Good Food Institute - Corporate Engagement Specialist - Downstream

The Good Food Institute India (GFI India) is at the forefront of the movement to use food technology and markets to solve some of the world's biggest problems relating to climate change, global hunger, antibiotic resistance, and future pandemics, by working to build the smart protein sector from the ground up. We're creating a transformative industry similar to renewable energy, and we're doing it fast. Your work will be critical to the fight of our lifetime - stewarding public and planetary health.

How You Will Make a Difference

It's a critical time for smart protein in India and globally. We've seen several exciting announcements and a good beginning, with GFI India at the centre of these developments, but plenty of work remains to build a truly thriving industry and achieve our public and planetary health goals.

As GFI India's Corporate Engagement Specialist (Downstream), you will focus on a crucial aspect of the smart protein ecosystem - strengthening the downstream portion (food product development, go-to-market, and distribution) of the smart protein value chain across plant-based, fermentation-derived, and cultivated proteins. This translates to working with smart protein companies, retail, QSR stakeholders and branding agencies with the goal of increasing the velocity of high-quality smart protein foods, and positioning and distributing these foods for market success. Your role will span the mapping and analysis of diverse stakeholders, building on relationships with executives at corporations in the field as well as infrastructure investors, and convening multi-stakeholder partnerships to ensure GFI India enables the sector to accelerate at the pace needed to sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050. You will work collaboratively with our team of experts in science, business, and policy to radically transform the food system by performing the following actions:

Research, analysis, and strategy-building

- Refining GFI India's strategy for upstream corporate engagement work through internal and external consultations, building on existing relationships to understand and document partners' incentives, opportunities, and obstacles.

- Conducting research and analysis on key areas including consumer demand, market size, and sales, and identifying top priorities and metrics to measure progress. These analyses may be performed with other GFI India team members and/or with external partners.

- Preparing materials including presentations and white papers to educate and stimulate stakeholders, for focused and wide dissemination.

- Building a dashboard-level view of our progress in achieving major priorities such as consumer acceptance and sales/distribution across channels, both for individual companies' involvement in the sector as well as industry health.

Engaging corporate partners & securing distribution

- Advancing existing and building new relationships with FMCG companies, larger start-ups, retailers, foodservice chains and other stakeholders like distributors in the downstream channels of the smart protein supply chain.

- Sharing GFI's technical, regulatory, and marketing resources to help partners build strategy and get market-ready, and in so doing influence them to invest in developing, producing, and distributing more and higher-quality smart protein products.

Large-scale industry-building

- Serving as a thought leader and distributing our consumer/market insights widely by speaking at conferences, on GFI India's and partners' webinars, and publishing op-eds and other communications materials to influence corporate action.

- Aligning multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance our key priorities, including the development and launch of high-quality, better-tasting, and more affordable smart protein foods in the retail, food service, and direct-to-consumer distribution channels, and access to finance for these initiatives. These partnerships may be advanced through GFI India's collaborative Smart Protein Industry Forum and the creation of focused working groups.

- Coordinating downstream efforts with upstream stakeholders, as necessary for mission-impact. These could include priority ingredient suppliers and manufacturing partners, and infrastructure investors.

- Acting as a liaison and 'connector' between Indian stakeholders, GFI's global network of organizations and their Corporate Engagement teams, and our broader network of partners.

Operational excellence and reporting

- Working with the Corporate Engagement, Innovation and Market Insights team to ensure all projects and associated reporting is undertaken in a timely manner.

- Working with operations to provide inputs to department spending, and following all human resources and operational procedures.

- Performing other duties as assigned.

Who We're Looking For:

We are looking for smart, thoughtful, and creative self-starters who want to push back against climate change, transform industrial animal agriculture, and develop healthy and humane foods that are accessible to everyone. GFI India staff enjoy high levels of autonomy and must be self-motivated, work well both independently and in concert with a larger group, and be comfortable working with a rapidly evolving and growing team. The Corporate Engagement Specialist (Downstream) must have:

Knowledge and experience

- 4+ Years of relevant experience, preferably in the food industry, management consulting, product design, marketing, consumer research, corporate affairs/management/engagement, or other relevant areas. (An established rapport with a broad range of food industry, retail, foodservice, with good relationships would be s a bonus.)

- Strong strategic thinking skills and a data-driven mindset with proficiency in building tools for strategic analysis

- Demonstrable experience with people engagement; the ability to influence, network, and build alliances, the confidence and authority to engage with corporate executives, build long-term relationships with them, and to persuade and influence decision-makers.

Skills and behavioural attributes:

- Strong support for GFI's philosophy and mission; demonstrated interest in public health, environmentalism, hunger relief, animal protection, or the drive and initiative to take responsibility for delivering impact.

- Excellent written and verbal communications and organizational skills, with experience in, and comfort with communicating with a range of stakeholders.

- The demonstrated ability to communicate complex information clearly in writing and in oral presentations to a range of audiences.

- Strong work ethic and ability to see projects through to completion

- Highly effective organizational and interpersonal skills

- Self-motivated and able to work well independently under pressure

- Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and meet competing deadlines

- Ability to work creatively and effectively as a team member

- Comfort working remotely and in-person as required, and in a rapidly growing and evolving organization.

Terms of employment: Full-time, permanent

Reports to: GFI India General Manager

Location: Mumbai ((currently hybrid working, to be evaluated continually in light of Covid-19)

For full details of the role, and to submit an application please visit https://gfi-india.org/careers/

Only applications submitted through GFI India's careers page will be considered, thank you.