Carla Hilhorst studied Food Science at the University of Wageningen, The Netherlands. She joined Unilever in 1993 as a margarine product developer and later technical project leader. After a number of years, she became responsible for the Global R&D program for spreads brands like Blue Band and Rama after which she created and led the global Product Design Centre for margarine, dressings, mayonnaise and dairy. From 2009-2012 she led the Regulatory Affairs function within Unilever based in more than 100 countries across the globe.

In 2012 she became the Vice President R&D Foods Europe, after which she moved to the role of VP R&D for Savoury globally in 2016 to subsequently take up the role of Foods R&D globally early 2018. At the end of 2019 she took over the overall responsibility of Foods, Ice-Cream and Tea R&D and as of mid-2022 became Chief R&D Officer for the Unilever Nutrition Business group.

In June 2024 she joined Danone as Senior Vice President R&I for Categories and Zones