Are You an Experienced Brand Manager in the Dairy and/or Food Space Looking for Your Next Challenge? 

Sr. Brand ManagerUS Non-Dairy Creams Category (Coffee and Heavy Creams)

Location: Hackensack, NJ

Salary range:  $160-190k 

Hybrid 2x/week 

Who is Upfield? 

At Upfield our purpose is clear: we make people healthier and happier with nutritious and delicious, natural, plant-based products that are good for you and our planet.

Performance, Passion and Care define who we are as a company, how we work every day, and the responsibility we feel toward our associates, our consumers, our business partners, and our world. Upfield blends an entrepreneurial culture with the resources and support that come with being the largest global plant-based foods company. 

Our US business has been on an incredible growth journey for the past several years and has major ambitions to further step-change growth in the dynamic food category. We must attract the right people – those that love what they do, thrive on responsibility and are looking for limitless career defining opportunities.

About the Role!

Join Upfield to launch a global plant-based brand in the US non-dairy creams category with aggressive ambition for both Coffee Cream and Heavy Cream in 2024 and beyond.   Success is likely to lead to further geographic rollout, so this role is meant to build a business in the US but also set the Global company up for future success.

As the Lead for this Global brand, that is new to the US, you will own all aspects of the process from insights to launch, as well as execution of the marketing plan and development of a 3-year innovation funnel across both Retail and Food Service channels.

You will need to flex operational, management, and strategic skills while keeping the consumer and customer needs at the forefront of what you do. 

As Sr. Brand Manager of Non-Dairy Creams, you will play a critical role in developing propositions, pricing strategy, packaging, product attributes, and business cases, as well as full marketing plans.  The role will also include the articulation of the sell-in story to the largest US retailers across mainstream grocery, natural channel, club, mass and food service. This person should possess presentation and selling skills to support the sales team at key innovation sell-in meetings.

The environment at Upfield is fast paced and the Sr. Brand Manager of non-Dairy creams will need to bring a dynamic and agile approach to work. If you are entrepreneurial and a “do-er” who loves to get things done quickly and drive efficient teams to deliver, are excited to take ownership over business-critical projects and interact, engage with, and debate leadership, this is the right role for you. The plant-based landscape is shifting every day; in this role you will have the opportunity to make your own mark in this space. 

This role will be a member of a 4 person US Marketing Leadership team and part of a vibrant 25-person North America Upfield marketing team.   The role will have 3 direct reports covering retail and food service.  Managers who show leadership potential have a strong track record of accelerated career growth within the organization, with opportunities to work on leading brands like Country Crock, Violife, Becel and I Can’t Believe it’s not Butter.

Main Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Launch a New Range of non-dairy Coffee Creams working closely with R&D, Supply Chain, Procurement, Sales and already identified 3rd party manufacturer.
• Lead overall innovation strategy for New Product Development and channel opportunities across retail and food service.
• Perform in-depth brand and category deep dives to identify whitespace and support the overall innovation strategy within the fast-moving foods space.
• Lead packaging design and development for product innovations. 
• Develop bottom-up business cases and own P&Ls working closely with the Sales and Finance teams.
• Own the development and execution of the overall communications strategy and marketing plan for the launch.

• Work with media agency and colleagues at key digital platforms (eg. Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube) to develop test and scale approach for audience-driven media.
• Create and execute custom content with digital Influencers and publisher partners in the food and lifestyle space.
• Own our branded channel strategy including website and social media handles (FB, IG, Twitter etc.).
• Lead partner agencies in planning and executing all customer shopper marketing activities and national consumer promotional strategies.
• Leverage marketing intelligence insights in conjunction with media agency to synthesize and optimize activities in the areas of paid and owned media (tv, digital, social, website), with an eye towards learning and utilizing our data management platforms to extend our targeting capabilities.
• Establish and maintain brand budget and drive efficiencies on an ongoing basis, working closely with external partners to optimize across and within channels.
• Stay on top of food trends as well as new marketing technology to assist with special marketing projects as needed to leverage innovative channels.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA preferred 
• 10+ years of relevant experience (i.e. Project Management, Brand Management, Innovation Management, Management Consulting, Start-up experience in the food/consumer space), including at least one robust role in innovation 
• Love for food and a knowledge of food trends 
• Strong project management and organizational skills
• Entrepreneurial mindset and an agile approach to work
• High level of interpersonal skills leading cross-functional teams and demonstrated ability to influence others across functions 
• Strong analytical skills and be able to opportunistically identify avenues for brand growth in emerging channels 
• Ability to lead and develop a team
• Organizational skills and attention to detail
• Proficient in MS Excel and PowerPoint, (MS projects preferred) 
• Experience using syndicated data resources preferred (i.e. Nielsen, IRI, SPINS)
• Proximity to Upfield Hackensack office for hybrid working (roughly 3 days a week in office)

• Ability to travel domestic and internationally.

About Upfield!

We are the largest plant-based company in the world, and we believe in doing what’s right for our people, our customers and the planet.

We’ve got iconic brands like Country Crock, Violife, I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter, Becel, Rama and Flora that people all over the world know and love. We’ve been a trusted category leader since 1871 and yet we feel like we’re only just getting started.

We are a highly entrepreneurial fast-paced team running a multi-billion Euro business across 60+ countries with the mind-set of a start-up! We are agile, creative, fast-to-market and obsessed with customers and consumers.

If you want to make an impact where it matters apply.

What’s next

If this position sounds interesting, please hit the apply button now!

We prefer to receive your application before November 9th. The first stage of the process will be a Video interview will be conducted within 3 days of reviewing your application. The 1st interview will take place 3 days following, and the final interview will be within 3 days thereafter.

We understand your resume might not be up to date, we recommend that you apply with what you have or your LinkedIn Profile. Upfield is dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace, we understand that you might not hit all the requirements stated in the description, but we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this role or other roles. 

Upfield is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias.

No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Upfield. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics.

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