Innovation Procurement Lead – Hybrid, Fast-Track Innovation

Kraft Heinz; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 142,000 - 177,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k

Health benefits

Flexible work arrangements

Wellbeing programs

Job summary

Kraft Heinz seeks a Procurement Lead, Innovation Procurement in Chicago to lead a team of Innovation Managers and execute the three-year innovation plan across brands. You will build capability, remove barriers, and ensure timely, cost-conscious commercialization support.

You will partner with the Associate Director and cross-functional teams, champion supplier-enabled innovation, and drive governance, risk management, and continuous improvement to deliver value at speed across our portfolio.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, business, finance, operations, engineering or related field.
• MBA and/or advanced procurement qualifications preferred.
• Significant procurement experience including innovation sourcing, external manufacturing, commercialization, ingredients, packaging, CAPEX.
• Demonstrated people leadership experience coaching high-performing teams.
• Strong systems thinking linking strategy, supplier capability and cross-functional dependencies.
• Strong sourcing and supplier management with negotiation, contracting, commercialization readiness.
• Curiosity about AI and digital tools to improve visibility and decision making.
• Strong problem-solving, prioritization, and execution capabilities across multiple initiatives.
• Excellent communication, influencing, and stakeholder management across matrix teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of Innovation Managers responsible for sourcing and commercialization support across the portfolio mid and long term.
• Translate priorities into team focus, resource alignment and execution direction.
• Champion supplier-enabled innovation by linking supplier capabilities to 3-year needs.
• Build operating rhythm for governance, escalation, and progress visibility.
• Coach managers through complex sourcing and commercialization challenges to strengthen decision making.
• Remove barriers by aligning procurement, R&D, operations, finance, quality, legal and business teams.
• Instill sourcing excellence across supplier selection, contracting, and launch readiness.
• Drive consistency in管理 innovation sourcing activities, supplier engagement, and transitions.
• Lead continuous improvement in innovation procurement ways of working to simplify processes and speed up delivery.
• Surface risks, dependencies, capacity constraints, and execution challenges for portfolio prioritization.

Job description

Kraft Heinz seeks a Procurement Lead, Innovation Procurement in Chicago to lead a team of Innovation Managers and execute the three-year innovation plan across brands. You will build capability, remove barriers, and ensure timely, cost-conscious commercialization support.

You will partner with the Associate Director and cross-functional teams, champion supplier-enabled innovation, and drive governance, risk management, and continuous improvement to deliver value at speed across our portfolio.