Senior Manager, Cultural Relevance

Kinder's•Walnut Creek, CA

10d•Onsite

About The Position

Kinder’s is seeking a Sr. Manager, Cultural Relevance to be part of a passionate team of dedicated and hard-working people focused on changing people’s expectations of what’s possible when it comes to food. Reporting into Consumer Insights as part of the new Strategic Growth & Capabilities pillar, this first-of-its-kind role at Kinder’s will build and lead our cultural relevance capability—helping us stay deeply connected to people and culture and translating that understanding into opportunities across marketing, brand strategy, product development, and growth. The ideal candidate combines deep cultural curiosity and consumer empathy with strategic thinking, business acumen, and a bias toward action. They can spot what is gaining momentum, understand why it matters, and inspire teams to turn that understanding into ideas that are relevant, distinctive, and uniquely Kinder’s.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Marketing, Communications, or a related discipline; equivalent relevant experience considered.
7–10 years of experience across cultural intelligence, consumer insights, trend sensing, brand strategy, social intelligence, innovation, or related disciplines; experience in consumer products, food & beverage, retail, lifestyle, media, or consulting preferred.
Deep cultural curiosity, strong consumer and commercial judgment, and a bias toward action, with the ability to influence and collaborate across Marketing, Brand Strategy, Product Development, Consumer Insights, and senior stakeholders.
Experience leveraging different social listening platforms and data tools and integrating insights from diverse sources into larger, strategic narratives.
Demonstrated ability to identify both fast-moving cultural opportunities and longer-term consumer shifts and translate them into actionable marketing, brand, product, or business opportunities.
Excellent strategic synthesis, pattern recognition, and storytelling skills, with the ability to turn fragmented and fast-moving information into clear, compelling points of view and recommendations.
Consumer-centered and empathetic. You are genuinely curious about people and seek to understand the motivations, needs, tensions, and perspectives behind their behavior. You bring empathy to both the consumers we serve and the colleagues you work alongside.
Comfortable navigating ambiguity. You thrive in an entrepreneurial environment where the path forward is not always defined. You are comfortable making thoughtful decisions with incomplete information, balancing speed with sound judgment, and helping create structure where it does not yet exist.
An exceptional relationship builder. You build trust and rapport quickly, listen well, and enjoy bringing people and perspectives together. You know that influence comes through strong partnerships and can inspire action across teams without relying on hierarchy.
Curious, humble, and willing to challenge. You bring a strong point of view while remaining open to new ideas and different perspectives. You ask thoughtful questions, challenge conventional thinking constructively, and care more about getting to the best answer than being the person who has it.
Mission-first with a bias toward action. You are a collaborative, low-ego teammate who is willing to roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to move the business forward. You are energized by high expectations, continuous learning, smart risk-taking, and the opportunity to help Kinder’s do exceptional things.

Responsibilities

Build Cultural Relevance as a Capability: Build an always-on approach to identifying and interpreting trends, cultural moments, emerging behaviors, and broader shifts across food and flavor, media and entertainment, creators and communities, technology, retail, lifestyle, and other spaces shaping consumers. Build an ecosystem of tools and methods that expand Kinder’s ability to sense and understand culture; create simple frameworks that help teams evaluate what matters, why it matters, how long it might matter, and whether—and how—Kinder’s should act. Establish a regular cadence of cultural intelligence—from timely trend and activation opportunities to deeper perspectives on emerging consumer and cultural shifts. Facilitate briefings, workshops, and working sessions that turn cultural and consumer intelligence into ideas, choices, and action. Build cultural curiosity and capability across the organization, becoming a trusted thought partner and bringing an informed external perspective into key business conversations.
Anticipate, Interpret & Translate Cultural Signals: Track culture across multiple horizons—from fast-moving conversations and behaviors to longer-term shifts in consumer values, needs, tastes, and expectations. Integrate social listening, search and behavioral signals, consumer research, category intelligence, secondary research, and emerging AI-enabled tools to develop a holistic and timely view of consumers and culture. Assess what is gaining momentum and distinguish what is simply interesting from what presents a meaningful opportunity for Kinder’s. Connect individual signals and trends to deeper consumer motivations and behaviors to develop points of view on where culture is headed and what it could mean for our business.
Mobilize Cultural Relevance Into Action: Translate cultural intelligence into actionable opportunities across marketing activation, brand strategy, innovation and product development. Partner closely with Brand Strategy, Marketing, Product Development, Consumer Insights, and other teams to determine where Kinder’s has a credible and distinctive role to play in emerging trends and cultural moments. Develop rapid-turn points of view that help teams understand what’s happening, why consumers care, whether Kinder’s should participate, and how we could add value while the opportunity is still relevant. Connect emerging cultural behaviors to Kinder’s brands, products, flavors, occasions, and distinctive assets to inspire ideas that are both culturally relevant and uniquely Kinder’s.