Lead, R&D - Operating Model Excellence Lead

Location: Glenview, Illinois, United States; normal office environment with limited travel or visits to external locations.

Base salary: $141,500–$176,900 per year, plus eligibility for a performance-based bonus.

Company

hirify.global is a large food manufacturing company with North American and central R&D operations.

What you will do

• Aggregate BU and Central R&D capability initiatives into leadership views and deliver recurring status reporting.
• Design and maintain dashboards covering R&D KPIs, strategic progress, technology readiness, transfers, and resource utilization.
• Manage technology pipelines, initiatives, and R&D team resourcing in the portfolio management tool.
• Coordinate prioritization, sequencing, ownership, milestones, and escalation paths for cross-R&D initiatives.
• Strengthen operating standards, governance mechanisms, stage gates, review forums, decision tracking, and execution follow-through.
• Apply change management and early risk identification to improve consistency, readiness, and predictability across the R&D portfolio.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, food science, chemistry, biology, operations, supply chain, or a related field; a master’s degree or MBA is highly desired.
• 10+ years of experience leading transformation, portfolio, or program work in complex cross-functional environments.
• Strong portfolio coordination, prioritization, governance, stakeholder leadership, and change management capabilities.
• Experience designing executive-ready reporting, dashboards, operational metrics, and structured processes.
• Ability to translate ambiguous needs into clear deliverables, operating rhythms, and leadership narratives.
• Experience with portfolio management tools, stage gates, readiness frameworks, reporting automation, data quality, or compliance-adjacent documentation is highly desired.

Culture & Benefits

• Performance-based bonus eligibility.
• Healthcare, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage for employees and eligible dependents.
• Paid time off, company holidays, leave programs, flexible work arrangements, and training opportunities.
• 401(k), life insurance, disability coverage, employee assistance, wellbeing, and family support programs.
• Learning and wellbeing resources supporting physical, social, emotional, and financial health.