Director, Innovation

Weiman Products LLC•Gurnee, IL

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Innovation Director will be responsible for owning and delivering the value of the innovation pipeline across the company’s priority consumer brands. This role will focus on developing whitespace, category adjacencies, and new use opportunities and line extensions. The candidate must be comfortable not only leveraging trends, insights, and data from multiple sources to inform new product ideas and sizing opportunities, but to also initiate and manage market research projects to gain insights. In this role, the Innovation Director must improve quality/impact of innovation, clarity of deliverables, speed-to-market, stakeholder accountability, and general alignment of product portfolio with brand strategy. To achieve this goal, the Innovation Director must define tools, platforms, and resources to optimize communication and collaboration to achieve objectives of the innovation function and the organization overall. The Innovation Director and her/his team members will lead cross-functional teams to move projects from concept to execution, establishing strong partnerships with R&D, Supply Chain, Finance, Sales & Sales Strategy, Brand Marketing and Project Management to ensure alignment and buy-in from key stakeholders on new products and future innovation pipeline strategies. This role requires strategic thinking, strong organizational skills, and the ability to transform data and insights into tangible ideas and product scopes. Deep consumer, customer, product, and financial understanding will be essential for success, as well as innovation experience.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in brand or product management in a CPG environment
Experience developing and leading the execution of an innovation pipeline from concept to launch.
Experience leading cross-functional teams through new product development processes.
Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience.
Able to identify new product opportunities through brand, consumer and category data, insights, and analysis.
Able to set and execute a portfolio-wide innovation strategy that drives distinct brand roles and scalable innovation.
Able to manage multiple work streams and projects in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
Able to capture, document and present - both verbally and in writing - complex information in a succinct and effective manner
Able to influence, engage and drive results across a wide range of cross-functional stakeholders.
Knowledge of a variety of market research techniques and ability to utilize appropriate techniques for different objectives.
Strong organization and project management skills

Nice To Haves

Experience working with 3rd party innovation partners (i.e., suppliers, co-manufacturers, etc.) a plus.

Responsibilities

Own and deliver innovation pipeline across a portfolio of brands ensuring clear differentiation, strategic focus, and high impact growth.
Owns the overall innovation pipeline including overall valuation, profitability, timing, and cadence.
Effectively lead cross-functional teams through the new product development process to ensure new products are launched on time, on quality, on cost and on margin.
Leverage macro trends, consumer data and category insight to identify and evaluate new categories and product extensions that deliver on brand fit and opportunity size.
Lead all aspects of concept/idea development, including insights and benefit development.
Develop deep category knowledge across current and near neighbor categories and brands.
Initiate and manage market research projects to deliver powerful consumer and shopper insights to facilitate continued brand growth.
Engage with strategic partners (suppliers and manufacturers) to source and understand potential opportunities with new technologies, processes/capabilities, or materials.
Collaborate closely with brand teams to ensure all new items in development fit with each brand’s purpose and priorities.
Develop strong, collaborative relationships with cross-functional teams (Brand Teams, Operations, R&D, Finance) to ensure alignment of direction at all stages of development and launch.
Prepare persuasive sales and internal communication materials, to sell-in innovation pipeline strategy and new product ideas to key internal stakeholders.
Manage Stage Gate process and cadence, including all internal approvals.
Manage direct reports by providing coaching and direction to inspire employees to maximize results. Create a sense of team within the innovation group, the marketing team and overall organization.