Brand Manager, Innovation
Company Description
Simple Mills is a rapidly-growing company on the forefront of the clean food movement, transforming center store grocery aisles with products made from nutritious, purposeful ingredients. Simple Mills is a female-founded business, started by Katlin Smith in 2012 out of her own Kitchen. In the company’s short history, Simple Mills has disrupted the market to become the #1 bestselling natural baking mix, the #1 bestselling natural cracker, and the #1 bestselling natural cookie.
The company’s mission is to advance the holistic health of the planet and its people by positively impacting the way food is made. Simple Mills is distributed in 25,000+ stores nationally including Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Kroger, Costco and more, and available online at retailers like Amazon and Thrive Market. The brand’s newest products include: Organic Seed Flour Crackers, Seed & Nut Flour Sweet Thins, and Soft-Baked Almond Flour Bars. Simple Mills has earned broad recognition from top tier media and industry associations- including a segment on our Founder & CEO Katlin Smith on NPR’s How I Built This . Our products have been featured in a wide array of top publications including Vogue, Women's Health, Forbes, Business Insider, mindbodygreen, NOSH and many more. Simple Mills was also a 2020 Health Magazine Snack Award Winner!
Role Description
This is a full-time, exempt, benefited position within the Simple Mills Innovation Marketing team. The Brand Manager, Innovation will be a critical role in developing and driving innovation strategies grounded in consumer insights to fuel long-term growth. The ideal candidate must have demonstrated capabilities in leading strategically complex and large scope projects and demonstrated success in leadership through ambiguity across multiple, simultaneous innovation projects. This role will be responsible for leading new innovation end to end, including trend spotting, concept ideation, consumer research, product development and commercialization.
In this role, it is essential to have a passion for our products and mission and feel strongly connected to the brand. The position will report to the Director of Innovation Marketing. Specific responsibilities will include:
- Develop multi-year innovation roadmaps and strategies in existing and new categories
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Leverage consumer, cultural, category, competitive, wellness trends and technical information to uncover white space opportunity areas for exploration
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Complete in-depth category, consumer and competitive analyses
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Guide rapid concept and product prototyping and development
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Lead execution of market research to validate insights, concepts and product acceptability through consumer research and sensory evaluation
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Adept foundational consumer marketing skills including designing product positioning, idea generation, concept writing, commercialization, forecasting and guidance of P&L development
- Lead discovery, design, and commercialization of product innovations
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Lead cross-functional team to create consumer-centric concepts that are grounded in insights, differentiated, compelling, actionable and financially viable
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Champion the voice of the consumer in all innovation projects by translating consumer needs and desires into design specifications for cross-functional partners
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Lead product development from concept to shelf, including launch readiness assessment
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Develop contingency plans and translate business strategy, consumer needs, and product readiness to manage project delivery and avoid delays
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Partner and lead full cross functional team across innovation initiatives
- Share consumer insights and emerging trends for inspiration
- Partner closely with Product Marketing team to ensure innovation strategies and concepts support business needs, partner on go-to-market as project transitions from innovation to launch
- Partner with Sales to gather customer input on channel and pricing strategies for new innovations as well as to craft compelling selling stories for launch
- Lead presentation and brainstorm sessions and bring category & innovation subject matter expertise
Position Requirements
The successful applicant will have the following minimum qualifications:
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A minimum of 4 years of experience working in Brand Management position (on both Product and Innovation marketing) is required, with a preference for that prior experience working in the food and beverage consumer packaged goods (CPG) or natural food industries
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A Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or related field is required, and a MBA degree is preferred
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High level of curiosity about the marketplace, competitors, consumers, and technologies
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A foundational understanding of consumer research methods (qualitative and quantitative) required
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Experience commercializing new innovative products
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Experience interpreting syndicated data (Nielsen, IRI, SPINS, etc.)
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Strong analytical and critical thinking skills complemented by a well-developed marketing gut
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Strong communications skills, both written and oral presentations. Comfortable synthesizing large amounts of information into the key takeaways.
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Entrepreneurial spirit, comfortable with ambiguity, and willingness to roll up sleeves, take calculated risks, and act with a healthy sense of urgency
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Ability to lead & collaborate with cross-functional team members to solve problems quickly with limited direction
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A passion for natural food and healthy eating as well as a desire to change the way we think about ingredient labels
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An essential function of this role includes tasting and working in the vicinity of various food allergens.
Benefits of Working at Simple Mills
- You will make a huge impact as a key member of an emerging brand that’s changing the way we eat and facing explosive growth
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Working with a vibrant community of passionate team members that are driven by healthy food that tastes good and fuels your body
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We strive to foster and embed a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion across our organization. We know it is not only critical to the success of diversity initiatives - but instrumental in creating an equitable and inclusive workplace! It also creates a positive employee experience. DEI will remain at the center of our people strategy as grow and scale our organization.
- Our culture is aligned with doing good in the world and we are committed to the environment, fairness to employees and to our customers
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Integrating into a company that is passionate about its people and their development, with consistent training and multiple forums/platforms to participate in, contribute to and learn from
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Employee benefits include robust Health Benefits packages, 401(k) plan, Unlimited PTO offering, one-time stipend for getting your home workspace setup, monthly cell phone/internet stipend, health & wellness stipends, product stipends and many other perks!
Compensation will be competitive for the ideal candidate. The salary range expectation for this role is $120,000 - $155,000. This position will be in-office at our Mill Valley, CA location. Simple Mills follows CDC recommendations to help insure a safe working environment for all individuals in-office. Remote working may be considered as necessary. Sufficient internet access to support video conferencing required.
At Simple Mills, we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect and inclusion. Equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, past or present military service, physical or mental disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of business need, job requirements, and individual qualifications. #LI-DNI
Simple Mills is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Simple Mills will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodations are needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact careers@simplemills.com.
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