Innovation Consultant

Cargill is committed to providing food and agricultural solutions to nourish the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. Sitting at the heart of the supply chain, we partner with farmers and customers to source, make and deliver products that are vital for living.
Our 155,000 team members innovate with purpose, providing customers with life's essentials so businesses can grow, communities prosper, and consumers live well. With over 160 years of experience as a family company, we look ahead while remaining true to our values. We put people first. We reach higher. We do the right thing-today and for generations to come.

Job Purpose and Impact

The Innovation Consultant will support research and development innovation project pipeline planning and help identify "white space" market opportunities for customer growth. This role will have a direct impact on the development of new or improved food research and development projects to support customer success. As part of a cross-functional team, this role is a strategic partner to strategy, commercial, sales, and marketing teams supporting the long-term innovation pipeline. The innovation strategy consultant will lead internal and external customer workshops, analyze quantitative and qualitative data and synthesize recommendations. This role will also support significant innovation projects from ideation to implementation and commercial launch.

• Lead multidisciplinary project teams to plan and deliver innovation projects, integrating all aspects including business case development, commercial desirability, product or process development and scaleup, intellectual property, and regulatory and safety reviews.
• Prepare and lead innovation project workshops.
• Ensure timely communication with project stakeholders and leadership. Develop and maintain alignment to the project scope, timelines and documentation including preparation for gate reviews and presentations.
• Develop viable business cases, documenting and tracking business case assumptions and risks.
• Partner collaboratively with related functions (strategy, sales, marketing) to identify customer desirability through experimentation, prototyping, value proposition development and market opportunity assessments.
• Support safe execution of all project activities at all stages from ideation through development and implementation to startup.
• Independently handle complex issues with minimal supervision, while escalating only the most complex issues to appropriate staff.
• Other duties as assigned

• Bachelor's degree in a related field OR equivalent experience
• Minimum of four years of related work experience

• Previous business consulting, product development or business development experience
• Experience analyzing data to advise business recommendations
• Project management experience