Description:

Are you a passionate brand marketer who loves food? Are you a strategic thought leader who thrives on bringing ideas to life in new and creative ways? At KFC innovation and creativity are central to our company's culture. KFC US is looking for a person to come in and fuel its core innovation platforms. Driving bigger and better innovations into the brand and underpinning all of it in a customer centered growth strategy. This position will lead the cross-functional definition, prioritization, and development of the KFC US innovation pipeline with direct responsibility for leading brand and product innovation programs through the front end stage gate process. Initiative Portfolio Management: •Deliver a 24 month validated innovation pipeline which support KFC's core growth strategies. •Lead cross-functional teams and agencies to turn innovation ideas into viable products and marketable platforms. •Day to day accountability for upstream project leadership and direction. Conceptual and Product Innovation Strategy: •Partner with executive leadership to shape the innovation strategy for KFC. •Single Point leader for End to End Innovation process (ideation to commercialization) •Integrates strategy, insights and business targets into actionable product development plan. Aligns stakeholders/franchisees on plan. Brand Strategy: •Leads marketing strategy development for key brand initiatives tied to current year operating plan.

Requirements:

•Education/Certifications – Undergraduate degree in Marketing, Marketing Research, or Social Sciences with career aspirations to the consumer side of marketing. Experience in the restaurant category, foodservice, or CPG preferred. MBA preferred. •Experience •Years of Experience – 4 years of experience post Undergraduate Degree. Prefer 3-4 years of experience post MBA. •Visionary leader with a consistent background of delivering results by creating competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans. •Startup Mentality with proven track record of driving growth in an entrepreneurial environment. •Product Management leading multi-functional teams using stage-gate process. •Strong Communicator who works well with cross-functional teams and leads multiple stakeholders – even when they don’t report to you. •Deep Analytical Skills for influencing others and the ability to utilize data to make good decisions when confronted by ambiguity. •Deep understanding of how to build empathy with customers; experience working with customers in field and extracting insights from customer co-development exercises.

Additional Info: