Agile Innovation Manager

The Fountain Group; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 88,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

The Fountain Group in Chicago area is seeking an Agile Innovation Manager to drive cross-functional agile workstreams in disruptive innovation for the food and beverage sector. You will enable fit-for-purpose agile ways of working, remove barriers, build timelines, and ensure continuous delivery of high-impact solutions tailored for a global team.

You will work with R&D, Packaging, Supply Chain, Marketing, Finance, and Strategy to bring the next big thing to market faster and smarter, balancing

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or related field required.
• 5+ years managing agile projects in Food & Beverage industry.
• Experience with physical product innovation and packaging projects.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage timelines.

Responsibilities

• Lead sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives and reviews.
• Partner with Project Owner and Marketing Lead for end-to-end process.
• Build project timelines and align POD members to schedules.
• Coach team on agile principles and adapt to feedback.
• Identify and resolve impediments to keep progress.
• Track CSat, maturity, and capacity metrics and report progress.
• Maintain documentation of goals, backlog, decisions, and velocity.
• Guide retrospectives to improve delivery and collaboration.
• Ensure alignment across R&D, Supply Chain, Finance, and Marketing.
• Tailor workflows for physical product innovation and packaging constraints.
• Help refine product backlog with cross-functional partners.

Skills

Food industry

Physical product

Agile PM

Sprint facilitation

Cross-functional

Stakeholder mgmt

Packaging knowledge

Manufacturing readiness

Communication

Project leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business/Engineering

Job description

Hybrid 3 days onsite 2 days work from home

Pay: $77.21/hour

Duration:1 year with extensions/conversion based on performance and headcount approval.

Job Title: Agile Innovation Manager

Must Haves

• Food industry experience (non-negotiable) - NOT DIGITAL, physical product commercialization.
• Physical Product Development focused innovation project management background.
• Experience in supply chain development, factory engineering, or packaging related innovation delivery.
• Physical Product Commercialization process knowledge
• Understand packaging changes, formula changes, feasibility constraints, machinery timelines.
• Agile project management experience (emphasis)
• 2-3+ years of experience leading agile ceremonies and managing projects through sprint-based delivery models.
• Comfortable facilitating sprint events and creating review materials.
• Self-driven, proactive working style
• Able to identify stakeholders, processes, and solutions independently.
• Strong communication & relationship building skills
• Must navigate between technical and non-technical teams, translating needs in both directions.

Agile Innovation Manager

About the Position: We're seeking a highly collaborative and proactive Agile Innovation Manager to join our cross-functional agile pod focused on driving innovation and growth in the Disruptive Innovation team. In this role, you'll be responsible for enabling fit-for-purpose agile ways of working, removing barriers to progress, building timelines, and ensuring continuous delivery of high-impact solutions that are right-sized for our global innovation team.

This role will be embedded within a tight-knit team of R&D, Packaging, Supply Chain, Marketing, Finance, and Strategy leads, all working together to bring the next big thing on innovation to the market—faster and smarter.

This role is ideal for a project leader with experience in physical product innovation, commercialization, manufacturing readiness, packaging changes, and cross-functional program management within the Food & Beverage industry.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives, sprint reviews, and other agile rituals to keep the team focused, aligned, and on track.
• Partner with Project Owner and Marketing Lead to manage end-to-end innovation & commercialization process, from initial concept to successful market launch.
• Build and manage timeline of the project and product development; Align POD members on their commitments with the timelines to ensure on time delivery
• Coach the pod on agile principles, flex when needed and helping the team balance speed and structure while adapting quickly to feedback and new insights.
• Identify and resolve impediments that hinder progress—whether operational, organizational, or resource-related—to keep the initiatives moving forward.
• Tracking key agile metrics such as CSat, Maturity, Capacity of the team, reporting progress, and making adjustments as needed to ensure project success.
• Maintain clear documentation of sprint goals, backlog items, decisions, and velocity. Ensure the team and stakeholders have visibility into progress, risks, and timelines.
• Guide the team in retrospectives to continuously improve delivery and collaboration.
• Ensure alignment across all pod members, including R&D, Supply Chain, Finance, and Marketing, while fostering an environment of shared ownership and rapid iteration.
• Tailor agile workflows to reflect the unique physical product innovation characteristics —helping the team move quickly from insight to execution while navigating pack simplification, retail constraints, and test-and-learn launches.
• Help the team align on the highest-impact initiatives by working closely with the Pod Lead and cross-functional partners to manage and refine the product backlog.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or related required.

MUST HAVE: 5+ years of project management, agile leadership, or scrum master experience within the Food & Beverage industry.

• MUST HAVE: experience with physical product innovation in Food & Beverage with packaging projects, aligned with operations & manufacturing side: engineering, changing of machines, alignment with supply chain, etc.
• Strong knowledge of Agile/Scrum methodologies or proven experience in product development and commercialization
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.
• Strong experience in building timelines for projects with uncertainty, that demands a lot of changes multiple times throughout the project.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Experience supporting test-and-learn innovation cycles or commercialization processes.
• Passion for team empowerment, iterative learning, and removing barriers to execution.
• Open to work flexible hours since part of the team is located in AMS – start 7am Chicago time when needed.

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