Senior Consumer Insights Manager

Kinder’s is seeking an experienced Sr. Consumer Insights Manager with a desire to be part of a passionate team of dedicated and hard-working people focused on bringing the future of flavor to consumers everywhere.

We are a fast-growing company working hard to bring amazing flavor solutions to consumers that are as exciting and delicious as they are simple to use. Whether we are serving the emerging cook or seasoned pro, we are 100% committed to our mission of bringing awesome flavor to consumers wherever and whenever they are looking for it and in whatever form they want it in be it seasonings, sauces, gravies, marinades, or anything else we can dream up. We drive hard to be the most quality-obsessed, innovative company in any market we serve and while we have experienced tremendous growth over the last 5 years, we think we are just getting started. We love our consumers and are fired up to be part of their flavor journey, and we need more great people to help us continue to raise the bar for what consumers think is even possible in their own kitchens.

Today, we have over 100 products sold nationwide at retailers including Costco, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Kroger, Safeway and many more. While we have been around for over 75 years, we have experienced explosive growth in the last 5 years and are now a top 5 brand in the U.S. in multiple flavor categories including seasoning blends, BBQ sauce, and wing sauce. To keep our momentum rolling, we need more passionate flavor advocates and builders to come and join our team and help us reach every kitchen across the U.S. and maybe even the world.

How you'll have an impact at Kinder’s:

As part of a small, but fast-growing Consumer Insights Team, you will have the opportunity to shape the Consumer Insights discipline at Kinder’s and the way in which Kinder’s generates and utilizes insights across the business. You will leverage both existing as well as develop novel research methods to create a holistic picture of Kinder’s current and future consumers with the goal of uncovering opportunities to fuel Kinder’s continued high growth. Serving as a strategic partner to Brand Management and Marketing Communications, you will develop and maintain actionable frameworks that make it easy to bring the consumer voice into strategy development and decision making to ensure maximum impact of the Kinder’s portfolio and consumer-facing communication. Through skilled insight generation, communication, and relationship building, you will help bring the Consumer Insights Vision to life and support a culture of being consumer-obsessed. You will play a key role in ensure Kinder’s continues to understand and exceed consumer expectations delivering exciting, delicious and effortless flavor solutions.

Key Responsibilities For The Role:

• Consumer Research & Analytics Savvy

• Understand business needs both stated and unstated in order to develop, manage and execute a consumer insight learning plan that identifies and shapes opportunities to drive growth
• Leverage multiple insights methods and tools including qualitative and quantitative primary research consumer panel data to provide deep insight; identify capability gaps and make recommendations for improvement
• Maximize impact by utilizing a variety of research and analysis approaches spanning agile, DIY as well as full-service, vendor managed. Exercise openness and creativity developing novel insights approaches to interesting business questions.

• Synthesis & Integration

• Seamlessly integrate data from primary and secondary sources to provide a holistic view of the trends, shifts and key insights that will impact consumer behavior to guide strategic choices
• Act as the steward of the consumer creating and finding creative ways to reinforce a new lexicon and way of working for Kinder’s
• Develop and maintain insight frameworks for uncovering business opportunities including, but not limited to Consumer Journey and Segmentation

• Storytelling & Communication

• Create compelling insight-driven stories that effectively and succinctly communicate the most important insights to drive impact
• Connect dots between macro trends, research and consumer behavior paint a holistic picture of the consumer and their latent needs
• Visualize data and insights for intuitive interpretation and consumption across audiences ranging from Brand Management, Field Sales, and Executive Leadership

• Cross-Functional Partnership

• Work closely with cross-functional teams including brand management, marketing communications and sales, to embed consumer insight frameworks into strategy and day-to-day decision making
• Collaborate with insights & analytics peers, marketing and field sales to package insights across the business into selling stories usable by field teams
• Act as a strategic partner to Brand Management by providing an objective voice of the consumer during key moments of strategy and planning

What You Bring to the Table

• Education / Experience

• Bachelor's Degree required, MBA preferred
• 8 years Consumer Insights experience (CPG preferred, but not necessary)
• Strong analytical acumen with deep knowledge of Panel data (Numerator preferred)
• Experience managing largescale consumer research projects and vendor partners across a variety of methods and applications
• Excellent communication skills with proven ability to synthesize insights into what’s most important, galvanize stakeholders and create an insights-driven culture
• Proven business acumen with track record of translating insights into business opportunities
• Reputation as a trustworthy, productive partner with the ability to build rapport quickly with business partners

• Personal Characteristics

• Capability builder who is inspired by the idea of creating new approaches and educating stakeholders on new ways of thinking
• Growth mindset with an excitement to learn (and teach) about driving value through insights at Kinder’s
• Low ego and ability to go with the flow in a fast moving (and changing) environment
• Comfortable in ambiguity with an excitement to build the way forward vs. walk into something fully established
• Strong communicator, relationship builder and self-starter who takes initiative and speaks their mind
• Excited to be part of a fast-moving team with the ability to be a leader and a follower
• Enjoy finding ways to say ‘yes’ as often as possible to impactful and important priorities

Things About the Way We Work

• 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

Location & Travel

The position will be based out of our 20,000 sq. foot office in Walnut Creek, CA. We strongly believe in the power of culture and community and have a hybrid 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.

Some travel will be required for this role on a periodic basis. Typical travel includes industry conferences and key customer visits.

Salary : $140,000 - $160,000