Vice President Innovation

Bimbo Bakeries USA•Irving, TX

15d•Onsite

About The Position

Innovation plays a key role in the strategy of the business by positioning our portfolio to evolve with consumer’s tastes and interest and to tap into new areas of opportunity to help the business meet its growth aspirations. This role will lead our efforts on developing innovation that are either line extensions (T1), new to our categories (T2) or helps create new categories (T3) of products by directing the activities of the innovation team and through working closely with our Brand Teams, R&D, Technical Services, Engineering, Packaging, and Sales teams to support the goals and strategies of our branded businesses. The Vice President of Innovation will focus primarily on meeting the needs of our DSD business covering Bread, Buns, Rolls, Sweet Baked Goods and Breakfast products. They and their team will be consistently building a pipeline of future innovation while also driving forward the development of innovation already in the pipeline. Success will be defined by consistently growing the innovation index to meet our long-term ambitions. The VP of Innovation will work closely with counterparts from across Grupo Bimbo to identify innovation opportunities or to share ideas for what has been done in the US. They will also be a member of the Growth Leadership Team contributing to the development of cross functional plans to achieve our growth ambitions. The individual in this position will need to demonstrate consumer empathy, superior collaboration, financial acumen, results orientation, excellent verbal and written communication skills, people leadership skills, effective organization, and project management skills. Exposure to a variety of market research techniques and experience in data analysis are also important. We are looking for candidates who are passionate about food and food trends and who enjoy the work of creating new things. An understanding of modern Innovation methodologies including Design Thinking, Jobs to Be Done and Lean Process will be important for the candidate to fill this role. The VP is expected to spend time in the marketplace and participate in meetings with functions from across the organization including visiting bakeries and co-manufacturers. This position reports to the Sr. VP Marketing.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in marketing, Food Science or a related field required.
10+years of experience leading innovation and new product development teams, CPG preferred.
Excellent organizational and communication skills, both written and oral.
Computer skills and proficiency with MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Ability to learn and be proficient at other analytical tools and data sources.
Experience with syndicated data such as IRI or Nielsen.
Experience with consumer research and concept/prototype testing.
Ability and willingness to travel 30% of the time.

Nice To Haves

A relevant Masters’ Degree is preferred.
Proficiency in Spanish is a plus but not required.

Responsibilities

Participate in and direct the efforts of their team to develop a robust pipeline of future innovation opportunities.
Collaborate closely with the category VPs to identify the best innovation opportunities for development.
With their team and cross functional partners develop a strategy for commercializing each innovation opportunity.
Systematically evaluate ideas to select high potential opportunities for further testing and/or feasibility analysis.
With their team, works cross functionally on the detailed plans to ensure innovation is developed across the expected timeline.
Work with financial teams and cross functional partners to build business cases for any necessary innovation.
Work collaboratively with category leaders and other functional partners on the plans to successfully execute innovations.
Mine trend and consumer data to map where the consumer is going and generate compelling product ideas that meet their needs.
Collaborate with internal research partner to design innovation testing (concept, prototype, in-store etc.) to best prove out innovation viability with consumers.
Develop strong, collaborative relationships with cross-functional teams (Brand Teams, RGM, R&D, Manufacturing Operations, and Sales) to ensure collaboration and alignment of direction at all stages of development and launch.
Work collaboratively with agency and research partners.
Must be agile in creating and reading data analysis to generate business insights.