Innovation Associate Marketing Manager

PepsiCo•Plano, TX

1d•$93,500 - $156,450•Onsite

About The Position

Bring your passion and talent to our stage and help shape the future of snacking through innovation tied to culturally relevant retail platforms and consumer-first experiences. The Innovation team is looking for a strategic, analytical problem solver and results-oriented marketer who thrives in a fast-paced environment where navigating ambiguity, influencing across functions, and bringing bold ideas to life are critical. This is an exciting opportunity to help define innovation strategy and activate high-impact growth platforms across some of Frito-Lay’s most iconic brands. This role will lead LTO innovation strategy, planning, and execution across annual playbook calendars and key portfolio moments for some of our most iconic brands, shaping programs that help our brands show up with timely, culturally relevant, and commercially impactful innovation each year. This is an opportunity to partner closely with Brand Marketing, Sales, Insights, Finance, R&D, Design, Supply Chain, and Customer teams to identify opportunities, build activation strategies, and bring strategic planning and innovation programs to market. This role offers unique exposure across multiple brands and business priorities, helping develop expertise in portfolio strategy, innovation commercialization, retail activation, and executive storytelling while influencing senior leaders across the organization.

Requirements

Previous CPG and/or agency innovation experience strongly preferred
MBA degree or BBA with 3+ years of direct, full-time work experience
Strong project management skills and cross-functional team experience
Strong demonstrative leadership potential and strategic thinking
A passion for understand consumer behavior and an ability to translate trends and insights into product ideas that uniquely satisfy unmet needs
Can-do spirit with an aptitude in dealing with ambiguity facilitated by a penchant for creative-thinking and problem-solving
Ability to keep others engaged and accountable while delivering results flawlessly and on-time
A sense of urgency, bias for action, and strong attention to detail
Strong written and oral communication skills
A curiosity to learn about all parts of innovation and the functions that go into turning concepts into products
A flexible and 360 marketing/GM like mindset with strong understand of brand building
Project Management
Prior experience leveraging consumer insights to develop effective marketing programs and campaigns
Ability to effectively collaborate, communicate and influence in a matrix environment
Creative thinking and problem-solving skills
Demonstrated ability to develop and cultivate relationships
Strong Strategic Thinking, Drive for Results, Creative Problem Solver, Optimistic, and Entrepreneurial
Advanced Powerpoint and Excel skills

Responsibilities

Lead innovation strategy tied to portfolio activation initiatives across key growth platforms, focused on LTOs.
Develop strategic recommendations that connect category trends, consumer insights, brand priorities, and customer opportunities to drive incremental growth.
Identify and evaluate opportunities, emerging trends, cultural moments, and consumer needs to inform future innovation pipelines.
Lead cross-functional teams through stage-gate processes to bring innovation concepts from ideation through commercialization.
Partner with Sales and Customer teams to develop compelling activation programs, sell stories, and customer-specific innovation opportunities.
Drive alignment across Brand, Insights, Finance, R&D, Design, Supply Chain, and Commercial teams to ensure flawless execution.
Develop learning agendas and post-launch assessments to capture insights, optimize future programs, and improve innovation effectiveness.
Create executive-ready recommendations and presentations to influence decision-making and gain leadership alignment on strategic priorities.
Champion a consumer-centric mindset while balancing creativity, feasibility, financial performance, and speed to market.