Senior Manager, Innovation

ABOUT US AT KINDER'S:

We are a fast-growing company working hard to bring amazing flavor solutions to consumers that are as exciting and delicious as they are simple to use. Whether we are serving the emerging cook or seasoned pro, we are 100% committed to our mission of bringing awesome flavor to consumers wherever and whenever they are looking for it and in whatever form they want it in be it seasonings, sauces, gravies, marinades, or anything else we can dream up. We drive hard to be the most quality-obsessed, innovative company in any market we serve and while we have experienced tremendous growth over the last 5 years, we think we are just getting started. We love our consumers and are fired up to be part of their flavor journey, and we need more great people to help us continue to raise the bar for what consumers think is even possible in their own kitchens.

Today, we have over 100 products sold nationwide at retailers including Costco, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Kroger, Safeway and many more. While we have been around for over 75 years, we have experienced explosive growth in the last 5 years and are now a top 5 brand in the U.S. in multiple flavor categories including seasoning blends, BBQ sauce, and wing sauce. To keep our momentum rolling, we need more passionate flavor advocates and builders to come and join our team and help us reach every kitchen across the U.S. and maybe even the world.

Reporting to the Director of Innovation, the Senior Manager, Innovation will be responsible for collaborating with key cross-functional stakeholders to generate, launch, evaluate, and optimize new product growth opportunities for Kinder’s and its partner brands. You will partner with the Director of Innovation and the broader Growth organization to develop a 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.

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 to CORE brand management team.

• Go-To-Market & Post-Launch Analysis

• Develop 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, building launch messaging plan, identifying key channel activation opportunities, and other key launch tactics.
• 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 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.
• Lead alignment on growth initiatives with key cross-functional stakeholders including Portfolio Management, R&D, Finance, Operations, Sales and Consumer Experience.
• Develop and present relevant business updates to executive leadership.

What You Bring to the Table

• Education / Experience

• Bachelor's Degree required, MBA preferred
• 7+ years relevant work experience in consumer product innovation or growth strategy; brand management and product marketing experience is a plus
• Proven strategic thinker with experience 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 (e.g. Circana, Numerator)
• 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 the humility to be a follower
• Enjoy making decisions and finding ways to say ‘yes’ as often as possible to impactful and important priorities

Things About the Way We Work

• No two days here are the same
• We try to be good team members and good communicators, but we don’t live by hierarchy and structure – everyone is a difference maker here
• We make a lot of decisions in the face of incomplete information – our team embraces ambiguity and tries to make good decisions fast rather than great decisions slow
• We believe our job is to take smart risk, not to eliminate risk
• We believe in growing our skills and becoming a better company with more managerial expertise, but we are an entrepreneurial company at heart
• We aren’t trying to be average – we want to do exceptional things and we are willing to work hard to achieve them

Location & Travel

The position will be based out of our 40,000 sq. foot office in Walnut Creek, CA. We strongly believe in the power of culture and community and have a hybrid work structure with 4 days in the office on a weekly basis to encourage collaboration and personal connections that will allow us to better serve our customers and consumer 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.