[Hiring] Principal Consultant @FoodChain ID Group

Role Description

The Principal Consultant is the highest individual contributor career level within FoodChain ID's Digital Consulting practice, and the practice's hands-on PLM solution design authority. Most of our engagements run on F4PLM integrated with Oracle Cloud PLM for food and beverage manufacturers.

In this role, you will personally design solutions on our most complex and critical engagements. You will guide clients toward the right answer rather than simply building what is requested and explain your reasoning with confidence when a client's preferred approach will not serve them well. Consultants across the practice will turn to you for design guidance, and you will help shape how we deliver. You will work closely with our Delivery Manager, who owns project governance, budget, and resourcing, so you can focus on the solution.

Core Responsibilities

• Technical Authority & Solution Design
  • Own and personally produce solution design across the full Oracle Cloud PLM and F4PLM stack.
  • Design product, formulation, recipe, and specification structures, including regulatory and compliance attributes such as allergens, nutrition, and labeling.
  • Define and design integrations between PLM and connected Oracle ERP/SCM and process manufacturing systems using OIC, REST/SOAP, and FBDI.
  • Lead fit-gap analysis, and when standard functionality falls short, lay out the options (configuration, extension, process change, or integration) with clear trade-offs and a recommendation.
  • Recommend Oracle Cloud PLM configurations and Redwood extensions that are practical, supportable, and commercially valuable.
• Practice Development & Mentorship
  • Review consultants' proposed designs, validate their approaches, and help catch problems before they reach the client.
  • Formally mentor Senior Consultants and serve as a sounding board on complex or ambiguous design questions.
  • Set the quality bar for solution design across the practice.
  • Lead delivery methodology, default design documentation, templates, and training material development.
  • Advise practice leadership on skill gaps, team structure, and hiring needs.
• Client & Executive Stakeholder Leadership
  • Be a confident, expert voice with clients, including when that means challenging their proposed approach and explaining why.
  • Present options rather than implementing requests as submitted, guide clients to sound decisions, and build genuine consensus.
  • Present design decisions, risks, and trade-offs at steering committees and with executive stakeholders.
  • Deliver difficult feedback clearly, promptly, and professionally.
• Engagement Ownership & Executive Delivery
  • Own the quality of the solution on your engagements from design through go-live and hypercare.
  • Partner with the Delivery Manager, who owns scope, budget, and resourcing, to keep design and delivery aligned.
  • Identify design and delivery risks early, and escalate with context, a recommendation, and urgency.
• Presales & Commercial Leadership
  • Join discovery sessions and client demonstrations as the technical lead when complex design questions come up.
  • Review presales estimates and SOW scope for design and delivery feasibility before kickoff.

Project Roles at This Level

• Solution Lead: owns overall solution design and technical direction.
• Functional Lead (cross-project): provides design authority across multiple engagements simultaneously.
• Presales Technical Lead: supports discovery sessions and demonstrations on complex design questions.
• Delivery Mentor: provides design review and quality assurance across Senior Consultant-led engagements.
• Senior Oracle Cloud PLM Consultant: serves as the primary Oracle Cloud PLM expert on complex implementations.
• Escalation Resource: senior escalation point for complex design issues across the practice.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years of hands-on PLM solution design.
• Hands-on PLM experience (Oracle Fusion Cloud PLM, Product Hub, or Agile PLM) as the solution or functional design lead on at least two full-lifecycle implementations.
• PLM experience in process manufacturing, such as food and beverage or CPG, including formulation, recipes, specifications, and regulatory compliance.
• Hands-on experience designing integrations between PLM and ERP/SCM systems.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree: graduate degree preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of enterprise software consulting.
• Proven experience managing senior and executive client relationships independently, including handling disagreement constructively.
• Proven experience leading and presenting at executive steering committees.
• Experience mentoring or leading consultants through design reviews and technical guidance.
• Comfort working in a fast-moving, lean team where priorities shift.
• Ability to travel up to 50%.

Benefits

• Equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment.
• Prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.
• Policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment.