Cargill Hiring for Patent Scientist at Wayzata, Minnesota Full Time

Want to build a stronger, more sustainable future and cultivate your career? Join Cargill’s global team of 155,000 employees who use new technologies, dynamic insights and over 154 years of experience to connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive.

Job Purpose and Impact

The Patent Scientist will develop dedicated global expertise and maintain resources to decrease lag in the transition from innovation to strategic patent filings, increase the quality and scope of the company’s intellectual property filings, and reduce costs through active portfolio management. In this role, you will work collaboratively with law, R&D, and business partners and drive engagement in intellectual property creation and patent processes.

Key Accountabilities

• Lead and facilitate applicable strategic discussions for invention identification, generation of invention disclosures, and drive a purposeful invention disclosures funnel including proactive invention mining.

• Facilitate strategic, efficient, and timely patent draft review cycles in collaboration with law, R&D and business partners by applying expert knowledge of the organization, processes, and customers.

• Drive and support the rigor of inventions and experimental design to improve the scope of claims globally.

• Facilitate early and efficient decisions with law regarding trade secrets versus patent for innovations.

• Provide support to access cited prior art coming out of patent office responses as requested by law, compliance with geographical duty of disclosure requirements, and decipher which global patent families support which product families.

• Partner with the law department to conduct searches directed to patentability and freedom to operate.

• Maintain a strong lab presence, drive desired methodology and provide timely and relevant training on global intellectual property and patent considerations in conjunction with the law department.

• Serve as a technical expert to assist in understanding of prior art, state of field and translation between the company drafts and the broader field.

• Other duties as assigned

• Provide expert thought leadership in your field and work with limited direction, using additional research and interpretation to identify issues or problems. You may provide direction to supporting team members and be a strategic contributor.

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Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

• Confirmed ability to assess and handle risk in collaboration with the legal team

• Experience with invention identification, patent filing strategy and patent portfolio management

• Master’s degree, doctoral degree, or equivalent experience in chemistry, biochemistry, food science, food engineering, or a related field

• Experience with the R&D development process

• Experience with patent searching and patent landscape analytics

Cargill highly encourages vaccinations but does not mandate at this time. Upon hire, you will be asked to provide your vaccination status, and if unvaccinated or if you choose not to disclose, you would be expected to follow Cargill’s safety protocols for unvaccinated employees (i.e., mask mandates, and social distancing).

Equal Opportunity Employer, including Disability/Vet.

At Cargill, everyone matters and everyone counts. Cargill is committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive and diverse work environment where all employees are treated with dignity and respect. As such and in alignment with our Guiding Principles, Cargill’s long-standing equal employment opportunity policy prohibits discrimination and harassment against any employee or applicant based on race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, pregnancy, genetic information, marital status, family status, citizenship status, veteran status, military status, union affiliation, or any other status protected by law.

Cargill also complies with all applicable national and local laws and regulations pertaining to non-discrimination and employment.

Notice to Recruiters and Staffing Agencies: Cargill, Inc. and subsidiaries (“Cargill”) have an internal recruiting department. Please review this notice.

US Employment Resources: Equal Opportunity Employer, including Disability/Vet.