Innovation plays a key role to remain competitive in the market and to position ourselves for further growth. To focus our efforts, our Innovation team will work closely with our Brand Teams, R&D, Technical Services, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Sales teams to support the goals and strategies of our branded businesses.

The Manager of Innovation position will support our Breakfast and Buns & Rolls Innovation team and will play a key role in filling our future innovation pipeline. The person in this position will be responsible for understanding our category business objectives, working through consumer insights to ideate new products and then shepherd those new ideas through a product development process. This team member will lead their projects with cross functional teams through testing and development. This individual will need to demonstrate consumer empathy, as well as excellent team work, communication skills, organization, and project management skills. Exposure to a variety of market research techniques and experience in data analysis are also important. We are looking for candidates who are passionate about food and food trends and who enjoy the work of creating new things.

This position reports to the Director of Innovation for Breakfast and Buns & Rolls.

Key Job Responsibilities:

• Systematically evaluate ideas to select high potential opportunities for further testing and/or feasibility analysis.
• Collaborate with internal research partner to design innovation testing (qualitative, concept, prototype, in-store etc.) to best prove out innovation viability with consumers.
• Develop strong, collaborative relationships with cross-functional teams (Brand Teams, Manufacturing, Sales, R&D) to ensure collaboration and alignment of direction at all stages of development and launch.
• Use information, logic, and sound business judgment to develop new products and categories.
• Use strong project management skills to navigate projects through to execution
• Prepare persuasive sales and internal communication materials.
• Work collaboratively with agency and research partners.
• Must be agile in creating and reading data analysis to generate business insights.
• Develop and manage new product and program handoffs (process and materials) to ensure a smooth transition of new product launch activities throughout the development process

#LI-SO1

Position Requirements:

Key Behavioral Competencies:

• Be a team player and strong collaborator.

• Ability to sell ideas up, down and sideways to keep team and stakeholders motivated and focused.

• Self-starter, ability to work independently.
• Innovative problem solver.
• Open mindset.
• Tenacious.
• Results oriented.
• Learning enthusiast, intellectual curiosity.
• Excellent organizational and communication (written and oral) skills.

Education and Work History:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Innovation or a related field. MBA preferred. 3-7 plus years of experience, CPG preferred.
• Computer skills and proficiency with MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Ability to learn and be proficient at other analytical tools and data sources.
• Experience with syndicated data such as IRI or Nielsen.
• Previous experience in an innovation role is a plus.
• Experience with consumer research and concept/prototype testing is a plus.
• Ability and willingness to travel 15% of the time (post COVID).
• Proficiency in Spanish is a plus

The physical and mental demands described in each job posting are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of each job. Reasonable accommodations may be requested to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of each job.

Bimbo Bakeries USA is an equal opportunity employer with a policy that provides equal employment opportunity for applicants and employees regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, any other classification protected by law.