Principal Scientist, R&D – Open Innovation Expert

Job Purpose

As a Principal Scientistyouwill lead and scaleOpenInnovation(OI)initiatives across R&D to accelerate productprocesspackaginginnovation in the food partnership with the North America R&D Leadership Teamyou will manageand govern our External PartnershipsandOpen Innovation program ensuring alignment with strategic priorities focus and budget will scout partnersdriveagilesprintsand proof ofconceptstrailsandsupport theimplementation ofnoveltechnology will act as the OI client manager forthe R&D teamsand external customers. Interact across business and technical functions at various levels of seniority throughout the companyprovidetechnical knowledge of open innovation best practices.

EssentialFunctions &Responsibilities

• Define and execute anOpenInnovation strategyand technology roadmapsthatintegratedigital transformation andAIcapabilities with R&D priorities.

• Facilitating business and technical decision makers in the translation of strategyintoOpenInnovationprojects.

• Participate in aspects ofOpenInnovation capability for the company to find new or emerging technology and services that can be adapted toprovidenew product opportunities or lead to significant cost reduction in operations supporting thedigital and food scienceplatforms.

• Representingthecompanys interestsin relationships and joint development efforts with certain academic and industrial partners who can provide technology andknow-howthat will help address our important needs.

• Assistingin negotiating and structuring joint development or license agreements with chosen partners.

• Work closely with IP attorneys in negotiating licensing and joint development IP strategy evaluate invention disclosures tied toOpen Innovation projectsand coordinate with corporate venturing or licensing teams on commercialization.

• Working with technology brokerage companies tosolicitinput from outside experts on our specific technical rapid and effective response to unsolicitedOpenInnovation proposals.

• Identifyand evaluate startups academic labs technology vendors and internal teams with strengths in LLMs autonomous agents robotics simulation sensory analytics predictive shelf-life modelling andDigitalTwins.

• Design and runInnovation challenges hackathons proof-of-concepts (POCs) and partner pilots; manage contracts and IP terms in collaboration with legal and procurement.

• Perform a preliminary technical and business assessment oftechnologytodeterminewhether this should be pursued.

Expected Experience& Required Skills

• BS/MSdegree in Chemical/Mechanical/Food Engineeringor PhDin FoodSciencewithdeeptechnical background in AI or related discipline.

• 6-8years of experience in R&DOpenInnovation or corporate venturing in the food or CPG industry with 2 yearsexploringdigital/AI solutions.

• Strong familiarity with R&D workflows

• Proventrack recordin building relationships internally and externally and in interacting with senior executives.

• Experience with vendor selection contract negotiationsalliance andpartner management and IP knowledge of technology transfer and intellectual property principles.

• Cross-functional influencer ability to drive collaboration across R&D digital legalmanufacturingand commercial teams.

• Strategic thinker with pragmatic delivery orientation; able to translate research into scalable products.

• Strong communicator who can explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and prepare executive materials.

• Experience with corporate venturing scouting platforms or challenges-based open innovation programs.

• Knowledge offoodproducts andpackagesandfoodmanufacturing processes.

• Self-driven to become up to speed onnew technologies.

Work Environment & Schedule

This position is considered aNormal office environment with moderate travel to customer locations stores manufacturing facilities etc.; offices are open workspaces