Director, Innovation Strategy

About The Role

The Director of Innovation Strategy at Kinder's will play a pivotal role in our efforts to continue delivering at market-leading speed as we grow. You will be responsible for supporting the development and continuous evolution of our innovation strategy, connecting organizational and brand priorities with market landscapes, consumer needs, customer priorities, brand permission, opportunity size, and organizational capabilities to shape our innovation pipeline, prioritization, and growth. You will also be a key partner to the broader leadership team in communicating innovation priorities, facilitating decision making, and framing implications across the organization.

This role requires a results-oriented leader with strong communication skills, project management discipline, analytical capabilities, and the ability to collaborate cross-functionally. In this role, you will report to the VP of Innovation to support the evaluation and execution of a broad range of strategic projects and initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
Long-Range Innovation Planning & Strategic Opportunities

• Lead the development and ongoing evolution of Kinder's long-term innovation plan, translating enterprise and brand growth priorities into a focused set of strategic opportunities, platforms, and categories to explore

• Build and maintain market and category maps that identify consumer needs, emerging behaviors, competitive activity, and potential white space for Kinder's

• Partner with Culinary, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Commercialization, and other functions to understand current capabilities and constraints and identify new capabilities or investments required to unlock future growth

• Collaborate with Finance, Sales, and other partners to develop fit-for-purpose business cases for potential growth initiatives (including sizing, volume scenarios, and economic perspectives appropriate to the maturity of each opportunity)

• Serve as a trusted thought partner to the Innovation team and enterprise leaders, constructively challenging assumptions and helping distinguish attractive ideas from opportunities most likely to create consumer value and meaningful growth

• Synthesize complex market, consumer, financial, and operational information into clear narratives and recommendations for executive and cross-functional audiences

Innovation Portfolio Prioritization & Decision Facilitation

• Refine and apply a consistent approach for assessing opportunities across strategic fit, consumer value, differentiation, brand permission, operational feasibility, financial viability, capabilities requirements, timing, and risk

• Translate prioritized opportunities into structured exploration, with clear hypotheses, questions to answer, and evidence required to inform decisions

• Plan and lead portfolio reviews, ensuring leaders have a concise fact base, explicit tradeoffs, and actionable recommendations

• Capture decisions, rationale, and follow-up actions, ensuring approved decisions are reflected in portfolio plans and communicated to the teams responsible for execution

Pipeline Visibility & Portfolio Health

• Maintain a single, integrated view of active, emerging, and upcoming innovation initiatives, including status, timing, key milestones, major dependencies and risks, investment and/or resource needs, and decisions required

• Monitor the balance and health of the portfolio across time horizons, categories, growth platforms, and types of innovation, identifying gaps, overconcentration, and disconnects from strategic priorities

• Anticipate portfolio-level capacity constraints and competing demands early, bringing the right partners together to resolve sequencing, resourcing, or scope tradeoffs

Innovation Strategy Tools & Ways of Working

• Build and continuously improve practical tools that strengthen innovation decisions and help the Innovation team to evaluate and advance new opportunities (e.g., market maps, opportunity screens, project charters, volume models, dashboards, templates for consumer learning)

• Establish standards for inputs at each stage, balancing discipline with Kinder's entrepreneurial pace and tailoring the depth of analysis to the size and uncertainty of the decision

• Establish a practical cadence for long-range planning, portfolio reviews, and prioritization that provides forward visibility without unnecessary process

What You Bring to the Table
Education / Experience

• 10+ years of experience in innovation strategy, portfolio strategy, corporate or brand strategy, management consulting, or a related role

• CPG or food industry experience a plus (but not required)

• Demonstrated experience translating market, consumer, competitive, and business inputs into long-range growth choices and prioritized innovation opportunities

• Strong strategic problem-solving skills and analytical capabilities, including market landscaping, opportunity assessment, scenario development, and early sizing

• Strong project and portfolio management discipline, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams and maintain an integrated portfolio view without becoming the day-to-day project manager for each

• Demonstrated ability to lead and influence cross-functional stakeholders, communicate complex issues clearly, and build alignment around decisions

• Proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint; experience in project management tools a plus (we currently use Wrike)

• Bachelor's degree (MBA or other relevant advanced degree a plus)

Personal characteristics

• Growth mindset with a passion for learning (and teaching)

• An objective, low-ego facilitator who can challenge thinking, surface tradeoffs, and keep the organization moving without forcing consensus

• Obsessive problem-solver with a focus on delivering quality results

• Builder by nature with willingness to dig in and build systems to help drive change

• Comfortable making progress through ambiguity and helping others make good decisions with imperfect information

• Motivated by creating lasting impact and value

• Passionate people-lover excited by the opportunity to build strong relationships with teammates

• Excited to be part of a fast-moving team with the ability to be a leader and a follower where required

Location and Travel

The position will be based out of our office in Walnut Creek, CA. We strongly believe in the power of culture and community and have a work structure with 4 days in the office on a weekly basis to encourage collaboration and personal connections that will allow us to better serve our customers and consumer and to have more fun. Fridays are flex days with employees having the opportunity to choose to be either in the office or to work from home based on what makes most sense for them.
Pay Transparency

The expected starting salary range for this role is $215,000- $240,000 per year. The salary range posted for this role reflects the good-faith base pay range Kinder's reasonably expects to offer at the time of posting and may vary based on the location of the role. Individual compensation within the posted range will be determined based on factors such as relevant education, experience, qualifications, skills, and business needs.

SEASONED FOR SUCCESS:

• No two days here are the same.
• We try to be good team members and good communicators, but we don't live by hierarchy and structure - everyone is a difference maker here.
• We make a lot of decisions in the face of incomplete information - our team embraces ambiguity and tries to make good decisions fast rather than great decisions slow.
• We believe our job is to take smart risk, not to eliminate risk.
• We believe in growing our skills and becoming a better company with more managerial expertise, but we are an entrepreneurial company at heart.
• We aren't trying to be average - we want to do exceptional things, and we are willing to work hard to achieve them.

BENEFITS THAT BRING MORE TO THE TABLE:

We offer a range of total rewards that may include paid time off, 401k, bonus / incentive eligibility, equity grants, competitive health benefits, and other family-friendly benefits, including parental leave. Kinder's benefits vary based on eligibility and can be reviewed in more detail during the interview process.

OUR RECIPE FOR BALANCE:

We believe great culture starts with people. We're a people-first company built on connection, collaboration, and balance. Most of our work happens in the office to spark creativity and community, but we also offer flexibility so team members have the autonomy to work outside the office when needed to support their work-life balance and personal commitments.