Senior Manager, Cultural Relevance

Kinder's is seeking a Sr. Manager, Cultural Relevance to be part of a passionate team of dedicated and hard-working people focused on changing people's expectations of what's possible when it comes to food. Reporting into Consumer Insights as part of the new Strategic Growth & Capabilities pillar, this first-of-its-kind role at Kinder's will build and lead our cultural relevance capability-helping us stay deeply connected to people and culture and translating that understanding into opportunities across marketing, brand strategy, product development, and growth. The ideal candidate combines deep cultural curiosity and consumer empathy with strategic thinking, business acumen, and a bias toward action. They can spot what is gaining momentum, understand why it matters, and inspire teams to turn that understanding into ideas that are relevant, distinctive, and uniquely Kinder's.
How You'll Have an Impact at Kinder's:

At Kinder's, we believe great brands earn their place in people's lives by being genuinely useful, inspiring, and relevant. You will help ensure that what we put into the world adds value to the people we serve by developing a deeper understanding of their lives and what matters to them-how they think, feel, connect, celebrate, experiment, struggle, scroll, search, and eat. Going beyond a traditional insights role, you'll keep a pulse on both what's happening now and what's coming next, with a particular focus on the real-time signals emerging through social and digital behavior. You'll partner closely with Marketing, Product Development, Brand Strategy, and Consumer Insights to turn those signals into actionable strategies, products, and activations that elevate how Kinder's shows up in culture and in consumers' everyday lives.
Key Responsibilities:
Build Cultural Relevance as a Capability

• Build an always-on approach to identifying and interpreting trends, cultural moments, emerging behaviors, and broader shifts across food and flavor, media and entertainment, creators and communities, technology, retail, lifestyle, and other spaces shaping consumers.
• Build an ecosystem of tools and methods that expand Kinder's ability to sense and understand culture; create simple frameworks that help teams evaluate what matters, why it matters, how long it might matter, and whether-and how-Kinder's should act.
• Establish a regular cadence of cultural intelligence-from timely trend and activation opportunities to deeper perspectives on emerging consumer and cultural shifts.
• Facilitate briefings, workshops, and working sessions that turn cultural and consumer intelligence into ideas, choices, and action.
• Build cultural curiosity and capability across the organization, becoming a trusted thought partner and bringing an informed external perspective into key business conversations.

Anticipate, Interpret & Translate Cultural Signals

• Track culture across multiple horizons-from fast-moving conversations and behaviors to longer-term shifts in consumer values, needs, tastes, and expectations.
• Integrate social listening, search and behavioral signals, consumer research, category intelligence, secondary research, and emerging AI-enabled tools to develop a holistic and timely view of consumers and culture.
• Assess what is gaining momentum and distinguish what is simply interesting from what presents a meaningful opportunity for Kinder's.
• Connect individual signals and trends to deeper consumer motivations and behaviors to develop points of view on where culture is headed and what it could mean for our business.

Mobilize Cultural Relevance Into Action

• Translate cultural intelligence into actionable opportunities across marketing activation, brand strategy, innovation and product development
• Partner closely with Brand Strategy, Marketing, Product Development, Consumer Insights, and other teams to determine where Kinder's has a credible and distinctive role to play in emerging trends and cultural moments.
• Develop rapid-turn points of view that help teams understand what's happening, why consumers care, whether Kinder's should participate, and how we could add value while the opportunity is still relevant.
• Connect emerging cultural behaviors to Kinder's brands, products, flavors, occasions, and distinctive assets to inspire ideas that are both culturally relevant and uniquely Kinder's.

What You Bring to the Table

• Bachelor's degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Marketing, Communications, or a related discipline; equivalent relevant experience considered.
• 7-10 years of experience across cultural intelligence, consumer insights, trend sensing, brand strategy, social intelligence, innovation, or related disciplines; experience in consumer products, food & beverage, retail, lifestyle, media, or consulting preferred.
• Deep cultural curiosity, strong consumer and commercial judgment, and a bias toward action, with the ability to influence and collaborate across Marketing, Brand Strategy, Product Development, Consumer Insights, and senior stakeholders.
• Experience leveraging different social listening platforms and data tools and integrating insights from diverse sources into larger, strategic narratives
• Demonstrated ability to identify both fast-moving cultural opportunities and longer-term consumer shifts and translate them into actionable marketing, brand, product, or business opportunities.
• Excellent strategic synthesis, pattern recognition, and storytelling skills, with the ability to turn fragmented and fast-moving information into clear, compelling points of view and recommendations.

Who You Are

• Consumer-centered and empathetic. You are genuinely curious about people and seek to understand the motivations, needs, tensions, and perspectives behind their behavior. You bring empathy to both the consumers we serve and the colleagues you work alongside.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity. You thrive in an entrepreneurial environment where the path forward is not always defined. You are comfortable making thoughtful decisions with incomplete information, balancing speed with sound judgment, and helping create structure where it does not yet exist.
• An exceptional relationship builder. You build trust and rapport quickly, listen well, and enjoy bringing people and perspectives together. You know that influence comes through strong partnerships and can inspire action across teams without relying on hierarchy.
• Curious, humble, and willing to challenge. You bring a strong point of view while remaining open to new ideas and different perspectives. You ask thoughtful questions, challenge conventional thinking constructively, and care more about getting to the best answer than being the person who has it.
• Mission-first with a bias toward action. You are a collaborative, low-ego teammate who is willing to roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to move the business forward. You are energized by high expectations, continuous learning, smart risk-taking, and the opportunity to help Kinder's do exceptional things.

Location and Pay Transparency

This role will be based onsite in Walnut Creek, CA. The expected starting salary range for this role is $160,000-$195,000 per year. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range based on the location of the role The amount a particular employee will earn within the salary range will be based on factors such as relevant education, qualifications, performance 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.