Violife Brand Manager - Innovation
Are you excited about the possibility of driving the innovation agenda on the #1 dairy-free cheese brand in the US, Violife?
Location: Hybrid - Hackensack, NJ Office 3 days per week
About the Position
We are looking to hire an Innovation Manager to lead plant-based cheese innovation, from insight to launch. In this role, you will manage multiple new product launches, step-changes in our product quality and performance, and customer executions. You will play a critical role in developing propositions, pricing strategy, packaging, product attributes, and business cases, as well as articulating the sell-in story to the largest US retailers across mainstream grocery, natural channel, club, and mass. In detail, you will be responsible for driving accountability of project delivery through the Innovation Planning Team (R&D, Supply Chain, Procurement, Sales), supporting overall innovation strategy for New Product Development and channel opportunities, identifying and reporting on key food trends and innovations by immersing yourself in the food space through online tracking and attending food expos and industry events, leading packaging design and development for product innovations, organizing product tastings, working closely with the R&D team on new product recipes and recipe renovations, developing bottoms up business cases and own P&Ls working closely with the Sales and Finance teams, performing in-depth brand and category deep dives to identify whitespace and support the overall innovation strategy within the fast-moving foods space, and fair amount of project management, artwork development, concept writing, support on test and learn initiatives, leading cross-functional project team meetings, innovation funnel creation and monitoring, business case development, and launch tracking.
So what does it take to be successful in this role?
You are flex operational and strategic skills while keeping the consumer and customer needs at the forefront of what you do. You are salesy and able to present support to the sales team at key innovation sell-in meetings. The innovation team moves quickly, so you will 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, is excited to take ownership over business-critical projects and interact, engage with, debate leadership, this is the role for you. If you have a passion for food, entrepreneurial, 5+ years of relevant experience (i.e. Brand Management, Innovation Management, Management Consulting, Start-up experience in the food/consumer space), including at least one robust role in innovation, have extesnive experience in project management via leading cross-functional teams, have strong analytical skills, syndicated data resources preferred i.e. Nielsen, IRI, SPINS, and be able to identify avenues for brand growth in emerging channels then you'll crush this! Please note that this role will require some international travel. A valid passport that does not have an expiration date approaching will be necessary. In total, the role will require up to 25% business travel.
What’s next?
If this position sounds interesting, please hit the apply button now!
We understand your resume might not be up-to-date, so 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.
We prefer to receive your application before 3/17. The first stage of the process will be a Video interview with me, Alexander Morse - Talent Acquisition Manager for North America. The first interviews with the Hiring manager will held the week of 3/20 and 3/27. The final interviews will be held on-site at our Hackensack, NJ Office on 4/4, 4/5, and 4/6.
Upfield is an employer committed to diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities for all in the workplace. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviors, 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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