Sustainability Practice Consultant, Food Systems

About us

Bain & Company is a global management consulting that helps the world’s most ambitious change makers define the future. Across 65 offices in 40 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition and redefine industries. Since our founding in 1973, we have measured our success by the success of our clients, and we proudly maintain the highest level of client advocacy in the industry.

In 2004, the firm established its presence in the Indian market by opening the Bain Capability Center (BCC) in New Delhi. The BCC is now known as BCN (Bain Capability Network) with its nodes across various geographies. BCN is an integral and largest unit of (ECD) Expert Client Delivery. ECD plays a critical role as it adds value to Bain's case teams globally by supporting them with analytics and research solutioning across all industries, specific domains for corporate cases, client development, private equity diligence or Bain intellectual property. The BCN comprises of Consulting Services, Knowledge Services and Shared Services.

Who you will work with

Sustainability (which covers environmental, social, and economic justice issues) is an increasingly important topic for our clients. In the Sustainability Practice, we help our clients make critical decisions that impact the core of their business strategy, related to sustainability strategy, the environmental and social impact of operations, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability-related growth and cost opportunities. We work to ensure that sustainability efforts are anchored in business fundamentals and demonstrate a clear return on investment – and that those efforts are then firmly embedded within our clients' strategy and operations.

Read more about our Sustainability consulting services to learn more about our work.  

The Practice Consultant is a critical member of the Sustainability Practice. They will have the opportunity to support efforts across a number of the practice’s solution-specific and/or strategic priority projects and day-to-day operations, with a particular focus on the Food Systems Transition. This role requires close collaboration of Bain’s Sustainability Partners and other experts across Bain globally. 

Bain has been at the forefront of the food systems transformation. We work with private, public, and social sector actors across the value chain to develop pragmatic solutions for sustainable, inclusive, healthy, and resilient food systems. This role is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of food systems with our corporate clients and our long-standing partners such as the World Economic Forum, The Nature Conservancy, and The Global Dairy Platform. 

Responsibilities may include developing solution IP, supporting selling and pitches, designing and creating key practice content and presentations, developing data-driven strategies and innovation solutions, and deploying cutting-edge techniques and tools that help clients accelerate their growth and reach full potential. The Practice Consultant effectively progresses deliverables, prioritizes effectively, and streamlines and improves ways of working, in collaboration with the Food Systems Transition Practice Senior Manager. The scope of work is flexible, but will likely fall into the following main categories.

What you’ll do

Solution design, development, deployment, and delivery

• Support the Practice Senior Manager to develop Food Systems Transition IP, including global reports, research briefs, market overviews and solution/topic specific materials tailored to specific sectors/industries 
• Own individual pieces of IP, create hypothesis, identify information sources, translate data into insights, and execute analyses; present your findings and recommendations to the team 
• Provide direct solution support on select opportunities 
• Support case teams with best-of examples, approaches, templates, and nuanced support to rapid response requests, building on Knowledge Management team and linking to solution/product experts; coordinate on specific interlock elements 
• Build elements of training materials for affiliates on latest solution IP and interlock customized IP
• Develop and scale sustainability-focused AI and digital solutions, identifying opportunities to integrate automation, advanced analytics, and emerging technologies to drive business impact
• Identify issues, create hypotheses, and execute analysis; translate data into meaningful insights; present recommendations to key decision-makers
  

Solution full potential

• Independently drive the creation of a competitive factbase to support the solution full potential plan and backlog; conduct solution gap identification and differentiation analysis; research & assess ecosystem offerings and potential partners/vendors/acquisitions 
• Run analysis and support business case development for solution investments 
• Support with plan for commercializing IP, including timing, channels, etc. 
• Support development of specific elements of 80% proposals, sales plays, and other commercial collateral

Practice strategy, planning, and reporting

• Support management of Food Systems Transition partnerships; both for the delivery of commercial projects, as well as our Social Impact partnerships
• Support planning and management of our Social Impact projects in the Food Systems Transition
• Support data collection, maintenance, and analysis on experts and commercial collateral 
• Support interlock discussions between different transition areas and industries relevant to Food Systems Transition
• Proactively coordinate debriefs with pitch teams, leveraging direct contact with teams, identifying solutions gaps 
• Codify best practices 
• Run analysis to aid discrete elements of Practice plans; ensure data integrity and drill down to resolve discrepancies
• Bring together disparate data sources; highlight issues and spot trends to inform decision-making
• Contribute to additional projects and perform select ad hoc analytics

Practice communications and teaming

• Work effectively cross-practice and cross-functionally; proactively share and solicit information across practice, focusing on the key implications

About you

Education

• Required: Bachelor of Arts or equivalent undergraduate degree with strong academic credentials
• MBA is a plus
  

Experience

• Current or former top-tier management consultant or equivalent experience 
• Demonstrated problem solving and organizational skills, and a proven self-starter (comfortable with what could be a remote supervisor and team)
• Knowledge of, and experience with, leading business and analytics tools
• Ability to structure and lead complex business research and analysis in fast-paced environment, as well as the skills to drive to pragmatic business insights
• Experience in digital strategy, AI-driven innovation, or sustainability tech solutions within a consulting, product, or corporate strategy function; knowledge of, and experience with, leading business, analytics, AI/digital tools
• Experience and proficiency in creating high quality presentations and executive-level communications

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Passion for business issues; intellectual curiosity and thirst for learning, particularly in practice area topics
• Consistent track record of delivering results, including ability to execute more than one project at once
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex ideas into clear, executive-friendly narratives (including in PowerPoint)
• Strong analytical abilities; comfort with Microsoft Excel functionalities and working with data analysis tools (e.g. Tableau)
• Expertise leveraging digital tools and AI
• Passion for sustainability and deploying cutting-edge sustainability techniques and tools that help clients accelerate their growth and reach full potential
• Maturity to manage highly confidential information  
• Able to work independently and prioritize in a dynamic and fast-paced environment (comfortable with a remote supervisor and team)
• Attentive to detail, organized and possess solid workplanning skills
• Excellent customer service attitude 
• A strong team player, acts in an at-cause manner
• Willingness to be flexible to meet the needs of the practice and its case teams
• Knowledge of Bain’s operating model, processes, and business functions (internal candidates only)
• Fluency in English

What makes us a great place to work

We are proud to be consistently recognized as one of the world's best places to work, a champion of diversity and a model of social responsibility. We are currently ranked the #1 consulting firm on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list, and we have maintained a spot in the top four on Glassdoor's list for the last 12 years. We believe that diversity, inclusion and collaboration is key to building extraordinary teams. We hire people with exceptional talents, abilities and potential, then create an environment where you can become the best version of yourself and thrive both professionally and personally. We are publicly recognized by external parties such as Fortune, Vault, Mogul, Working Mother, Glassdoor and the Human Rights Campaign for being a great place to work for diversity and inclusion, women, LGBTQ and parents..