Growth Strategy & Intelligence Manager

Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc.•Cambridge, MA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc. is seeking a Manager, Growth Strategy & Intelligence to join the Innovation Strategy Department (ISD) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Innovation Strategy Department supports Ajinomoto’s long-term growth agenda through a combination of strategic intelligence, market insight, and new business opportunity development. This role will play a key part in identifying, evaluating, and shaping growth opportunities, with primary focus areas in healthcare (e.g., cell and gene therapy) and ICT / advanced materials, while supporting broader corporate priorities as needed. This is a highly hands-on role requiring both strategic judgment and personal execution. The successful candidate will be expected to independently frame strategic questions, scope and lead intelligence efforts, conduct rigorous primary and secondary research, synthesize complex findings, and translate insights into clear recommendations for senior leadership. The role will also directly contribute to strategy development, portfolio prioritization, and decision support for emerging growth initiatives. Reporting to the Director of Growth Strategy within the ISD, this role partners closely with strategy leaders, R&D teams, business leaders, Ajinomoto’s Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) function, and global stakeholders across the United States and Japan. The successful candidate will help strengthen scalable, repeatable approaches to strategic insight, planning, and innovation strategy development across the Ajinomoto Group.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required in a scientific, engineering, or technical discipline, such as biology, chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, materials science, or a related field.
Five or more years of relevant experience, ideally including some combination of: Strategy consulting or similarly rigorous analytical problem-solving experience, Corporate strategy, innovation, market insight, business development, or growth roles within a science- or technology-driven organization.
Demonstrated experience leading analytical workstreams involving market assessment, competitive analysis, research synthesis, and strategic recommendation development.
Proven ability to communicate complex technical or market topics clearly to business and senior leadership audiences.
Experience operating effectively in fast-paced, ambiguous, and evolving environments.
Market and technology intelligence: Ability to identify, synthesize, and interpret signals across markets, technologies, competitors, and scientific domains.
Growth strategy and innovation planning: Strong understanding of how intelligence informs long-term growth strategy, portfolio choices, and innovation decision-making.
Strategic problem solving: Ability to independently structure ambiguous problems, frame key questions, develop hypotheses, and translate analysis into strategic implications.
Analytical rigor: Comfort working with incomplete information, making assumptions, evaluating evidence, framing scenarios, and assessing multiple future states.
Scientific and technical literacy: Ability to engage credibly with scientific and technical concepts and translate them into business-relevant insights.
Synthesis and communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce executive-ready materials and communicate recommendations clearly to senior stakeholders.
Stakeholder engagement and influence: Ability to work effectively with diverse stakeholders across strategy, R&D, venture, and business teams to build alignment and drive progress.
Workshop design and facilitation: Ability to structure and lead productive working sessions, strategy discussions, and cross-functional workshops that clarify decisions and next steps.
Judgment and prioritization: Ability to focus on decision-relevant insight while balancing speed, rigor, and practical business impact.
Ownership and delivery: Ability to operate autonomously, prioritize across competing demands, and drive workstreams from scoping through analysis, recommendation, and implementation support.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or PhD preferred, particularly where it supports strong scientific literacy and comfort engaging with complex technical topics.

Responsibilities

Identify and prioritize strategic questions relevant to Ajinomoto’s growth agenda, particularly in healthcare and ICT-related domains
Independently scope, design, and execute market, competitive, customer, ecosystem, and technology intelligence efforts
Conduct primary and secondary research using expert interviews, literature review, databases, public sources, and external networks
Monitor emerging market trends, disruptive technologies, and competitive developments to identify opportunities and risks
Translate incomplete or complex information into clear hypotheses, scenarios, and strategic implications
Personally lead rigorous analytical workstreams from problem definition through synthesis and recommendation.
Convert intelligence outputs into strategic recommendations regarding where to play, how to win, partnerships, investments, and capability priorities.
Prepare executive-ready presentations, memos, and decision materials for leadership audiences
Lead analyses supporting portfolio prioritization, investment planning, and resource allocation discussions across growth initiatives.
Contribute directly to long-range planning and strategic roadmap development.
Support evaluation of new business opportunities, partnerships, and adjacent growth platforms.
Partner directly with business leaders, technical teams, and senior stakeholders to refine problem statements and align around decision needs.
Design and facilitate workshops, working sessions, and cross-functional strategy discussions when appropriate.
Build alignment across diverse stakeholders by surfacing assumptions, risks, and tradeoffs constructively.
Collaborate effectively across functions, cultures, and geographies, including regular engagement with colleagues in Japan.
Translate differing stakeholder perspectives into clear next-step decisions and aligned action plans.
Build practical tools, templates, and processes for insight generation, strategic planning, and opportunity evaluation.
Contribute to the continued development of a high-performing internal strategy capability within ISD
Improve the speed, quality, and repeatability of strategic decision support across priority growth domains.
Support additional strategic initiatives and special projects as assigned.