R&D Operating Model Lead: Governance & Transformation

The Kraft Heinz Company; Glenview (IL); On-site; USD 142,000 - 177,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare coverage

401k plan

Paid time off

Company holidays

Flexible work arrangements

Wellbeing programs

Life insurance

Job summary

The Kraft Heinz Company is seeking an R&D Operating Model Excellence Lead to unify and govern R&D delivery across NA BU and Central operations. You will anchor standards, dashboards, and governance processes to enable disciplined execution and data-driven decisions.

You will build visibility into pipelines, resource plans, and readiness across R&D, driving alignment with business strategy and governance forums.

Qualifications

• 10+ years transforming portfolio, program work across R&D, product, manufacturing, supply chain.
• Strong governance and prioritization across multiple stakeholders.
• Proven ability to design executive-ready reporting, dashboards, and metrics.
• Strong change management and stakeholder leadership, including influence without authority.
• Translate ambiguous needs into structured processes and clear deliverables.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; synthesize complex work for leadership.
• Experience with data/analytics teams to improve reporting automation and dashboard usability.
• Background supporting enterprise reporting, audit, and traceability documentation.
• Familiarity with R&D portfolio contexts and readiness frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Aggregate BU and Central R&D initiatives into leadership views.
• Deliver recurring status reporting to improve transparency and decision-making.
• Define, build and maintain dashboards surfacing KPI health and progress.
• Support enterprise reporting needs with traceability and consistency.
• Ingest and maintain Central R&D tech pipelines in the Portfolio Management Tool.
• Provide resourcing visibility for all R&D teams in the PM Tool.
• Coordinate prioritization across cross-R&D internal asks and align sequencing.
• Ensure ownership, milestones, and escalation paths for high-priority initiatives.
• Strengthen operating model rigor with standards and governance mechanisms.
• Enable forums (Technical Review Board, MBR) with routine audit and decision-tracking.
• Drive disciplined working practices across the R&D portfolio.
• Anticipate pipeline risks and surface issues early.

Skills

Portfolio coordination

Governance

Executive reporting

Change management

Stakeholder leadership

Data-driven decisions

Communication

Analytical thinking

Workflow optimization

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Food Science, Chemistry, Biology, Operations/Supply Chain

Master’s degree or MBA

Tools

Portfolio Management Tool

Job description

The Kraft Heinz Company is seeking an R&D Operating Model Excellence Lead to unify and govern R&D delivery across NA BU and Central operations. You will anchor standards, dashboards, and governance processes to enable disciplined execution and data-driven decisions.

You will build visibility into pipelines, resource plans, and readiness across R&D, driving alignment with business strategy and governance forums.