Senior Food Scientist, Protein

Cargill • Wichita, KS

6d • Onsite

About The Position

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 Senior Food Scientist, Protein leads the development, commercialization, and optimization of fresh beef products for retail and foodservice customers across North America. This role serves as a technical leader within Protein R&D, partnering closely with customers, commercial teams, operations, and cross-functional partners to identify opportunities, solve complex technical challenges, and deliver business results. In this role you will influence product solutions in fresh beef processing. You will identify opportunities to optimize manufacturing and processing capabilities to recommend solutions that support fresh beef business growth, improve product performance, and strengthen customer partnerships. In addition to leading significant development initiatives, this role is expected to coach and mentor other scientists, independently influence technical decisions across functions, and help build organizational capability through knowledge sharing and technical expertise.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience
• Minimum of four years of related work experience
• Ability to travel up to 30% to customer and manufacturing locations
• Previous protein experience
• Ability to occasionally work in a refrigerated environment

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree or other post-secondary degree
• Experience in meat product development, sensory evaluation, and food safety
• Fresh beef experience
• Previous operations experience
• Ability to present research to all levels within an organization
• Experience communicating to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience leading change initiatives

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for product and process development initiatives, proactively recommending solutions and guiding teams through complex technical decisions while ensuring alignment with business strategy, quality standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Identify product growth and new product opportunities in fresh beef processing; adapt plans to capitalize on emerging trends and market demands. Lead scale-up and product qualification activities at manufacturing facilities, ensuring solutions meet quality, food safety, operational, and cost expectations.
• Support the development and execution of innovation roadmaps and market plans aligned with overall business growth strategy.
• Build strong partnerships across R&D, sales, marketing, operations, supply chain, quality, regulatory, and business teams to align priorities and drive successful project execution. Develop trusted relationships with customers and commercial partners, representing R&D in customer discussions, technical reviews, plant trials, and innovation initiatives.
• Maintain and expand technical expertise through scientific literature, industry trends, and emerging technologies, applying new knowledge to business challenges and opportunities and documentation of work for future applications.
• Coach and mentor scientists and cross-functional partners by sharing technical expertise, providing guidance on project execution, and helping strengthen team capability.
• Independently handle complex issues with minimal supervision, while escalating only the most complex issues to appropriate staff.
• Other duties as assigned

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior