Sr. Manager, Innovation - KIND

mars; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Mars Snacking Accelerator seeks a Sr. Brand Manager, Innovation for the KIND brand to direct the 18‑month to 3‑year innovation pipeline.

You will partner with Consumer Research and R&D to shape consumer-led platforms, lead a small team, and work across functions to deliver game-changing snacking concepts. You will own the end-to-end process from consumer insight to launch, ensure stage-gate rigor, and build business cases with Finance to secure funding.

Qualifications

• Experience leading consumer-brand innovation pipelines.
• Strong collaboration with R&D, Marketing, and Finance teams.
• Proven ability to translate consumer needs into clear product concepts.

Responsibilities

• Own KIND innovation strategy across formats, occasions and adjacencies based on consumer insights.
• Build and manage 18-month to 3-year pipeline with governance and IBP steps.
• Lead product design and development from concept through validation and launch readiness.
• Drive launch readiness and cross-functional alignment across Core, Equity & GTM teams.
• Develop and mentor Brand Manager and Senior Associate Brand Manager to own platforms.

Skills

Brand management

Innovation strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Consumer insights

Project management

Job description

Sr. Brand Manager, Innovation - KIND

Accelerator, a global Division of Mars Snacking, is on the front line of unlocking growth across high-potential categories and brands to fuel what's next for Snacking. It's home to both emerging and enduring brands, including KIND, TRÜ FRÜ, NATURE'S BAKERY, RXBAR, EGGO, POP-TARTS and RICE KRISPIE TREATS. Combining the scale of Mars with the agility of a start-up, our Division has the ambition to accelerate the future of snacking by delivering products consumers love today, discovering category-shaping innovations for tomorrow and developing entrepreneurial teams whose impact will last for generations.

We're looking for passionate talent who dare to dream big, agile collaborators who talk straight and decide fast, and driven performers with a growth mindset. We're proudly part of Mars, while also building something boldly different. If this inspires and energizes you, you've found the right place where you can do cool things with fun people for one of the biggest snacking companies in the world!

What You'll Do

Reporting to the Senior Marketing Director, KIND, the Sr. Brand Manager, Innovation owns what KIND launches next. The role is accountable for the brand's 18-month to 3-year innovation pipeline end to end: the consumer needs the brand should solve for, where it plays next, the propositions that get it there, the products that make them real, and the stage gates that decide what moves forward and what stops. Every launch starts with a real consumer problem, and this role is the brand's deepest expert on who the KIND consumer is, what they want from snacking, and where the unmet needs are. This role leads a team of a Brand Manager and a Senior Associate Brand Manager, each owning a platform, and holds the earliest-stage bets personally until they earn an owner. The role works shoulder to shoulder with Consumer Research and R&D from the first consumer question to the final formulation, and hands the Core team launches that are ready to win.

What will be your key responsibilities?

Innovation Strategy & Portfolio Direction

Own the KIND innovation strategy: where the brand plays next across formats, occasions and adjacencies, grounded in a deep understanding of the consumer, their snacking needs and occasions, category dynamics and the brand platform. Build and maintain the brand's innovation insight foundation: who the KIND consumer is and could be, the jobs they hire snacks to do, the tensions and unmet needs in the category, and where KIND has the right to play. Represent KIND innovation to Better For You leadership and global markets, building platforms that can travel and bringing market and consumer learning back into the pipeline. Bring the Accelerator way of working into the brand: founder-style ownership, fast and cheap experiments, clear kill criteria, and the willingness to scale hard when something proves out.

Pipeline Management & Business Case Development

Build and own the 18-month to 3-year pipeline, sequencing launches against capacity, investment and the commercial calendar so the brand always has news coming. Own the stage-gate and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) steps and make the portfolio calls on what enters, accelerates, parks or stops. Decide early, decide with consumer evidence, defend the decision. Build the business case for every launch, volume, margin, investment, incrementality and return, and partner with Finance to secure funding. Own the early-stage bets personally from consumer insight through concept and validation until each passes a gate and earns an owner or stops.

Product Design & Development

Write propositions that start with the consumer: the problem, the person, the reason KIND wins, and the evidence that it will. Lead product design across every component: formulation, format, pack structure and graphics, nutrition, taste and texture, naming and claims, so the product delivers the proposition in the hand. Set the learning plan with Consumer Research for each platform, from concept screens through sensory and in-market validation, and stay close to the consumer throughout, in the research and in the field. Partner with R&D as co-owners of the product on cost, capacity and ingredient trade-offs, and own the standard a KIND product must meet before it launches.

Launch Readiness & Cross-Functional Leadership

Hand each launch to the Core, Equity & GTM team at a defined point of go-to-market readiness, with proposition, product, business case and launch plan complete, and stay accountable for the first-year read. Lead the innovation workstream across R&D, Supply, Finance, Insights, Category, Sales and Omni as one plan with shared milestones and KPIs. Build and manage the external partnerships the pipeline depends on.

Talent & Capability

Lead and develop the Brand Manager and Senior Associate Brand Manager, giving each real platform ownership and cross-functional leadership. Build innovation capability into the bran