Upfield Looking for Innovations Manager at Toronto, Ontario, Canada Full Time

Location: Downtown Toronto

Hybrid 2x/week

Company Overview

At Upfield our purpose is clear: we make people healthier and happier with nutritious and delicious, plant-based products that are good for you, and our planet. We have iconic brands like Becel, Violife, Country Crock, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter that Canadians know and love and we’ve been a trusted category leader since 1871. Yet, we feel like we’re only just getting started!

Performance, Passion, and Care define who we are as a company, how we work every day, and the responsibility we feel toward our associates, our consumers, our business partners, and our world.

We have big ambitions to grow this business as the largest plant-based foods company in the world, and we want to attract the right people – those that love what they do, thrive on responsibility and are looking for career defining opportunities.

About the Role!

We are seeking a highly driven, experienced Marketing Innovation Manager to join Upfield’s marketing team, leading innovations from insight to launch. You will be managing multiple new product launches, step-changes in our product quality and performance, and customer executions.

The Marketing Innovation Manager will play a critical role in developing propositions, pricing strategy, packaging, product attributes, and business cases, as well as articulating the sell-in story to Canadian retailers across mainstream grocery, natural channel, club, and mass. You will need to flex operational, management, and strategic thinking skills while keeping the consumer and customer needs at the forefront of what you do.

Innovations move quickly at Upfield, and the Marketing Innovation Manager will need to bring a dynamic and agile approach to work. If you are entrepreneurial and a “do-er” who loves to get things done quickly and drive efficient teams to deliver, are excited to take ownership over business-critical projects and interact, engage with, and debate leadership, this is the right role for you. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise in working with cross-functional teams, and skills in project management, executional excellence, leadership and strategic thinking in a fast-paced environment.

The Marketing Innovation Manager will join a vibrant Upfield marketing team and report to the Head of Marketing.

Main Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Lead and own key innovation and renovation projects from ideation to shelf through the Stage Gate New Product Development process
• Gain alignment with Global stakeholders on Upfield Canada’s innovation roadmap
• Support on overall innovation strategy for New Product Development and channel opportunities
• Drive accountability of project delivery through the Innovation Planning Team (R&D, Supply Chain, Procurement, Sales)
• Lead packaging design and development for product innovations
• Develop bottoms up business cases and own P&Ls working closely with the Sales and Finance teams
• Collaborate with Global partners to ensure Canadian project needs are met while gaining visibility to global projects that could be relevant for our market
• Perform in-depth brand and category deep dives to identify whitespace and support the overall innovation strategy within the fast-moving foods space
• Daily responsibilities encompass project management, artwork development, concept writing, support on test and learn initiatives, leading cross-functional project team meetings, innovation funnel creation and monitoring, business case development, and launch tracking
• Identify and report on key food trends and innovations by immersing yourself in the food space through online tracking and attending food expos and industry events
• Organize product tastings and work closely with the R&D team on new product recipes and recipe renovations
• Travel will be minimal but can include attending food conferences, sales meetings, production runs, etc. as needed.

Qualifications And Requirements

• Experience: 5+ years of relevant experience (i.e. Project Management, Brand Management, Innovation Management, Management Consulting, Start-up experience in the food/consumer space), including at least one robust role in innovation.
• Knowledge: expertise in the Stage Gate process of new product launches, including ideation, concept testing and consumer research, building business cases, packaging design, production, and post evaluations.
• Project Management: organized and resourceful, with excellent multi-tasking and prioritizing skills, and the ability to work within tight deadlines while still maintaining a high level of accuracy and attention to detail. Sense of urgency is a must.
• Resourcefulness: effectively navigate complex situations and develop creative solutions. Ability to make efficient use of available resources and demonstrate self-reliance in problem solving. Takes initiative to own and resolve issues.
• Open minded and adaptable: embraces ambiguous expectations and priorities, and the need to operate in the grey. Comfortable with reprioritizing and refocusing when needed, pushing internal stakeholders toward alignment and action.
• Interpersonal skills: ability to effectively lead cross functional teams, influencing and working through others across functions.
• Communications: outstanding verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills, with a thorough understanding of how to effectively present to various stakeholder audiences. Bilingual French and English an asset.
• Analytical: Strong analytics background and critical thinking skills with the proven ability to interpret data, derive relevant insights, and craft compelling stories. Opportunistically identify avenues for brand growth in emerging channels and white spaces.
• Agility: proven ability to adapt quickly to a fast-paced environment and ever-changing landscape, lead/support multiple high-priority projects across all levels.
• Entrepreneurial Drive: demonstrates initiative and leadership with a strong drive for results. Acts like an owner with an insatiable desire to look beyond the obvious, approaching situations with curious and creativity to see what’s possible.
• Passionate: enthusiastic about and familiar with the Spreads category in Canada (both dairy and non-dairy) and Upfield products.
• Mobile: ability to travel to the US and potentially internationally (5-10%).

What’s Next

If this position sounds interesting, please hit the apply button now!

We understand your resume might not be up to date, we recommend that you apply with what you have or your LinkedIn Profile. Upfield is dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace, we understand that you might not hit all the requirements stated in the description, but we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this role or other roles.

Upfield is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias.

No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Upfield. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics.