory Affairs Specialist to provide regulatory leadership across the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, and Euroasia. This role is pivotal in ensuring compliance across multiple markets, driving regulatory strategies for innovation, and safeguarding the company’s reputation through proactive engagement with authorities and industry associations. Guiding and supporting the cross-functional teams in the region and influencing regulatory frameworks in a rapidly evolving environment by maintaining strong partnerships with local associations and third-party service providers.
Key Responsibilities
1. Regulatory and Compliance Expert in AMEA region
- Manage and perform regulatory assessments for new projects and innovations and guide R&D team in conducting cross-country compliance checks, like regulatory requirements on new claims, ingredients and products categories (plant based /hybrid food products).
- Ensure product compliance for new innovations and unlock regulatory obstacles, including cross-country labeling compliance and translations for the region.
- Serve as primary point of contact for the regional cross-functional teams on regulatory challenges, providing substantiation which include direct communications to the authorities.
- Train and support the cross-functional teams (R&D/Marketing/SC/Sales) on the regulatory framework, e.g. product & labelling compliance, nutrition & health claims, regulatory processes.
- Collaborate and manage regulatory third-party services providers.
2. Regulatory Horizon Scanning & Compliance
Monitor and interpret regulatory developments across Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Euroasia region. Ensure timely updates to internal stakeholders and Regulatory Affairs team, with a focus on:
- Food category-specific regulations
- Labelling requirements (legal names, nutritional info)
- Nutritional and health claims
- Plant-based and naturalness criteria + regulatory trends
3. Regulatory Advocacy and Communication
Represent Flora Food Group in the local associations, including workgroups and communications. Engage directly with the external stakeholders to influence and stay updated on regulatory changes:
- Attend regular and ad-hoc external meetings.
- Communicate directly with external stakeholders to shape positions and provide input on regulatory changes.
- Participate in workgroups that are relevant to Flora Food Group’s interests.
Qualifications & Skills
- Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Regulatory Affairs, or related field.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in Regulatory Affairs within the food industry.
- Strong knowledge of regulatory frameworks within this region
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
- Ability to manage multiple stakeholders and projects simultaneously.
- Fluent in Turkish and English; Arabic is a plus.
What’s next
If this position sounds interesting, please hit the apply button now!
We understand your resume might not be up to date and recommend that you apply with what you have or your LinkedIn Profile. Flora Food Group is dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace, we understand that you might not meet all the requirements stated in the description, but we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this role or other roles.
Flora Food Group is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias.
No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Flora Food Group. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics.