Senior Innovation & Strategy Specialist

Senior Specialist, Innovation & Strategy

Nestl's Research & Development Center is our regional powerhouse driving innovation in food, beverage, and pharmaceutical science. Backed by our global Nestl R&D organization, we lead breakthrough discoveries that are both good for consumers and the planet. Our team of experts range from product developers to engineers, working across our portfolio of food, beverage, infant nutrition, and health science to create leading-edge products and services. As part of our organization, you will use your entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to excellence to unlock the power of food and provide premium value.

This position is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship.

The Nestle Development Center in Solon is responsible for the ideation, creation, and renovation of new and existing frozen and chilled meals, pizza and snacking product experiences. Our mission is to leverage our diverse expertise to unlock innovative solutions, creating food people love. To achieve this, we are committed to attracting and developing the right people.

Come join us and help create the future. We are on the lookout for a Senior Specialist, Innovation & Strategy with a passion for food. In this role, you will be responsible for leading the recommendation and implementation of relevant business opportunities for beloved brands including Stouffer's, Lean Cuisine, Life Cuisine, Sweet Earth, DiGiorno, California Pizza Kitchen and Hot Pockets. You will champion step-change for our brands, linked with Strategic Business Unit and Market strategic priorities and fuel the innovation and renovation pipeline with products, services, experiences, and business models.

Primary Responsibilities :

• Act as an innovation business partner between R&D, Strategic Business Units, Markets, and external agencies with strong stakeholder management and ownership mindset.
• Responsible for the end-to-end process of briefing, planning, executing, and facilitating ideation workshops, identifying the appropriate approach and tools to deliver the defined success criteria.
• Continuously seek improvement opportunities for our innovation approach, methodologies, and tools to create stronger and more compelling consumer-centric concepts.
• Understand trends (macro, micro & culinary), consumer motivations and insights, attitudes and habits, and incorporate this knowledge into strategic sessions, ideation workshops, and research activities.
• Conduct qualitative consumer research to guide early-stage product design, prototyping development and fine-tuning required to inform concept development.
• Facilitate early concept development and evaluation for consumer desirability, technical feasibility, and financial viability.
• Act as a translator between the marketing / business and science / technology environments, converting scientific and technical discoveries across R&D into consumer-focused concepts.
• Connect, exchange, and build innovation best practices with internal & external networks.
• Provide coaching to project teams on the innovation process and agile methodologies.

Job Qualifications (Minimum Education, Experience, and Knowledge) :

The Nestl Companies are an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer seeking diversity in qualified applicants for employment. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, gender, gender identity, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, perceived disability, medical condition, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other protected status, as defined by applicable law. Prior to the next step in the recruiting process, we welcome you to inform us confidentially if you may require any special accommodations in order to participate fully in our recruitment experience. Contact us at accommodations@nestle.com or please dial 711 and provide this number to the operator : 1-800-321-6467.

This position is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship.