Director, Innovation

Litehouse

2d

About The Position

The Director of Innovation is an enterprise leader responsible for identifying, building, and delivering Litehouse Foods' future growth platforms. This role owns new product innovation - from uncovering unmet consumer needs and white spaces to commercializing bold, scalable ideas that win with consumers and sustain at retail.
As a leader, you bring a growth mindset, thrive in ambiguity, and push limits-balancing creativity with discipline, curiosity with accountability, and speed with rigor. Working at the center of Marketing, Consumer Insights, Sales, R&D, Operations, and Finance, the Director of Innovation translates insight into action and ideas into impact.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a related field required
• 10+ years of experience in CPG innovation, brand marketing, or strategy
• Proven success launching new products and managing innovation portfolios
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and influencing at the executive level
• Strong strategic, analytical, financial, and business acumen
• Knowledge of food manufacturing and new product development processes
• Ability to translate ideas into successful, scalable products
• Strong decision-making skills with comfort managing ambiguity and risk
• Ability to drive change while keeping teams focused on results
• Travel required: 5+ times per year.

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree preferred

Responsibilities

• Innovation Strategy & Pipeline: Set and lead a multi-year innovation strategy that turns insights into scalable growth opportunities.
• Brand Partnership & Business Planning: Build strong business cases and plans that prioritize innovation and align brand, feasibility, and financial outcomes.
• Go-To-Market Excellence: Turn ideas into launches that win; driving cross-functional alignment, partnering with Sales for compelling customer stories, and using post-launch insights to quickly optimize performance.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Influence and align teams across the enterprise to deliver growth initiatives with speed and shared ownership.
• Financial & Strategic Alignment: Ensure innovation delivers against sales, margin, ROI, and long-term portfolio goals.
• Innovation Culture: Champion curiosity, accountability, and smart risk-taking across the organization.
• External Trend & Partner Engagement: Stay connected to emerging technologies, startups, suppliers, and industry partners to fuel future innovation.
• Process & Capability Building: Strengthen innovation tools, processes, and ways of working to increase speed, clarity, and repeatable success.
• Talent Development: Mentor and develop future innovation leaders.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees