Agile Innovation Manager

Allied Reliability; Chicago (IL); Híbrido; USD 90 000 - 130 000; Tempo integral

Resumo da oferta

Allied Reliability is seeking an Agile Innovation Manager to join the Disruptive Innovation team. You will lead cross‑functional pods focused on rapid, fit‑for‑purpose agile ways of working and removing barriers to progress, driving high‑impact solutions from concept to market.

You will collaborate with R&D, Packaging, Supply Chain, Marketing, Finance, and Strategy leads to accelerate commercialization while balancing speed and structure in a dynamic Food & Beverage environment.

Qualificações

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of project management, agile leadership, or scrum master experience within Food & Beverage.
• Experience with physical product innovation, packaging projects, and manufacturing readiness.

Responsabilidades

• Lead sprint planning, daily stand‑ups, retrospectives, and other agile rituals.
• Manage end‑to‑end innovation & commercialization process from concept to market launch.
• Build and manage project timelines and align team commitments.
• Coach the pod on agile principles and adapt to feedback.
• Identify and resolve impediments to keep initiatives moving.

Conhecimentos

Project management

Agile leadership

Scrum Master

Cross-functional teamwork

Communication

Facilitation

Conflict resolution

Test-and-learn

Formação académica

Bachelor’s degree in Business or Engineering

Descrição da oferta de emprego

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.
• 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.