Pet Food Innovation Scientist

Cargill's size and scale allows us to make a positive impact in the world. Our purpose is to nourish the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way.
Cargill is a family company providing food, ingredients, agricultural solutions and industrial products that are vital for living. We connect farmers with markets so they can prosper. We connect customers with ingredients so they can make meals people love. And we connect families with daily essentials - from eggs to edible oils, salt to skincare, feed to alternative fuel. Our 160,000 colleagues, operating in 70 countries, make essential products that touch billions of lives each day. Join us and reach your higher purpose at Cargill.
This position is in Cargill's protein and salt business, where we provide wholesome, high-quality food products to a wide range of customers, from foodservice operators and grocery stores to manufacturers and exporters.

Job Purpose and Impact

The Pet Food Innovation Scientist will provide technical expertise to new product development for product line growth and technology and process development for the creation of new capabilities in wet/human grade/temperature controlled pet food. In this role, you will coordinate with other scientists to innovate new product development by identifying and implementing technical solutions to meet business goals.

Key Accountabilities

• Identify product growth and new product opportunities.
• Analyze and interpret market data to take advantage of opportunities and minimize adverse trends.
• Stay abreast of current literature and analytical advancements.
• Provide technical guidance and leadership on products, process development and improvement, quality systems and regulatory oversight.
• Partner and stay connected with cross functional teams that include marketing, insights, sales, ops, food safety quality and regulatory.
• Provide findings and analysis with insights, research and commercial brand to develop short and long term testing programs for experimental and commercial products and hybrids.
• Collaborate and build partnership with sales, business management and marketing partners to identify customer needs and translate these into new product development opportunities.
• Independently solve moderately complex issues with minimal supervision, while escalating more complex issues to appropriate staff.
• Other duties as assigned

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Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience
• Two or more years combined experience (could be combined professional/university) in one or more of the following areas: Pet Food Formulation Development, Ingredient Functionality, & Product Commercialization
• Baseline understanding of companion animal palatability, nutrition, & AAFCO nutrient requirements.
• Ability to work in a cold environment and lift up to 30lbs.
• Ability to travel up to 30%

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree or other post-secondary degree
• Tech-savvy and comfortable with evolving business-critical technology
• Strategic thinker with ability to build effective plans to support strategic initiatives
• Experience formulating wet pet food or extruded pet food products
• Thermal processing experience
• Experience working in a manufacturing or operations environment

Equal Opportunity Employer, including Disability/Vet

Client-provided location(s): Wichita, KS

Job ID: Cargill-83205005936

Employment Type: FULL_TIME

Posted: 2025-08-01T11:46:55