Senior Innovation Manager

Company Description: Instinct® is a rapidly growing, family-owned marketer and manufacturer of natural pet foods for dogs and cats. Instinct® is the Raw Brand, with a mission to get more raw nutrition into every bowl of dogs and cats, for proven healthier and happier long life. Our company mission is to Empower people to transform the lives of pets. We are committed to hiring and developing a team of passionate, performance-oriented professionals who love to win and make a positive difference.

Instinct® is part of the family-owned group, Agrolimen, who owns leading pet food and human food businesses in the US, China, Europe, and Africa.

Position Summary: Reporting to the Senior Director of Innovation, this pet-passionate and driven marketing professional will help drive Instinct® household penetration, market share and overall brand health by developing and delivering an innovation pipeline of compelling, consumer-validated and commercial-ready product and services bundles. This person will develop a deep appreciation of our science and capabilities, and combine this with consumer insight to create exciting, disruptive innovation. The Senior Manager of Innovation will focus on the development and commercialization of the pipeline and lead the cross functional innovation team. This role is responsible for bringing a consumer validated idea on paper to life – through development work, continued consumer testing, claims and packaging briefs, cost and margin trade-offs, volume projections, sell in and launch.

Primary Job Responsibilities:

Leadership

• Effectively manage the innovation pipeline, including project/platform timelines and stage gate deliverables
• Lead cross-functional team to ensure projects remain on-scope, timelines are maintained, and any potential issues are appropriately mitigated; elevate issues which impact successful commercialization to the Senior Director of Innovation
• Serve as the “Voice of the Consumer” cross-functionally, helping team members to balance consumer and retail insights with R&D and Operations capabilities
• Partner closely with fellow Senior Innovation Manager as project moves into Development and Commercialization
• Continuing to fill the pipeline with new product propositions, Gen 2 launches to ensure we have the right balance of risk and reward.
• Coaching and mentorship of a direct report
  
  
  

Strategic

• Stay on top of trends within the Pet Food industry as well as macro and cross-industry trends; use this knowledge along with cross-functional input on retail trends, the latest science, and operations to inform recommendations for current and future innovation
• Create strong product propositions by using compelling storytelling to translate scientific/regulatory information into powerful, differentiating claims a consumer can understand, absorb, and be motivated by
• Collaborate with the Brand Management and Retail Marketing team to ensure that innovation initiatives fit into the overall brand strategy and architecture; in the preparation of the commercialization stage understand the source of business, identification the potential cannibalization and implications for the brand future assortment/shelf strategy
  
  
  

Insights and Analytics

• Leverage both quantitative (ex: Nielsen) and qualitative (ex: consumer research) data sets to analyze opportunities, validate hypotheses, and uncover true cause-and-effect relationships.
• Ownership of consumer research to refine concepts, concept fit tests, pricing, incremental lifts, etc.
• Help ensure annual project plans are appropriately staffed and funded; actively monitor annual Innovation research and T&E budgets to ensure ROIs are maximized within budget allocations
• Lead development of project financials including P&Ls, forecasts, market share projections, cost optimization, and marketing support
• Report on innovation contribution to overall net sales and margin and track new launches to determine whether any course correction is required to ensure the new products’ long-term success; conduct post-launch analysis to inform future innovation decisions
  
  
  

Creative

• Work closely with the Creative & Brand team to develop the visual identity of the product concepts, graphics, and marketing materials
  
  
  

Personal Attributes:

• Ability to influence – Be able to effectively work cross-functionally with Engineering, Marketing, Operations, and Finance, and inspire them contribute toward and advocate for innovation initiatives as well as with senior leadership
• Strategic – Be able to balance the tradeoffs and make recommendations in service of the consumer, brand and org
• Prioritization and focus – Proactively seek cross-functional input, but be able focus on must-haves over like-to-haves to maximize ROI; be considerate of everyone’s time including yours
• Diligent and reliable – Strong project management skills, with a high level of attention to detail and accuracy that leads to on-time delivery
• Curious and analytical – A curious learner who isn’t intimidated by large data sets, qualitative data sets, or conflicting data and is able to form strong data-driven recommendations; can recognize the difference between a trend, a cycle and fad
• Problem solver – This person enjoys figuring out how things can get done or what are the mitigations.
• Articulate – Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  
  
  

Preferred Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or higher
• 7 + years marketing leadership experience including, not limited to, brand management, advertising, market research
• Experience with Innovation, Design Thinking, Brand Management, and/or Market Research
• Strong track record within Consumer Packaged Goods, ideally human or pet food industry
  
  
  

Travel Requirements:

• Being remote, the expectation is around a trip a month, whether that is for consumer research, conferences, trade shows or visits to St Louis headquarters.
• If in Saint Louis, there is an expectation of being in the office on Wednesdays and as other business needs arise.
  
  
  

Compensation And Benefits

Highly competitive compensation package includes health and dental insurance, life and AD&D insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings account, short and long-term disability, paid time off, Purpose Days off for company partner volunteer opportunities, and 401k with company match.

Our Instinct is to CHAMPION Diversity

At Instinct, we are as passionate about our people as we are about the pets we call family. We are committed to inclusion, empowerment, and respect. We believe that just like our pets, what sets us apart unleashes our greatest strengths. We thrive on the ability to not only empower people to transform the lives of pets through raw nutrition, but also to empower each other to inspire a culture that celebrates our differences. Our unique approach to pet food is what makes us who we are as a company, and our individual identities are what makes us a successful, innovative, authentic team.