Sr. Manager, Consumer Insights - Innovation - Hydration & Desserts, Meat & Cheese

Job Description
Here at Kraft Heinz, we grow our people to grow our business, because we believe that great people make great companies. When you join our table, you can expect access to an array of holistic wellness benefits* and perks, including medical, dental and vision coverage, 7% 401(k) matching, Business Resource Groups (BRGs) to help foster diversity, inclusion, and belonging for all employees, an industry-leading total rewards package that emphasizes a high discretionary bonus.
*Benefits begin 30 days after hire for hourly employees, and immediately upon hire for salaried employees.
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Sr. Manager Consumer Insights - Innovation at a glance...
The Consumer Insights Sr. Manager will be responsible for championing the consumer and owning the innovation agenda for the Hydration, Desserts, Meat, and Cheese brands in North America Including Capri Sun, Jello, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and more! The Sr. Manager will have accountability for influencing a strategic consumer centric Innovation strategy and pipeline demonstrating a consumer first mindset alongside an expansive innovation toolkit.
The Sr. Manager will be accountable for leading, planning, and implementing custom research aligned with KHC, innovation standards, principles, and must also draw from a variety of information sources and internal/external resources to develop insights that provide a competitive advantage to the Kraft Heinz innovation agenda. The Sr. Manager is also responsible for identifying, developing and integrating consumer insights throughout innovation plans ensure high quality, consumer leading and sustainable innovation pipelines.
What's on the menu?

• Strategic: Be a key strategic business partner to Marketing team and a thought leader. Leverage their understanding of the consumer, research methodologies/techniques, best practices and experience to drive the business forward
• Thoughtful & Provoking: Thinks ahead and predicts forks in the road; Navigate challenges in consideration of the jobs to be done; Challenges status quo and always seeks to drive to solutions
• Influential: Influence at all levels of organization (above & below) and work seamlessly with cross-functional teams - driving focus and impact
• Impactful: Drive to "so-what's" by making actionable recommendations routed in deep understanding of marketing, business and consumer
• An Owner: Possess a willingness to get your hands dirty, think and act like a start-up, and build out a function against a blank slate without buying pre-packaged solutions or methodologies.
• Flexible: Be flexible and creative to adjust to changing priorities and business challenges. Deal with ambiguity, while showing strong drive for results and project leadership skills; Highly adaptable, works well in an environment of change
• Strong Communicator: Showcase strong communication skills through distilled clean/concise insights that drive empathy and storytelling behaviors though the organization
• Self-motivated: Ability to handle many workstreams, competing priorities and distill a plan that can be implemented for the team
• Analytical: Ability to see through data and recognize patterns to inform brand actions
• Collaborator: Team player, works well in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment
• Coach & People Leader: Drive to share knowledge and develop a high-performing team
• Curiosity & Action: High degree of intellectual curiosity and creative insight, coupled with a drive for actionable, tangible results

Key responsibilities

• Key strategic innovation insights partner to the Meat & Cheese, Hydration & Desserts Business Units
• Leads, plans and executes the Consumer Insights innovation road map development inclusive of whitespace identification research, ideation and co-creation sprints, and validation research as you shepherd concepts through the stage-gate process.
• Create risk-based learning plans, challenging status quo while working collaboratively with the cross-functional team.
• Shape the long term (3, 5 and 10 year) innovation agenda and go to market strategy for the business units' categories through right-sized consumer learning and influential storytelling.
• Requires working in high levels of ambiguity; creating strategic direction for growth opportunities.

Recipe for Success - apply now if this sounds like you!

• Strong experience in strategic insights/consumer insights roles, preferably at a CPG manufacturer or a combination of CPG and vendor/agency side experience showcasing increasing responsibilities and scope.
• Proficient in various market research techniques, including both qualitative and quantitative methods; Experience using these tools for innovation development strongly preferred.
• Thrives in agile ways of working and has a track record of strong collaboration with cross-functional partners like Marketing, R&D, Supply Chain, Sensory and more.
• Experience working with both primary and secondary data sources
• Working knowledge of syndicated research tools (e.g. Nielsen, Circana, Mintel, etc).
• Proven ability to distill insights and drive impact into an organization - bringing the consumer to forefront.
• High level of tolerance for working in ambiguity, managing change and driving change management.
• Experience guiding and influencing consumer centric innovation strategies
• Excels at storytelling in creative and impactful ways - excellent communication, organization and presentation skills (written, oral, and across Microsoft Office Suite).

Location(s):

• Chicago/Aon Center
• Hybrid 3 days a week in office (Tues / Wed / Thurs), 2 days remote

Location(s)
Chicago/Aon Center
Kraft Heinz is an Equal Opportunity Employer that prohibits discrimination or harassment of any type. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Applicants who require an accommodation to participate in the job application or hiring process should contact [email protected] .