Innovation Manager

How you'll have an impact at Kinder’s:

The Innovation Manager will be responsible for working with key cross-functional stakeholders to generate, launch evaluate and optimize new growth opportunities for Kinder’s including its associated partner brands. You will partner with the Director of Innovation and the broader organization to deliver the strategic pipeline of high-growth opportunities that deliver a unique and compelling innovation capability to our consumers and customers in a way that drives sustainable value for everyone.

What are the Key Responsibilities of this Role

Opportunity Development & Evaluation

• Demonstrate a deep understanding of consumer needs and motivations and translate into actionable insights.
• Proactively identify consumer, customer, market and macro trends and contextualize these into growth opportunities.
• Closely partner with our insights & analytics team to develop and execute learning action plans to evaluate and develop target opportunities.

Innovation Brand Management / Business Plan Development

• Develop business cases for key innovation projects and support leadership in aligning on key go/no-go decisions.
• Build business plans for key innovation programs including development of strategic rationale, evaluation of consumer and customer need / white-space, coordination of technical evaluation (e.g. product development, packaging, or manufacturing hurdles), development of pack / pricing strategy, and evaluation of key financial characteristics (e.g. sales opportunity, margin profile).
• Support innovation categories with interim brand management support until programs are turned over tour CORE brand management team.

Go-To-Market & Post-Launch Analysis

• Activate strategic go-to-market plans for new opportunities and work with cross-functional stakeholders to drive alignment around execution needs including establishing business and financial objectives.
• Drive internal & external alignment around key programs and support customer engagements on new projects including partnering with the sales organization and developing sell-in materials.
• Evaluate in-market performance post-launch through analysis of key data sources and communicate findings internally and drive alignment on any optimization opportunities in real-time.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Collaborate with and cross-functional teams to overcome executional and logistical hurdles to meet aggressive in-market timing and coordinate product and packaging solutions that lead the market.
• Support alignment on the growth initiatives with key cross-functional stakeholders including Brand Marketing, Product Development, Finance, Operations and Sales.
• Develop and present relevant business updates to executive leadership.

What You Bring to the Table

Education / Experience

• Bachelor's Degree required, MBA preferred.
• 5+ years relevant work experience in CPG innovation or growth strategy; brand management and product marketing experience is a plus.
• Experience as a strategic thinker and developing business cases and corresponding execution plans.
• Experience in identifying consumer needs and motivations through research and / or market analysis.
• Track record of creative thinking, generation of new product ideas, and working with internal and external partners to develop new concepts / products.
• Experience working with and leading cross-functional teams.
• Strong analytical & quantitative skills with capability to use data and / or research to make insight-based arguments to drive organizational alignment.
• Knowledge of key syndicated data providers (Circana, Numerator preferred).
• Strong project management skills and understanding of new product development process from ideation to commercialization to in-market activation.

Personal Characteristics

• Business builder who owns and drives results.
• Growth mindset with an excitement to learn (and teach).
• Thrive in a dynamic, lean, and agile environment with proven record of completing projects on time in full through excellent cross functional team management, leadership, communication and influence.
• Self-starter who takes initiative and speaks their mind.
• Excited to be part of a fast-moving team with the ability to be a leader and a follower.
• Enjoy making decisions and finding ways to say ‘yes’ as often as possible to impactful and important priorities.

Location & Travel

We strongly believe in the power of culture and community and have a hybrid work structure with 4 days in the Walnut Creek Headquarters on a weekly basis to encourage collaboration and personal connections that will allow us to better serve our customers, consumers and to have more fun. Fridays are flex days with employees having the opportunity to choose to be either in the office or to work from home based on what makes most sense for them. Some travel will be required for this role on a periodic basis. Typical travel includes industry conferences and key customer visits.

Pay Transparency

The expected starting salary range for this role is $140,000- $150,000 per year. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range based on the location of the role. The amount a particular employee will earn within the salary range will be based on factors such as relevant education, qualifications, performance and business needs.