$10B Revenue F&B Org Created R&D Career Path to Attract and Retain Talent
When a $10B food and beverage organization decided it was time to raise the bar on capabilities and expectations across their R&D function, they confronted a critical gap — non-managers had no defined career path. With recruiting and retention already suffering, the urgency was clear. We partnered with them to build a career path that gave their best people a reason to stay — and gave the organization the reset it needed to compete for talent going forward.
Challenge
The R&D function was overdue for a reset. Role expectations and competencies across the function hadn’t kept pace with where the business needed to go, and there was no defined career path for non-managers to grow into. The result was a struggle to retain the depth of technical expertise they had built over years, mounting recruitment challenges, and growing business continuity gaps as institutional knowledge left with the people who held it.
Solution
We developed function-specific competencies that reflected what excellence looked like at each level — spanning technical mastery, business partnership, innovation mindset, and the change agility needed to thrive in a dynamic organization. Role expectations were then built directly from those competencies, defining what each competency required at every level. From that foundation, we created a defined career path for non-managers — giving technical contributors a clear and credible route to grow without having to move into management. Finally, we created an assessment tool to make career progression clear, consistent, and credible.
Result (through year 1 or 2)
For the first time, non-managers have a career path that runs parallel to the management track — giving technical contributors an equal and clearly defined route forward. The competency framework and role expectations have driven user adoption above 90%, sparking more powerful career conversations and giving employees a clearer picture of what their path forward looks like. Feedback was positive at launch and remained positive six months later, a strong early signal that the framework is resonating with the people it was designed to serve.
Best Practices
Forming a user group made up of both managers and technical contributors was the defining move — reflecting the fact that this work touched the entire function, not just one track. The group helped shape the competencies and expectations from the inside, proposed integrated launch elements, and served as local champions when the framework went live. By involving the people most affected in building the solution, the organization earned credibility and buy-in before anything was ever rolled out.