Innovation Business Design Lead

Are you ready to join a team where your talent creates lasting change? At Northern Illinois Food Bank, every day is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our Neighbors, so that everyone in Northern Illinois has the food they need to thrive! Together we are a dedicated and innovative team committed to ending hunger in Northern Illinois.

We embrace diverse perspectives, collaboration, and continuous learning, we celebrate successes, learn from challenges, and foster a culture of growth, optimism, and teamwork.

Northern Illinois Food Bank will embrace opportunities to stand in solidarity with our community, and center the voices of those most impacted by systematic injustices. We affirm our commitment to anti-racism, to gender equity, to allyship, and to fairness as we work towards a hunger-free future and to create a better and more just world.

The Innovation Business Design Lead is responsible for leading structured business design and innovation processes that accelerate Northern Illinois Food Bank’s progress toward the vision of everyone in Northern Illinois having the food they need to thrive. This role manages innovation projects, facilitates cross‑functional collaboration, and leads human‑centered, service, and business design activities in partnership with internal teams, neighbors, and community organizations.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Innovation, this position works across Northern Illinois Food Bank to incubate strategic innovation initiatives, foster a culture of innovation, and ensure emerging ideas are feasible, equitable, and aligned with operational realities. This role is well‑suited for someone with experience in facilitation and project management who thrives in ambiguity and is ready to deepen strategic expertise over time.

This full‑time position is based out of our West Suburban Center (Geneva) location.

• Lead and guide business design efforts for projects that align with the organization’s strategic priorities and innovation agenda.
• Facilitate co‑design sessions, workshops, and collaborative problem‑solving activities with internal teams and community partners, ensuring solutions are informed by both community needs and the Food Bank's operational capabilities.
• Conduct process mapping, workflow documentation, and analysis to identify barriers, gaps, and improvement opportunities, and contribute to strategies or approaches that address these challenges.
• Lead the planning, documentation, and coordination of prototypes, pilots, and small scale experiments.
• Partner with operational teams to ensure emerging ideas are feasible and aligned with real operational capabilities, ensuring that proven offerings are seamlessly integrated into operational workflows.
• Synthesize feedback and data from experiments to produce clear summaries, recommendations, and next steps

• Co‑design and develop comprehensive project plans, defining key objectives, timelines, and resource allocations to ensure alignment with strategic goals.
• Manage innovation project timelines, milestones, tasks, and team communication.
• Use structured project management practices to organize work, track progress, and ensure accountability.
• Identify risks, barriers, and decision points, and bring them forward with recommendations or options.
• Prepare project updates, reports, and visual summaries for staff, leaders, and partners.
• Support the transition of successful pilots into operational scaling, handoff and sustainability planning.
• Ensure cross functional alignment and maintain strong relationships with internal stakeholders.

You’re driven, compassionate, and excited to bring your unique skills to a purpose‑driven organization. You have a strong commitment to our mission and:

• Committed to the organizational mission of providing nutritious food and resources for our neighbors with dignity, equity, and convenience through partnerships and innovation.
• Committed to a workplace that values Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and builds equity into structures, systems, and…