Agile Innovation Manager, Physical Food & Beverage

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

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