Senior Manager Consumer Insights Innovation and Incubation

Senior Manager of Consumer Insights-Innovation

Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU) is undergoing a marketing transformation to accelerate brand growth. This position resides in the Marketing Center of Excellence (MCOE) group and reports to the Senior Director of Consumer Insights. In this role, the Senior Manager of Consumer Insights, Innovation will contribute to building a consumer obsession culture at BBU through innovative foods. The focus will be on Innovations to delight our current and future consumers! At BBU, the Consumer Insights team seeks people who endeavor to create a Competitive Advantage through Insights. This Senior Manager of Consumer Insights-Innovation will be a leader who champions the Consumer with enthusiasm and thoughtfully business-savvy ways to drive Innovation.

We are a passionate, caring group of insights professionals making a difference!

The focus for this consumer insights role is to help build and support the Innovation strategy and should bring expertise in setting the path to meet business objectives via innovation launches. The focus will be on our larger, differentiated-style innovation projects vs. smaller line extension projects. Working closely with internal and external stakeholders, this team member will be seen as a trusted innovation and brand partner, advisor, bringing a strong voice for our Consumers. The associate will define, oversee and manage research methods, tools, and convert to actionable, inspiring output to drive timely decisions and successful innovation launches. We need an insights expert who will bring experience focused on innovation, building multi-year calendars, consulting on pre- and post-launch metrics to measure our readiness and performance in market. Experience building formal frameworks, inclusive of methods and key performance metrics, highly desirable. The ideal candidate should be proficient in contributing to innovation strategy, inclusive of not only the idea but a 360-degree view of the launch plan and P&L. This individual will champion a consumer-centric perspective, smart consumer methods to uncover implicit in addition to explicit drivers and needs, and experienced approach to support innovation business decision making.

Key Responsibilities:

• Experienced insights professional focused on innovation. Principles and perspective on how to deliver best-in-class innovation insight gathering and testing, with the people skills to galvanize others around the learning and pushing to action plans.
• A change agent who will help build and support evolving the consumer insights function to bring best-in-class solutions.
• Passion for methods to better understand consumer demand and needs (spoken or not)
• Proven track record of developing and deploying new ways to bring better insightful thinking, approaches, and ideas to innovation; Pushing "past the status quo" is a must.
• Support the development and rollout of critical innovation initiatives to propel the organization to more consumer-centric thinking and activations, such as the BBU Way of Consumer Insights, inclusive of innovation principles, valid and insightful methodologies, and consistent metrics that matter to driving improved business outcomes.
• Help guide and mentor all team partners in building their consumer mindset capabilities.
• Act with a broader business lens, delivering actionable consumer insights from innovation to all areas to inspire BBU brand growth.
• Drive innovation learning agendas to get to the heart of business situations while exploring new strategic opportunities with a curious mind to find new innovation growth pools.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a heart for building effective working relationships with individuals at all levels and backgrounds of the organization.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Help build and champion the Innovation strategy by bringing best-in-class insights to deliver our innovation plan, inclusive of the 4Ps, launch insights for breakthrough impact, all while meeting the financial goals. We need an insights expert and partner to critical stakeholders to develop innovation strategies rich in consumer insights. Collaborate with the team to align to what we need to yet know, and build to answers and outcomes, translating these business needs into research plans.
• Develop a research approach and analyze and synthesize results from consumer research studies, trends, syndicated data, market audits, along with other internal/external sources. Translate findings into business innovation insights and action plan. Create streamlined reports using various sources, compiling results into a concise, meaningful, actionable format.
• Collaborate with key business partners (leadership, innovation teams, sales, marketing, etc.) to identify insight needs and develop customized solutions.
• Stay informed on changing methods and approaches to create meaningful competitive advantage through how we gather insights.
• Clear and inspiring presentations highlighting insight work and bringing innovation selling stories to life.
• Empower and coach others on how build and leverage their Consumer Mindset.
• Demonstrated mastery of syndicated data systems and other data sources to incorporate into evidence-based innovation recommendations and plans.

Leadership Competencies:

• Adapts approach and attitude in real time, according to the changing demands of different situations.
• Creates a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives.
• Holds self and others accountable to meet commitments.
• Makes sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems.

Education and Work History:

• A Master's / bachelor's in business, psychology, social studies, anthropology, or similar.
• 6+ years in consumer insights/analytics, preferably in innovation, showing career progression); 10+ years preferable.
• Positive, curious, creative and innovative thinker with the ability to energize and influence.
• Demonstrated mastery of innovation from business growth goals, to strategy, to innovation project prioritization/selection, idea development for all launch touchpoints, setting of launch metrics (year 1-2), all while driving alignment.
• Strong leadership and cross-functional communication skills; Ability to coach and manage people without having direct organizational authority.
• Demonstrated mastery of syndicated data systems and ability to incorporate insight into fact-based presentations / recommendations.
• Demonstrated analytical skills with the ability to generate innovation ideas and business insights from diverse data sources. Some experimentation / project experience using Gen AI assisted tools preferred.
• Excellent persuasive communication skills, written, verbal, and presentation. Ability to multi-task, organize time, and lead groups with minimal direction.
• Self-starter with proven ability to manage complexity and problem-solve.
• Computer skills and proficiency with PowerPoint, Excel, and other software/applications.
• Domestic Travel: 10-20%.

The physical and mental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be requested to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Bimbo Bakeries USA is an equal opportunity employer with a policy that provides equal employment opportunity for applicants and employees regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, any other classification protected by law. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.