Senior Specialist, Innovation

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Senior Specialist, Innovation

Food Safety & Animal Health

About the Role

TheSenior Specialist, Innovation plays a critical role in advancing Neogen’s pipeline of high-impact innovations across Food Safety and Animal Health. This individual translates unmet customer needs into validated concepts and scalable solutions, applying disciplined innovation methodologies to reduce risk, accelerate learning, and increase the probability of commercial and technical success.

The role operates at the intersection of science, technology, customer insight, and business strategy and partners extensively across R&D, Product Management, Commercial, Regulatory, Quality, Operations, and digital teams.

Key Responsibilities

Opportunity Identification & Need Definition

• Lead structured discovery efforts to uncover unmet needs across food and animal safety laboratories, manufacturing environments, farms, and veterinary settings
• Plan, conduct, and synthesize voice-of-customer research, field observations, and stakeholder interviews to identify customer pain points and jobs to be done
• Translate qualitative and quantitative insights into clearly articulated need statements with defined users, use contexts, and measurable success criteria
• Assess unmet needs against strategic fit, customer value, regulatory constraints, and Neogen’s core capabilities to support portfolio prioritization
• Develop early value hypotheses, adoption assumptions, and problem framing to guide downstream innovation activities

Concept Creation & De-Risking

• Partner with cross-functional teams to generate, evaluate, and refine solution concepts spanning physical products, assays, instruments, digital tools, workflows, and service models
• Collaborate with R&D, Engineering, Data Science, Quality, Regulatory, and Commercial teams to explore technical feasibility and differentiation
• Build and test early concepts through experiments, prototypes, pilots, and customer feedback loops to reduce technical, usability, and market risk
• Define use cases, workflows, and system-level concepts that integrate hardware, consumables, software, and data
• Support intellectual property strategy by contributing to invention disclosures and freedom-to-operate discussions

Innovation Readiness & Implementation Support

• Prepare concepts for progression through Neogen’s innovation governance process by clearly documenting desirability, feasibility, and viability evidence
• Partner with Product Management, Operations, Quality, and Regulatory teams to support scale-up, validation, and launch readiness
• Identify risks related to adoption, workflow disruption, training burden, or regulatory approval and recommend mitigation strategies
• Ensure customer value propositions are clear, evidence-based, and aligned with real-world usage and purchasing drivers
• Support the transition from innovation into development or commercialization while preserving the original customer intent

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence

• Serve as a connector across Innovation, R&D, Commercial, Regulatory, Quality, Operations, and other functions to promote alignment and shared understanding
• Plan and facilitate structured innovation workshops, ideation sessions, and decision reviews
• Lead through influence by clearly communicating insights, trade-offs, and recommendations to senior stakeholders
• Serve as a trusted thought partner to scientific and technical teams, helping frame problems before solutions are pursued

Portfolio & Strategic Contribution

• Contribute to the continuous improvement of Neogen’s innovation processes, tools, and decision criteria
• Support portfolio-level thinking by identifying patterns across customer needs, technologies, and market segments
• Help ensure innovation investments align with Neogen’s strategic focus on high-impact, scalable Food Safety and Animal Health solutions
• Track and analyze innovation learnings and outcomes to inform future opportunity areas and capability development

Innovation Culture & Capability Building

• Champion disciplined, customer-centered innovation practices across the organization
• Mentor project teams and junior contributors on needs-driven innovation, experimentation, and evidence-based decision-making
• Promote a learning mindset that values early insight, rapid feedback, and thoughtful risk-taking

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Science, Engineering, Design, Business, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience
• 8+ years of relevant professional experience in innovation, R&D, product development, product management, strategy, customer discovery, or a related technical or commercial role
• Experience leading or supporting customer discovery, voice-of-customer research, stakeholder interviews, observational research, or other needs-finding activities
• Experience applying structured innovation methodologies such as Design Thinking, Jobs to Be Done, BioDesign, Lean Startup, Human-Centered Design, or comparable frameworks
• Experience translating ambiguous customer problems into defined need statements, use cases, success criteria, value propositions, or early business hypotheses
• Experience supporting concept development and de-risking through prototypes, experiments, pilots, technical feasibility assessments, or customer feedback
• Experience facilitating workshops, synthesizing complex information, and influencing cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority
• Experience developing or contributing to business cases that consider customer value, strategic fit, technical feasibility, adoption risk, market opportunity, or commercial viability
• Experience working across scientific, technical, regulatory, quality, commercial, operations, or digital/data functions
• Experience working in regulated environments where quality, validation, compliance, or customer workflow requirements influence business or product decisions
• Ability to travel up to 30% based on business and customer needs. Travel requirements may vary by month, with some periods requiring less travel depending on project activity, customer engagement, and business priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Science, Engineering, Business, Design, or a related field
• Experience in food safety, animal health, diagnostics, life sciences, contract or central laboratories, agriculture, veterinary health, or another regulated technical market
• Experience with product development, commercialization, portfolio management, or stage-gate/governance processes
• Experience with digital solutions, data-enabled workflows, software-enabled products, automation, LIMS/connectivity, or digital transformation
• Experience developing solutions that integrate hardware, consumables, software, and data
• Experience supporting intellectual property activities, including invention disclosures or freedom-to-operate discussions

What Will Help You Succeed

• Strong customer orientation and curiosity
• Ability to work through ambiguity and bring structure to complex problems
• Strong analytical, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to translate scientific and technical information into clear business and customer insights
• Strong facilitation, communication, and stakeholder-management skills
• Ability to influence without direct authority
• Strong collaboration skills across technical and non-technical functions
• Ability to balance customer needs, technical feasibility, business value, and risk
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously

Impact at Neogen

• Increase the quality and clarity of opportunities entering Neogen’s innovation pipeline
• Reduce downstream development risk by validating customer needs and concepts early
• Accelerate the delivery of differentiated solutions that improve food safety, animal health, and customer productivity
• Strengthen Neogen’s reputation as a science-driven, customer-focused innovation leader

Why Neogen

AtNeogen we believe that taking care of our employees allows them to do their best work. When you join our team, you'll enjoy competitive benefits and the opportunity to make a meaningful difference every day.

Benefits include:

• Benefits starting on Day One – Medical, dental, and vision coverage begin on your first day of employment.
• 401(k) with company match – Invest in your future with retirement savings and company contributions.
• Paid Time Off (PTO) – Enjoy generous paid time off so you can rest, recharge, and spend time with those who matter most.
• Career Growth Opportunities – We are committed to promoting from within and providing the tools, training, and support to help you grow your career.
• Meaningful Work – Be part of a team whose work has a real impact on our customers, communities, and the world around us.
• Collaborative Culture – Join a team that values innovation, respect, teamwork, and continuous improvement.

Come Be Part of a Mission That Matters

At Neogen, our mission is to protect the world’s food supply. From inside the farm gate to our dinner plates, our products and solutions help protect people, animals, and the global food supply.

Joining Neogen means becoming part of a global organization where your ideas, expertise, and curiosity can help shape the next generation of food safety and animal health solutions.

Come build your future with us while making a difference every day.

#ApplyNow

From inside the farm gate to our dinner plates, Neogen protects the world’s food supply. Through a variety of animal healthcare products, to food safety solutions for dangerous bacteria, allergens, toxins, drug residues and much more, Neogen is there — and you can be too.