Associate Principal Product Guidance & Insights Scientist - Pet - Golden Valley, MN

JOB OVERVIEW:

The Associate Principal Product Guidance & Insights Scientist will lead Product Guidance & Insights (PGI) for the Pet business, with a primary focus on companion animal research to inform the development of feeding and treating products.

This role translates deep sensory, product, and pet parent understanding into clear guidance that helps teams design and deliver remarkable product experiences across innovation, core renovation, quality, and value optimization. This role will shape learning strategies, generate actionable recommendations for product and packaging, and help cross-functional teams make smarter data-based decisions.

This individual will also build PGI capability through direct people leadership, strong prioritization, and the introduction of modern methods and tools.

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE LOOK LIKE:

The strongest candidates for this role combine deep sensory science expertise, strong dog and cat feeding and treating category knowledge, and the ability to translate complex learning into clear business action.

They are credible technical leaders who can identify the most important questions, design efficient learning plans with the right rigor, and turn insights into practical guidance that improves product experience, preference, and business performance.

They can influence effectively across all functions and levels within the organization, lead and develop talent, and continuously raise the impact of PGI through strong technical expertise, modern methods, and thoughtful use of new tools and technologies.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Lead Sensory and Product Guidance strategy and execution for the Pet business with a focus on companion animal research (for dogs and cats)
• Lead and develop one direct report, including coaching, work prioritization, development planning, and performance management.
• Partner on cross-functional project teams to define the most important product and pet parent questions, build effective learning plans to answer them, and de-risk critical business decisions.
• Design and lead sensory guidance, pet parent product understanding, descriptive, discrimination, and confirmatory learning plans from early exploration through iterative product optimization and validation.
• Generate actionable insights and recommendations by integrating sensory data, product knowledge, technical understanding, and business context.
• Influence product design, optimization, and troubleshooting decisions by helping teams understand the sensory and experiential drivers of product performance and preference.
• Communicate findings clearly and persuasively to technical and non-technical stakeholders, tailoring recommendations to drive alignment and action.
• Partner closely with the Pet Technology Team to ensure holistic product guidance from both pet and pet parent perspectives.
• Build foundational knowledge of key pet feeding and treating product spaces, including relevant product forms, formats, textures, aromas, palatability-related cues, and usage occasions.
• Build and strengthen external partnerships to strengthen foundational knowledge in pet feeding and treating.
• Champion the product and pet parent voice to ensure products deliver on the intended experience, functionality, and preference.
• Prioritize projects against available resources and business needs, ensuring the highest-value work is resourced and executed with excellence.
• Identify capability gaps and bring forward new tools, methods, and ways of working to improve the speed, quality, and impact of PGI learning.
• Contribute to a strong team culture by modeling collaboration, curiosity, technical rigor, and a continuous learning mindset.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree or PhD in Sensory Science, Behavioral Science, Psychology, Animal Science, Consumer Science, or related field.
• 7+ years of relevant pet experience in sensory science, consumer product research, product guidance, or related technical roles.
• Experience applying sensory science to product development, optimization, quality, and pet parent guidance within complex product systems.
• Experience developing and executing robust learning plans with appropriate rigor to risk in partnership with cross-functional business and technical teams.
• Strong understanding of experimental design, statistical analysis, and interpretation of sensory and consumer data.
• Proven ability to connect technical product knowledge with consumer or user experience to inform product design decisions.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, collaboration, and influence skills.
  Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively in a matrixed organization.
• Demonstrated passion for leading and developing people.
• Strong learning agility, problem-solving capability, experimentation mindset, and comfort with ambiguity.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience leading people as a manager of people or in a strong technical leadership role.
• Experience building foundational product knowledge and translating it into practical guidance for teams.
• Experience working across multiple brands, platforms, or business segments.
• Ability to identify and introduce new capabilities, tools, or analytic approaches that improve learning impact and efficiency.
• Demonstrated business acumen and ability to influence strategy and direction through product and pet parent insight.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS:

• International relocation or international remote working arrangements (outside of the US) will not be considered.
• Applicants for this position must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. General Mills will not sponsor applicants for this position for work visas.

Salary Range

The salary range for this position is $110800.00 - $166300.00 / Annually. At General Mills we strive for each employee's pay at any point in their career to reflect their experiences performance and skills for their current role. The salary range for this role represents the numerous factors considered in the hiring decisions including, but not limited to, educations, skills, work experience, certifications, etc. As such, pay for the successful candidate(s) could fall anywhere within the stated range. Beyond base salary, General Mills offers a competitive Total Rewards package focusing on your overall well-being. We are proud to offer a foundation of health benefits, retirement and financial wellbeing, time off programs, wellbeing support and perks. Benefits may vary by role, country, region, union status, and other employment status factors. You may also be eligible to participate in an annual incentive program. An incentive award, if any, depends on various factors, including, individual and organizational performance.

Reasonable Accommodation Request

If you need to request an accommodation during the application or hiring process, please fill out our online accommodations request form by following this link: Accommodations Request.