What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Vice President, Science & Technical Excellence position at The J.M. Smucker Co.?
Your Opportunity as the Senior Vice President (SVP), Science & Technical Excellence
This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of Science & Technical Excellence at enterprise scale. As a key member of the senior leadership team, you will define the strategy, standards, and capabilities that protect our consumers, strengthen our brands, and enable innovation across a dynamic and growing portfolio. This role offers the chance to lead through both influence and action—elevating technical rigor, accelerating commercialization, and building the foundations that help the business safely grow and compete.
Location: Orrville, Ohio
Work Arrangements: Hybrid work arrangement with regular in-office presence aligned to business and leadership needs; minimum of 9 days a month primarily during core weeks as determined by the Company; maybe more as business need requires.
In This Role You Will
Your leadership will directly shape how the enterprise balances innovation, quality, compliance, and speed—creating lasting impact across our products, operations, and reputation. You will be entrusted with driving cross-functional alignment, raising technical capability, and setting the standard for how we bring safe, high-quality, consumer-led solutions to market.
What we are looking for:
We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.
Stay connected with us on LinkedIn®
We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.
This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of Science & Technical Excellence at enterprise scale. As a key member of the senior leadership team, you will define the strategy, standards, and capabilities that protect our consumers, strengthen our brands, and enable innovation across a dynamic and growing portfolio. This role offers the chance to lead through both influence and action—elevating technical rigor, accelerating commercialization, and building the foundations that help the business safely grow and compete.
Location: Orrville, Ohio
Work Arrangements: Hybrid work arrangement with regular in-office presence aligned to business and leadership needs; minimum of 9 days a month primarily during core weeks as determined by the Company; maybe more as business need requires.
In This Role You Will
Your leadership will directly shape how the enterprise balances innovation, quality, compliance, and speed—creating lasting impact across our products, operations, and reputation. You will be entrusted with driving cross-functional alignment, raising technical capability, and setting the standard for how we bring safe, high-quality, consumer-led solutions to market.
- Shape and advance the enterprise Science & Technical Excellence strategy, aligning technical priorities, governance, and operating models with business growth, innovation, and commercialization goals.
- Set the standard for quality, food safety, and regulatory excellence by strengthening systems, driving consistency across the network, and ensuring the enterprise remains resilient, compliant, and consumer-focused.
- Lead enterprise technical decision-making across packaging, analytical services, laboratories, product specifications, and technical writing to unlock performance, enable innovation, and reinforce confidence in our data and documentation.
- Serve as the senior authority on product safety and technical risk, guiding crisis readiness and critical decisions that protect consumers, brands, and the business.
- Partner across Research & Development, Supply Chain, Commercial, Legal, Procurement, and Operations to accelerate concept-to-commercialization and deliver scalable, compliant solutions that win in the market.
- Build, inspire, and develop a high-performing technical organization by elevating talent, strengthening capabilities, and fostering a culture of scientific rigor, continuous improvement, and proactive leadership.
What we are looking for:
- Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Engineering, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
- 15 years of progressive leadership experience in consumer packaged goods, food, or other regulated industries.
- Proven leadership across multiple technical disciplines, including Quality, Regulatory Affairs, Packaging, Analytical Services, and related functions.
- Experience leading at scale within a complex, multi-business unit environment and driving transformation through cross-functional integration.
- Executive presence with deep knowledge of regulatory frameworks, quality systems, risk management, and commercialization processes.
- Demonstrated ability to think enterprise-wide and integrate strategy across functions and business units.
- Strong track record of balancing speed and rigor in high-stakes decision-making and risk management environments.
- Experience building strong teams, enabling innovation, and driving operational excellence across matrixed organizations.
We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.
Stay connected with us on LinkedIn®
We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.