Associate Manager, Innovation

The Associate Brand Manager, Innovation is responsible for the creation and delivery of a product innovation pipeline that supports the marketing strategy to increase household penetration and help Tate's achieve its ambition to lead premium snacking in baked goods. This role will identify opportunities through a deep consumer understanding & will prioritize through their commercial & brand strategy foundations.

- Support the development of brand innovation strategy, in partnership with the Director, to develop a multi-year innovation pipeline that aligns with the brand growth strategy and is sufficient to deliver financial targets.

- Using consumer research, syndicated data, and market trends, translate unmet consumer needs into winning concepts that fuel the brand's growth ambition and enhance our brand equity

- Ability to work with various agencies to develop consumer centric innovation bundles

- Ongoing management of the brand 4:2:1 plans (e.g., pipelines)

- Collaborate with business partners to develop proposal and drive consensus on size of opportunity, resources required, level of complexity and hit timeline

- Delivery & execution of the multi-year innovation pipeline from concept to launch; collaborating closely with the cross functional team to ensure flawless execution. Includes both new projects as well as PPA/customer specific.

- Lead commercialization projects that drive growth, unlock new business & support Tate's long-term strategy

- Provide marketing leadership through innovation stage gate process

- Collaborate with cross functional team (R&D, Consumer Insights, Sales, Operations, and others) through feasibility, commercialization & launch

- Partner with Sales to develop channel & customer level understanding to inform packaging, pricing, placement

- Work in close partnership with R&D to ensure product development brief is clear and product exceeds consumer expectations during internal and external prototyping and testing phases

- Brief Creative team/external agencies on all innovation-related needs; manage appropriate feedback/approvals efficiently

- Works closely with Sales, Consumer insights, Demand Planning & Finance to develop new item forecasts and projections that align with our financial hurdles and mitigate waste potential

- Partner with Sales to create internal and external sell-in stories for innovation, articulating the strategic business rationale, consumer problem to be solved, and rationale/excitement for a successful innovation

- Post launch tracking and integration of learnings into pipeline innovation development

- Innovation team support: data hygiene, budget management, and other potential needs.

- Adapt to shifting organizational priorities by taking ownership of new duties and regularly owning a roll-up-your-sleeves mindset

- Proven ability to analyze and leverage Syndicated data (Nielsen or equivalent), Customer POS Data, SPARK Shipment History, and Shopper Data (including panel) to find business opportunities

- Proficiency in MS Office, especially Outlook, Power Point, Excel, and Word

- 6-8 years of experience in CPG marketing for food manufacturing

- Excellent strategic, analytical, and decision-making skills with a solid understanding of Nielsen Data (or comparable)

- Performance mindset; bias for setting and measuring KPIs on an ongoing basis

- Strong interpersonal skills and communication skills; able to foster open communication and engage/influence others

- Excellent written & oral communication skills (including presentation skills), analytical ability, independent decision making and business vision

- Knowledge and understanding of Stage Gate process for innovation initiative management

- Strong project management skills and the ability to prioritize and multi-task against several complex projects at one time

- Collaborative mindset with strength in effectively receiving and communicating feedback

The base salary range for this position is $97,300 to $133,815; the exact salary depends on several factors such as experience, skills, education and location. In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for participation in a highly competitive bonus program with possibility for overachievement based on performance and company results.