R&D Director - Innovation Center Europe

Cargill is a family company committed to providing food and agricultural solutions to nourish the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. We sit at the heart of the supply chain, partnering with producers and customers to source, make and deliver products that are vital for living. By providing customers with life's essentials, we enable businesses to grow, communities to prosper, and consumers to live well.

This position is in our Food Enterprise where we are committed to serving food manufacturers, food service customers, and retailers with a complete range of innovative ingredients and branded products. Our portfolio includes poultry, beef, egg, alternative protein, salt, oils, starches, sweeteners, cocoa and chocolate.

Job Purpose and Impact

The R&D Site Director - Innovation Center Europe will provide operational leadership for the safe, compliant, cost-efficient, and reliable operation of the Innovation Center. In this role you will enable approximately 200 R&D colleagues to work effectively and safely by ensuring fit-for-purpose facilities, strong site services, and high standards in safety, quality, compliance, and financial performance. You will drive continuous improvement while balancing plant-level operational rigor with the flexibility and collaboration needed to support innovation.

• Lead the overall site operations while ensuring safe and food safe operations, operational excellence & cost efficiency, asset integrity and compliance with regulatory, food safety and corporate safety and environmental programs, standards and goals.
• Lead and own strategic implementation results of operational efficiency programs & their continuous improvement.
• Own the site capital investment portfolio, including prioritization in alignment with functional R&D leaders, budgeting, resource allocation, and execution of infrastructure and R&D capital projects.
• Responsible for setting and managing the site operating budget including engineering & maintenance, site administration, purchasing, safety and food safety ensuring disciplined cost management while enabling R&D effectiveness and supporting site strategic priorities.
• Champion a culture of safety, food safety, and operational excellence ensuring the site facilities are built, operated, and maintained in a safe, compliant, reliable, and efficient manner, including effective contractor oversight and safe capital project execution.
• Develop plans and deliver results in a fast-changing business environment, while leading and developing a team of experienced professionals and supervisors, coaching and making decisions related to talent management hiring, performance and disciplinary actions. You will also collaborate with managers and supervisors in your organization to ensure staff selections align with current and future needs.
• Other duties as assigned

• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience
• Operational excellence knowledge
• Budgeting and operations planning experience
• Fluency in English

• Three years of supervisory experience
• Fluency in French and/ or Dutch will be considered as a strong advantage