Job Summary
Do you enjoy turning complex data into clear business decisions while collaborating with teams across R&D, Commercial, and Operations?
Join our Strategic Enablement & Innovation Team at IFF, where we lead the end-to-end portfolio across R&D, Commercial, and Operations for the Food Biosciences business. As a Project Management and Portfolio Intern, you will own recurring portfolio and pipeline processes and contribute analysis and recommendations that guide decision-making across functions and regions. This is a hands-on role for someone who can take a loosely defined request, figure out what decision it supports, and deliver accurate, decision-ready work with minimal supervision.
This internship offers a unique opportunity to work closely with senior leaders and cross-functional teams, gaining hands-on experience in project management, data analysis, and strategic planning.
Where You'll Make a Difference
· Compile the monthly commercial pipeline review end-to-end: data extraction, quality checks, reconciliation against prior versions, and drafting the key messages.
· Maintain R&D stage-gate project records and dashboards for the governance meetings and proactively flag inconsistencies such as closed or terminated projects, projects moving stages, missing data, or conflicting sources.
· Lead quarterly regional and portfolio deep dives to identify gaps, overlaps, and opportunities, and present findings and recommendations to stakeholders.
· Provide project management support and analysis to strategic projects and business cases (e.g., market sizing, scenario analysis, financial assumptions).
· Partner with cross-functional teams (e.g., R&D, Applications, Marketing, Commercial, Operations) to gather and validate project data, including data mapping across systems such as Salesforce and SAP.
· Capture decisions and action items in governance meetings and follow up with owners through to closure.
· Document processes and keep work handover-ready so it carries on smoothly after the internship.
What Makes You the Right Fit
· Currently pursuing or recently completed a Master’s degree in Business, Operations, Supply Chain, Data Science, or a related field.
· Strong analytical and organizational skills.
· Proven ability to work independently, manage several deliverables with competing deadlines, and ask clarifying questions up front.
· Proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint; familiarity with project management and data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI) is a plus.
· Experience with Salesforce or SAP is a plus.
· Strong attention to detail: you check your own work, reconcile numbers across sources, and explain any differences before sharing.
· Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present findings clearly and concisely to senior stakeholders.
· Ability to connect data to business context and answer "so what?" with clear insights and recommendations.
· Interest in innovation, project management, portfolio strategy, operations and supply chain, sales, and cross-functional collaboration.
· Interest in food science, biotech, or B2B ingredients is a plus.
· Proficient in English, both written and spoken
What Success Looks Like
· By month 3: independently delivers the monthly pipeline review with minimal rework.
· By month 6: owns quarterly deep dives and proactively raises data issues and insights.
· By month 12: has contributed to at least one strategic project or business case and documented processes for handover.
What You’ll Gain
· Real-world experience in global project and portfolio management.
· Exposure to strategic decision-making and data-driven planning.
· Mentorship from experienced leaders across functions.
· Opportunity to contribute to impactful projects with visibility across the organization.
How Would…