Food Innovation Manager

Taco Bell was born and raised in California and has been around since 1962. We went from selling everyone’s favorite Crunchy Tacos on the West Coast to a global brand with 8,200+ restaurants, 350 franchise organizations, that serve 42+ million fans each week around the globe. That’s right… Taco Bell has 8,200+ restaurants in over 32 countries around the world, with offices in the U.S., Canada, UK, India, Australia, and Singapore. And we don’t plan to stop there.

We’re not only the largest Mexican-inspired quick service brand (QSR) in the world, we’re also part of the biggest restaurant group in the world: Yum! Brands.

Much of our fan love and authentic connection with our communities are rooted in being rebels with a cause. From ensuring we use high quality, sustainable ingredients to elevating restaurant technology in ways that hasn’t been done before… we will continue to be inclusive, bold, challenge the status quo and push industry boundaries.

We’re a company that celebrates and advocates for different, has bold self-expression, strives for a better future, and brings fun while we’re at it. We fuel our culture with real people who bring unique experiences. We inspire and enable our teams and the world to Live Más.

Why Taco Bell?

We truly believe that where you work matters, and we know a thing or two about what makes employees happy. Join us on our mission of feeding people’s lives with Más!

We are about more than just building restaurants—we connect with our fans through their passions including sports, gaming, and music

We know that employees want a company they can live and grow with; they crave a unique culture that fosters creativity and encourages pursuit of passion, and they look for opportunities to take risks, develop skills and learn in ways that fit their lifestyle

We foster a culture of authenticity and believe all people can make a difference

At Taco Bell, we’re Cultural Rebels. Want to join in on the passion-fueled fun? Learn more about the role below.

Is This You?

• Bachelor’s degree in food science, chemistry, nutrition, culinary or related education is required; Master’s degree preferred• Strong culinary skills are required, with 10+ years’ experience with quick service restaurant, consumer packaged goods, and/or food manufacturers categories.

• Experience in Manufacturing Food Ingredients in any/all of the following categories:

  • Meats, Breads, Sauces & Seasoning, Dairy, Produce

• Experience in test kitchen, and/or pilot plant and/or manufacturing environment

• Experience in packaging, back-of-house equipment, consumer nutrition, and/or food sustainability is a plus

• Excellent commercial skills - able to disseminate information, identify themes, patterns and trends and conceive systems, tools and processes which drive revenues.

• Ability to impact and influence stakeholders - have productive conflict at a high level to drive desired outcomes. Confidence and presence to interact with franchisees.

• Ability to strategize and set vision, excellent analytical & problem resolution skills.

• Effective organizational skills and time management skills; balance multiple priorities successfully.

• Emotional Intelligence - high levels of self-awareness, the ability to flex communication style to target audience and emotional resilience.

• Ability to travel up to 30%.

At Taco Bell, we aren’t just looking for candidates. We are looking for dynamic, disruptive, visionary problem-solvers that have a passion for innovation and the ability to lead cross- functional teams of associates across multiple disciplines. As the Food Innovation Manager for China, you will be responsible for leading the product strategy and supporting strategic objectives and annual operating plans of Taco Bell brand through food innovation initiatives as well as ensuring all core ingredients are meeting brand standard specifications. This role includes leading the development and implementation of Taco Bell food vision, working on establishing robust calendars with relevant innovation and a proven pipeline of products in a highly competitive fast paced environment. Ensuring local suppliers are capable of manufacturing and commercializing key global ingredients in the markets with brand standard quality and performance. This role requires subject matter expertise on Taco Bell Global Standards, and ensure those standards are consistently met or exceeded. Theperson will also lead consumer nutrition concerns and company commitments related to sustainability, including packaging.

A key aspect of this position is fostering strong franchisee relationships and influencing skills as well as the ability to develop cross-functional relationships with Marketing, Operations, Training and Supply Chain Management. This person will build culture and strengthen franchise teams and supplier capability through summits, workshops, industry meetings, and continuous improvement initiatives. They will drive positive change and relentlessly look for opportunities to make TB relevant and help establish a new brand in the hearts and minds of consumers in the market.

The Day-to-Day:

Food Innovation & Commercialization

• Responsible for food innovation and quality improvement of all menu items to make our food craveable by delivering brand promise and enhancing local consumer relevance.

• Translate consumer insights and trends into an innovative product pipeline and establish robust product calendars from concept to commercialization to drive sales.

• Co-develop and commercialize new ingredients with strategic suppliers according to pre-defined specifications to enable new product launch.

• Ensure every new product meets consumer, finance, and operations wins, following the markets acceptance norms, cost of sales targets and operational execution requirements.

• Enable successful new product execution in restaurants with operations inputs and support the development of procedures and training materials to ensure field readiness.

• Conduct product benchmarking and gather customer feedback to make appropriate ingredient and product modifications and maintain product competitiveness.

• Lead productivity and cost saving initiatives with Supply Chain to manage food cost without compromising product quality

• Drive packaging innovation and improvement to enable sustainability initiatives, cost savings, and efficiencies for the company.

• Lead optimization and approval process of core equipment design along with Operations and Supply Chain to support new assets model and drive efficiency.

R&D Leadership

• Form strong relationships with franchise leadership teams while being able to influence and persuade with courage, self-confidence, and integrity to drive the best plan for the brand

• Create strategic workstreams and manage project timelines and problem solve when required to ensure programs hit deadlines.

• Ability to handle several stakeholders both locally and globally with diverse ideas, experience and agendas.

• Participate in Global forums/work groups and collaborate with other markets to share know-how and help build new capability