Associate Director- Consumer Insights – Consumer & Culinary Foresight- New Ventures

Houston Foresight; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dynamic Associate Director to lead consumer and culinary foresight initiatives. This role is pivotal in identifying and integrating trends to foster a culture centered on consumer needs. The successful candidate will partner with innovation teams to enhance brand success and drive strategic planning processes. This position offers a unique opportunity to influence at all levels, leveraging insights to shape the future of the business. If you're passionate about consumer trends and thrive in a collaborative environment, this role is perfect for you.

Benefits

Flexible Work Hours

Remote Work Options

Professional Development Opportunities

Health Insurance

Retirement Savings Plan

Paid Time Off

Team Building Activities

Qualifications

• 10+ years in strategic insights or consumer research, preferably in CPG.
• Proven ability to influence and drive change at all organizational levels.

Responsibilities

• Lead consumer insights and foresight practices to inform strategic planning.
• Develop actionable recommendations based on cultural and culinary trends.

Skills

Strategic Thinking

Influencing Skills

Analytical Skills

Communication Skills

Project Leadership

Curiosity

Collaboration

Adaptability

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Advanced Degree Preferred

Tools

Sparks & Honey

Black Swan

Space Doctors

MotivBase

Nielsen

Circana

Mintel

Job description

About the job

General information

All posting locations Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Job Function 05 – Marketing

Date Published 08-Nov-2023

Ref # R-75810

Requirements

Description & Requirements

The Consumer and Culinary Foresight & New Ventures Associate Director will be responsible for championing the consumer and owning all trends and foresight work for the North American Zone. This position is responsible for identifying, developing, and integrating consumer and culinary trends throughout these businesses to drive a growth mindset and agility while driving a consumer-obsessed culture. This leader will be a crucial partner to innovation teams, Business Units, the strategy function, and New Ventures team by driving a consistent future focus across the businesses to optimize and improve brand and category success. The Associate Director will be accountable for publishing regular trend and foresight deliverables. They must also draw from various information sources and internal/external resources to develop insights that provide a competitive advantage to KHC.

This role requires a person who can be:

• Strategic: Be a strategic business partner to Marketing teams and an inspiring leader. Use their understanding of the consumer, culture, and culinary trends to guide 1YP, 5PY, and 10YP workstreams and proactive.
• Influential: Influence at all levels of the organization (above & below) and work seamlessly with cross-functional teams. Build internal and external credibility for Kraft Heinz in the trends and foresight space.
• Impactful: Aim to “so-what’s” by making actionable recommendations routed in a deep understanding of consumers and Kraft Heinz’s business.
• An Owner: Possess a willingness to get into the details, think and act like a start-up, and build a function against a blank slate without buying pre-packaged solutions or methodologies.
• Flexible: Flexibly and creatively adjust to changing priorities and business challenges. Deal with ambiguity while showing a strong drive for results and project leadership skills; Highly adaptable, works well in an environment of change.
• Strong Communicator: Showcase strong interpersonal skills through distilled, clean/concise deliverables that drive empathy and storytelling behaviors throughout the organization.
• Self-motivated: Ability to handle many workstreams, challenging priorities and distill actionable learning for stakeholders.
• Analytical: Ability to see through data and recognize patterns to inform brand and enterprise actions.
• Collaborator: Teammate, works well in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment.
• Coach & People Leader: Drive to share knowledge and develop a hard-working team.
• Curiosity & Action: High degree of intellectual curiosity and creative insight, coupled with a drive for actionable, tangible results.
• Influence: Ability to influence at senior levels of an organization and drive focus and impact.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Working with the Head of Consumer Insights – Disruptive Innovation, develop a best-in-class approach for identifying meaningful cultural and culinary trends and a repeatable foresight practice that informs strategic planning processes.
• Lead and implement highly visible enterprise learning plans and trend deep dives relevant for innovation (whitespace identification) and base business marketing (communication, packaging, and in-market measurement) across the portfolio.
• Connect consumer, culinary, and cultural trends to broader consumer motivations and translate signals in culture into strategic opportunities for Kraft Heinz. Ensure direct applicability of all trend and foresight work to business units and enterprise initiatives, including M&A and Joint Venture strategy.
• Build upon existing trends and foresight capabilities by vetting and onboarding new technologies and data sources to develop best-in-class methodologies. Constantly evaluates supplier partners to ensure cutting-edge methods.
• Lead consumer vetting and landscape analysis for new technologies and venture partnerships.
• Ensure that the consumer is at the forefront, living principles, inspiring change, pivoting, and communicating as new learning and consumer understanding is gleaned.
• Requires working in high levels of ambiguity, creating strategic direction for growth opportunities 1-10 years out.
• Day-to-day management and development of one direct report.

Expected Experience & Required Skills

• At least ten (10+) years in a strategic insights/consumer research or trends-focused role, preferably at a CPG manufacturer, or 10+ years with a combination of supplier, agency, and manufacturer-side insights experience showcasing increasing responsibilities and scope.
• Significant experience in the insights space; able to break historical ways of working, experiment, and drive agility. Mastery of common qualitative and quantitative market research methods.
• Proven ability to distill cultural, consumer, and culinary trends to drive impact into innovation pipelines, product development, business strategy, and M&A planning.
• Experience tailoring content for diverse audiences, ranging from external customers to executive leadership team.
• High level of tolerance for working in ambiguity, leading change, and motivating change management.
• Experience working with progressive trend and foresight tools that leverage fast-moving consumer signals (e.g., Sparks & Honey, Black Swan, Space Doctors, MotivBase).
• Working knowledge of syndicated research tools (e.g., Nielsen, Circana, Mintel, etc.).
• Master at storytelling in creative and impactful ways – excellent communication, organization, and presentation skills (written, oral, and across Microsoft Office Suite).
• Advanced Degree Preferred.

Work Environment & Schedule

This is a Hybrid role with three days a week in the local office, with limited travel or visits to external locations; offices are open workspaces. Additionally, this role requires working a salaried, exempt schedule to best execute against customer and internal expectations.

Physical demands include but are not limited to:

• Willingness to drive and/or travel as needed.
• Operate a computer and view screens for ~100% of the work schedule.

About Us

Kraft Heinz is a global food company with a delicious heritage. With iconic and emerging food and beverage brands around the world, we deliver the best taste, fun and quality to every meal table we touch. We’re on a mission to disrupt not only our own business, but the global food industry. A consumer obsession and unexpected partnerships fuel our progress as we drive innovation across every part of our company.

Around the world, our people are connected by a culture of ownership, agility and endless curiosity. We also believe in being good humans, who are working to improve our company, communities, and planet. We’re proud of where we’ve been – and even more thrilled about where we’re headed – as we nourish the world and lead the future of food.

Why Us

We grow our people to grow our business. We champion great people who bring ambition, curiosity, and high performance to the table as the guardians of our beloved and nostalgic brands. Good isn’t good enough. We choose greatness every day by challenging the ordinary and making bold decisions. All while celebrating our wins – and our failures – as we work together to lead the future of food.

Challenging the status quo takes talent. We invest in your purpose and potential by developing skills and nurturing strengths that leave a legacy on our business and a lasting impact on your career. Because great people make great companies, and we’re growing something great here at Kraft Heinz.

Office Collaboration & Hybrid Work Environment

We believe our office environment fuels our collaboration, connection & community as an organization and allows our employees to grow toward greatness. We also believe providing a more flexible and agile model is essential in today’s workplace. A majority of our office-based employees will be able to work remotely for up to two days each week. Additionally, employees who are subject to this hybrid model will be eligible to work from anywhere for up to six weeks in a rolling 12-month period (in maximum two-week increments and according to benefits and tax guidelines). Some jobs may be required to be performed fully in office depending on the role’s responsibilities and requirements.