ABOUT BLUE BUFFALO

Blue Buffalo (BLUE), is one of the strongest and most recognized pet food brands in America, and the undisputed leader in Wholesome Natural pet food, the fastest-growing segment of the market. At over four times the size of the next largest brand in this segment, BLUE has become the new mainstream brand that’s delivering products that pet parents are looking for and connecting with them in a true, authentic way. 

BLUE thinks of dogs and cats as family members and believes their food should be natural and healthy. In fact, this was the motivation for the Bishop Family’s decision to create the Blue Buffalo Company. When the beloved Bishop family dog, Blue, faced a variety of health issues, Bill and his two sons, Billy and Chris, set out to create a pet food that was made with only the highest quality natural ingredients—the kind of things a family member deserves. Fifteen years later BLUE has, in many ways, accomplished what the Bishops set out to do—help our dogs and cats live happy, healthy lives.

BLUE has a broad portfolio of natural pet foods, enabling pet parents to satisfy their pet’s specific dietary, lifestyle, and life-stage needs, offering them no-compromise product solutions.

OVERVIEW:

General Mills’ pet business is the company’s fastest-growing global platform has grown its distribution in the U.S. by four times and more than doubled its household penetration since General Mills entered the category via acquisition in 2018. The Blue Buffalo brand is well positioned for long-term continued growth as a leader in the humanization of pet feeding and treating. We are also planning to expand Blue Buffalo offerings in China and begin testing the brand in other international markets in fiscal 2024.

The Veterinary Scientific Affairs Manager serves as the chief veterinary medical professional for General Mills, Pet Segment.  In this role, you will represent the views of General Mills and Blue Buffalo brands externally at trade associations, veterinary conferences, and veterinary key opinion leader (KOL) events. Implement strategic initiatives further establishing BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet™ as a leader in nutritional therapy products.

This role leads a team of Professional Services Veterinarians who are accountable for developing business relationships with key decision makers to gain active recommendations of BLUE™ products to veterinary clients based on scientific and nutritional credibility. You will provide nutrition and diet expertise to veterinarians and their staff through virtual consultations, clinic calls, competitive product comparisons, and in-clinic training sessions. You will also partner closely with Veterinary Technical Sales team, responsible for increasing product sales and distribution of BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet™ prescription and over the counter (OTC) diets specially formulated for dogs and cats.

Given the unique nature of the role, you will be required to execute technical responsibilities with minimal oversight to ensure companion animal foods and treats, manufactured and sold, meet, or exceed our health, safety, and nutrition standards.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• As a leader of people, you will be responsible for developing, motivating, and retaining talented individuals to promote strong team performance, a culture of inclusion, and solution focused mindset that drives meaningful business outcomes
• Gain the support of individual practitioners and overcome barriers through implementation of veterinary engagement strategy, veterinary college program, veterinary conference presence
• Collaborate with the product development team on new therapeutic feeding systems
• Serve as the technical expert to develop and/or approve reactive external communications related to veterinary medicine, product safety or animal welfare.
• Provide veterinary expertise, including risk analysis, for animal welfare inquiries, food safety concerns, or product commercialization challenges
• Review and approve veterinary technical communications such as external marketing materials for both new product commercialization and existing product portfolio.
• Lead the veterinary medical claim review process and strive to deliver comprehensive and timely medical claim reviews by working with legal, customer care, and quality teams.
• Partner with Animal Nutrition on clinical research, abstract, manuscripts and presentation
• Report regularly to executives on overall performance using established professional service organization KPIs and metrics

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM/VMD) Degree from an accredited university with a valid state veterinary license or ability to obtain license
• Minimum of 7 years’ combined experience working in clinical and animal health industry or academic setting
• Proficient knowledge of companion animal nutrition
• Proactive self-starter, independently advances initiatives, and serves as a team player in an open work environment
• Demonstrated ability fostering external engagement with veterinary professionals, associations, and key opinion leaders (KOLs)
• Strong interpersonal skills to develop and maintain effective working relationships with internal stakeholders and external networks
• Role model of General Mills’ values and leadership expectations; actively demonstrates commitment to inclusion and employee development
• Project management skills and experience

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Pet food industry experience
• Located in or willing to relocate to Minneapolis

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States. General Mills will not sponsor applicants for a U.S. work visa.
• International relocation or international remote working arrangements (outside of the US) will not be considered.

About Blue Buffalo

Love them like family, feed them like family.” ® Everything at Blue Buffalo starts with this simple idea.We think of our dogs and cats as family members, so we believe their food should be natural and healthy. In fact, this was the sole reason for starting the Blue Buffalo Company. When the beloved Bishop family dog, Blue, faced a variety of health issues, Bill and his two sons set out to create a pet food that was made with only the highest quality natural ingredients—the kind of things a family member deserves. Ten years later we have, in many ways, accomplished what we set out to do—help our dogs and cats live happy, healthy lives. And we’re only getting started!Feeding healthy ingredients isn’t just a trend for us. It’s our history. Since we started in 2003, we’ve always used high-quality natural ingredients with real meat first. Never any corn, wheat or soy. And no poultry by-product meals. It’s been that way since day one for every product we’ve ever created. And it always will be.Mission: Our vision is to feed all pets the natural BLUE way as the undisputed leader in wholesome, natural pet food.

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