Senior Manager Consumer Insights Innovation and Incubation
About The Position
Bimbo Bakeries USA is seeking a Senior Manager of Consumer Insights, Innovation, within its Marketing Center of Excellence. Reporting to the Senior Director of Consumer Insights, this role supports the company’s marketing transformation and helps build a consumer-obsessed culture through differentiated food innovations. The position focuses on larger innovation projects rather than smaller line extensions and contributes to innovation strategy, launch planning, and business growth. The Senior Manager serves as a trusted innovation and brand partner, bringing a strong consumer perspective to internal and external stakeholders. The role defines and manages research methods and tools, translates findings into actionable recommendations, and supports timely decisions and successful launches. It also helps develop multi-year innovation calendars and frameworks for pre- and post-launch measurement, including relevant performance metrics. The successful candidate will bring a broad business perspective to innovation, considering the full launch plan and P&L alongside consumer needs. The role involves analyzing consumer research, trends, syndicated data, market audits, and other sources; communicating findings through concise reports and inspiring presentations; and coaching colleagues to strengthen their consumer mindset. Domestic travel is 10–20%.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in business, psychology, social studies, anthropology, or a similar field.
- At least 6 years of experience in consumer insights or analytics; 10 or more years preferred.
- Experience focused on innovation, with demonstrated career progression.
- Demonstrated mastery of innovation work spanning business growth goals, strategy, project prioritization and selection, idea development across launch touchpoints, and setting year-one and year-two launch metrics.
- Strong leadership and cross-functional communication skills, including the ability to coach and manage people without direct organizational authority.
- Demonstrated mastery of syndicated data systems and ability to incorporate insights into evidence-based presentations and recommendations.
- Analytical skills and ability to generate innovation ideas and business insights from diverse data sources.
- Excellent persuasive written, verbal, and presentation skills.
- Ability to multitask, organize time, and lead groups with minimal direction.
- Self-starter with demonstrated ability to manage complexity and solve problems.
- Computer skills and proficiency with PowerPoint, Excel, and other software or applications.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build effective working relationships with individuals at all levels and backgrounds.
- Ability to adapt approach and attitude to changing situations, motivate others, uphold commitments, and make sense of complex or contradictory information.
- Domestic travel of 10–20%.
Nice To Haves
- Experience using generative-AI-assisted tools in experimentation or projects.
- Ten or more years of consumer insights or analytics experience.
- Experience developing formal innovation frameworks, including methods and key performance metrics.
Responsibilities
- Help build and champion the innovation strategy by applying best-in-class insights to innovation plans, including the 4Ps, launch insights, and financial goals.
- Partner with stakeholders to develop consumer-insight-rich innovation strategies, identify knowledge gaps, and translate business needs into research plans.
- Develop research approaches and analyze and synthesize consumer research, trends, syndicated data, market audits, and other internal and external sources.
- Translate findings into business innovation insights and action plans, and create concise, meaningful reports from multiple sources.
- Collaborate with leadership, innovation teams, sales, marketing, and other business partners to identify insight needs and develop tailored solutions.
- Stay informed about evolving research methods and approaches that can create competitive advantage.
- Deliver clear, inspiring presentations that communicate insights and bring innovation selling stories to life.
- Empower, coach, and mentor partners in building and using their consumer mindset capabilities.
- Drive innovation learning agendas to address business questions and explore strategic opportunities and new growth pools.
- Support the development and rollout of initiatives that promote consumer-centric thinking, including innovation principles, research methodologies, and consistent performance metrics.
- Help develop and support the evolution of the consumer insights function and its solutions.
- Build effective working relationships across the organization and influence partners toward action.
Benefits
- Annual bonus eligibility
- Comprehensive benefits package
- 401(k) with company match
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
