Director, R&D - Consumer Directed Innovation

Kraft Heinz • Glenview, IL

9d • Hybrid

About The Position

As the R&D Director of Consumer Directed Innovation , you will lead the consumer understanding, experience strategy, and design-led research agenda that drives breakthrough food and beverage innovation and renovation for the Kraft Heinz North American Zone (NAZ). This role exists to close the gap between understanding consumers, imagining what’s next, and bringing it to life—ensuring consumer learning is a core driver of product, portfolio, and platform decisions. You will define how consumer insights and experience frameworks are translated into actionable product requirements, guiding teams from early ambiguity through commercialization. This role blends research rigor with a builder’s mindset, enabling better decision-making and bigger, high-quality innovation outcomes. This role reports directly to the VP, R&D Consumer Experience & Innovation Capabilities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's, Master's or PhD in Science (e.g., Engineering, Industrial Design, etc.) or Consumer Psychology disciplines with 15+ years of progressive experience in consumer research, UX design, product innovation or related disciplines, including direct exposure to product development and commercialization
• At least 3 to 5 years of experience managing and developing teams, including setting performance expectations, coaching for insight quality and business impact, and building capability.
• Demonstrated ability to implement consumer insights into a 3-to-5-year product pipeline.
• Proven track record of leading Consumer Experience, Consumer Insights, or Product Experience teams within Food, Beverage, or broader CPG, delivering consumer-led product, renovation, and innovation outcomes.
• Strong ability to partner effectively with R&D, Marketing, Sensory, and Brand teams to translate consumer needs into actionable product and experience requirements.
• Experience leading front-end innovation and experience-driven concept development.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to influence technical and commercial stakeholders without direct authority.
• Strong project and portfolio management capabilities, including planning, prioritization, execution, and balancing speed, quality, and resource constraints.
• Strong business acumen, with the ability to connect consumer experience learning to business objectives, product strategy, and value creation.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with experience presenting consumer insights and recommendations to senior and executive leadership.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the definitive owner for high-visibility strategic programs, managing the end-to-end consumer experience roadmap across NAZ platforms, categories, and brands.
• Define, track, and deliver on key performance indicators (KPIs) for all consumer experience programs.
• Establish success metrics—including consumer desirability and market fit—taking accountability for large-scale business impact.
• Identify future-facing opportunities by reframing ambiguous signals and tensions into clear innovation territories.
• Define experience principles and consumer value curves to anchor innovation over time.
• Lead teams to develop a robust pipeline that translates consumer behaviors into actionable requirements, delivering innovation for core brands (1–2 years) and breakthrough platforms (4+ years).
• Shape and execute qualitative and quantitative research across discovery and validation, including usage/preparation testing, packaging evaluation, and in-home/ethnographic research.
• Partner with R&D, Sensory, and Product teams to lead the implementation of design elements into testing prototypes, ensuring physical products accurately reflect the intended consumer experience and formulation decisions.
• Partner with Consumer Insights, Sensory, and external agencies to design research built to inform making and decision-making, not just learning.
• Serve as the internal consumer advocate, synthesizing research into business-relevant recommendations that influence product roadmaps and portfolio direction.
• Support the prioritization of consumer trade-offs across cost, nutrition, preparation, sustainability, convenience, and scalability to ensure consumer-led innovation successfully ships.
• Ensure continuity of consumer intent from early exploration through development and commercialization.
• Lead agency collaboration across design and research partners, serving as the strategic lead for an ecosystem of external vendors.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of ~14 professionals (including 2–3 direct salaried reports), setting expectations and building bench strength.
• Elevate organizational capability in research design and insight application.
• Drive adoption of frameworks like Jobs-to-Be-Done and consumer journey mapping, as well as developing custom frameworks to advance innovation tailored to organizational needs.
• Act as a strategic partner to senior R&D and Marketing leadership, translating consumer understanding into platform strategies and investment choices.
• Lead the execution of the R&D Consumer Experience strategy and operating model.
• Implement and continuously improve the Consumer Learning Plan Framework.
• Train and coach teams on technical tools, trend monitoring, and competitive benchmarking to embed consumer centricity into R&D ways of working.

Benefits

• Our Total Rewards philosophy is to provide a meaningful and flexible spectrum of programs that equitably support our diverse workforce and their families and complement Kraft Heinz’ strategy and values.
• Coverage for employees (and their eligible dependents) through affordable access to healthcare, protection, and saving for the future, we offer plans tailored to meet you and your family’s needs.
• Coverage for benefits will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans and associated governing plan documents.
• We offer events, resources, and learning opportunities that inspire a physical, social, emotional, and financial well-being lifestyle for our employees and their families.
• You’ll be able to participate in a variety of benefits and wellbeing programs that may vary by role, country, region, union status, and other employment status factors, for example: Physical - Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental, Vision, Screenings/Assessments Social - Paid Time Off, Company Holidays, Leave of Absence, Flexible Work Arrangements, Recognition, Training Emotional – Employee Assistance Program , Wellbeing Programs, Family Support Programs Financial – 401k, Life, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Disability

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree