Vice President of Product Development
Guide Owned Brands (OB) development through an anthropological lens to deliver break through OB innovations across all brands and categories to solve unmet needs. Lead and influence a culture of innovation and deploy ideation strategies, processes and tactics that lead to product development. Consult internal and retail clients' cross functional teams in new item development to ensure we are on trend with flavor profiles, ingredients, and global, regional, and local trends.
Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities
- Drive Retailer clients’ OB growth by applying knowledge of culinary and food processing trends, competitive set, consumer trends and business needs
- Discover new pathways in the form of product ideas that build the OB portfolio with heightened cache, increased perceived value, deepened loyalty, and greater advocacy
- Utilize traditional and non-traditional data sources for competitive and consumer behavior intelligence
- Provide pre-commercialization assessments to support the further development of incubator ideas and identify critical high pay-off strategies
- Conduct retail store visits to evaluate store execution and overall category effectiveness
- Provide guidance on vendor selection, product segmentation, and sales planning
- Shape food knowledge across departments through food, cultural and ethnic, category and product trends; incorporate the information into retailer clients’ OB business plans
- Be active in the sensory phase of product development as well as approving reformulations, packaging, sourcing, and specification changes
- Monitor and optimize innovation experience against OB initiatives
Program Management
- Move projects into and through the ideation process to the development process
- Contribute to the approval of all innovation product specifications and lead rapid protocepting to bring concepts to life
- Build relationships with key stakeholders in a broad range of functions, levels, and organizations; assist in new product communication to optimize product assortment and placement
- Follow established programs, policies, and practices to produce safe, quality foods that meet regulatory and company requirements
- Supervise and coach direct reports in the performance of their duties; complete performance reviews and provides feedback to direct reports
- Must be able to perform the essential functions of this position with or without reasonable accommodation
Minimum Qualifications The following are the minimum job-related qualifications which an individual needs in order to successfully perform the essential duties and responsibilities of the job
Education Level: (Required): Bachelor's Degreeor equivalent experience
(Preferred): Master's Degree Or equivalent experience
- Field of Study/Area of Experience: Product innovation, marketing or related field, or comparable work experience
- 10+ Years of experience in Retail, Consumer Packaged Goods, and/or Innovation Industry
Brand, innovation, category management, manufacturing, operations and/or procurement experience
Orchestration of commercialization plans for new product development pipelines
Demonstrated success in project management
Skills, Knowledge and Abilities (Choose 5-7 items from the menu selection in the next Section below) Job Will Remain Open Until Filled