Commercialization Excellence Lead

The Kraft Heinz Company•Chicago, IL

2d•$141,500 - $176,900•Onsite

About The Position

The Commercialization Excellence Lead will define and execute a multi-year commercialization capability maturity roadmap, spanning process, people, and technology, aligned to enterprise innovation ambitions. This role involves designing, implementing, and continuously improving a project governance framework, establishing standardized decision-making frameworks, and building rigorous change management practices. The lead will champion a 'Business First, Project Second' operating philosophy, anchoring initiative plans to consumer-centric success criteria and competitive market realities. Additionally, they will develop and update learning plans to support Gate decisions and in-market readiness, and establish post-launch tracking discipline to drive corrective actions. This role also involves acting as the commercialization's senior advisor, framing risks, surfacing issues, and presenting decision-ready options to senior leadership, while partnering with commercialization and functional leaders to build governance communities and drive cross-functional accountability. The lead will also define role profiles, competency frameworks, and career ladders to attract and retain talent, build and execute a capability development roadmap, and lead onboarding and team effectiveness initiatives. Coaching and mentoring a team of project managers and embedding leadership principles are also key responsibilities. Furthermore, the role entails leading the selection, implementation, and adoption of commercialization technology, defining and enforcing project data standards, and designing dashboards and governance reporting for leadership visibility. Finally, the lead will evaluate and continuously improve integrated planning processes for cross-functional synchronization.

Requirements

Experience in commercialization capability maturity transformation.
Proficiency in designing and implementing project governance frameworks (agile, stage-gate, hybrid).
Experience establishing standardized decision-making frameworks.
Skilled in change management practices.
Ability to anchor initiative plans to consumer-centric success criteria and competitive market realities.
Experience developing learning plans for commercial, technical, and market insights.
Proficiency in establishing post-launch tracking and driving corrective actions.
Experience acting as a senior advisor, framing risks, and presenting options to senior leadership.
Ability to partner with commercialization and functional leaders to build governance communities and drive accountability.
Experience defining role profiles, competency frameworks, and career ladders.
Experience building and executing capability development roadmaps.
Experience leading onboarding and team effectiveness initiatives.
Coaching and mentoring experience.
Experience leading the selection, implementation, and adoption of commercialization technology.
Proficiency in defining and enforcing project data standards, tracking compliance protocols, and reporting cadences.
Experience designing dashboards and governance reporting.
Ability to evaluate and improve integrated planning processes.

Nice To Haves

Experience in the CPG environment.
Familiarity with 5E Leadership principles.

Responsibilities

Define and execute a multi-year commercialization capability maturity roadmap — spanning process, people, and technology — aligned to enterprise innovation ambitions.
Design, implement, and continuously improve a project governance framework (agile, stage-gate, hybrid) scaled to initiative complexity, risk, and strategic importance.
Establish standardized decision-making frameworks (RACI, Gate readiness criteria, issue escalation paths) that enable speed without sacrificing quality.
Build and institutionalize rigorous change management practices, ensuring aligned base plans serve as the backbone of all initiative execution.
Champion a 'Business First, Project Second' operating philosophy: anchoring every initiative plan to consumer-centric success criteria and competitive market realities.
Develop and update comprehensive Commercial, Technical, and Market learning plans that generate the insights needed to support Gate decisions and in-market readiness.
Establish post-launch tracking discipline using structured performance templates; drive corrective action rapidly when results diverge from commitments.
Act as the commercialization's senior advisor — framing risks, surfacing key issues, and presenting decision-ready options for senior leadership with full transparency.
Partner with commercialization, functional leaders, key decision makers to build strong governance communities and drive cross-functional accountability.
Define role profiles, competency frameworks, and career ladders that attract, develop, and retain top commercialization talent in a competitive CPG environment; build and execute a capability development roadmap for Project/Program Managers and cross-functional initiative team members.
Lead onboarding, team effectiveness, and health-check cadences that establish high-performing norms across all initiative teams.
Coach and mentor a team of project managers; embed 5E Leadership principles as the operating model for all multi-functional team leadership.
Lead the selection, implementation, and adoption of commercialization technology (portfolio management platforms, stage-gate tracking tools, collaboration systems).
Define and enforce project data standards, tracking compliance protocols, and reporting cadences across the initiative portfolio.
Design dashboards and governance reporting that give leadership real-time visibility into portfolio health, risk, and capacity utilization.
Evaluate and continuously improve the integrated planning processes (AOP schedules, spending plans, resource allocation) that drive cross-functional synchronization.