Manager, Products Research

Business Unit Overview

Headquartered in Lakeville, Minn., Post Consumer Brands, a business unit of Post Holdings, Inc., is dedicated to providing people and their pets with delicious food choices for every taste and budget. The company’s portfolio includes beloved brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats®, PEBBLES®, Grape-Nuts® and Malt-O-Meal® cereal, and Peter Pan® peanut butter, as well as Rachael Ray® Nutrish®, Kibbles ‘n Bits® and 9Lives® dog and cat food. As a company committed to high standards of quality and to our values, we are driven by one idea: To make lives better by making delicious food accessible for all. For more information about our brands, visit www.postconsumerbrands.com and follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news.

Brand

Post Consumer Brands recently acquired several iconic pet food brands, venturing into a new market while remaining true to our purpose to provide delicious and accessible food that our consumers love. We’re always searching the center store for the next exciting product to add to our portfolio, and right now, we’re growing and need passionate, driven individuals with diverse perspectives to help us reach greater heights. That’s where you come in. Join a team where your voice is not only heard but valued. Make a real impact on brands enjoyed by millions of people and their pets.

Location Description

Post Consumer Brands corporate headquarters in Lakeville, Minn. is about 20 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Lakeville has all the benefits of smaller town living with access to everything a large metropolitan area has to offer. Join more than 400 team members collaborating on the two-building campus to help put breakfast on the tables of millions of consumers in North America.

Responsibilities

This position will lead Pet R&D’s understanding of consumers’ needs, translating them into product design, technical requirements, and consumer models to drive business results. Additional team responsibilities include defining, developing, and executing the consumer methods used for insight understanding, product development, and qualification of projects. The Products Research (PR) team collaborates on projects ranging from current business support and renovation to new product development and innovation for Pet Food and Treats, across all brands within the Post Consumer Brands Pet portfolio.

JOB ACTIVITIES/DUTIES

• Champion Product Research with Marketing, insights and other cross-functional partners.
• Proactively connect and engage within R&D, connecting consumer insight and understanding to technical measures and methods
• Lead a high functioning Product Research team to have both the technical capabilities to deliver against consumer needs to fuel innovation which drives business results, and the Resonant Leadership to drive engagement and growth.
• Develop and build consumer models and methods that guide current and future product Renovation, Innovation and technology platforms based on strong market, consumer, and product understanding.
• Leverage consumer insights, trends, consumer and technical models and current product / equity strengths, to form vision for product innovation requirements, and effectively enroll senior management and the organization at large in it.
• Develop & communicate statistical confidence & risks associated with the consumer & technical models to aid better decision making
• Influence others, anticipate issues, and proactively put plans in place to address them. Take ownership of decisions and broad implications.
• Understand consumers’ needs/wants and lead translation of consumers’ ‘what’s needed’ to technical requirements.
• Provide technical and business judgments based on mastery and experience that help guide business decisions.
  
  
  

Qualifications

Education: BS/MS/PhD in Science or Engineering.

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in the consumer products industry in consumer science, sensory or product development roles with a working knowledge of consumer research.
• Broad, successful experience in bringing many different types of new unique products to market - from concept to national launch.
• Management experience leading a team in Research & Development.
• Ability to effectively partner and collaborate within R&D and Marketing, Sales functions
• Managing & leading technical teams, working in a highly collaborative team environment
• Able to provide quick technical direction and guidance to product and process developers on many different projects simultaneously.
  
  
  

Skills

• Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Able to foresee technical issues with new product development well in advance to effectively determine the right solutions to keep projects on time and on budget.
• Ability to provide work direction to assigned resources
• Ability to lead team to a consensus; strong negotiation and influencing skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects, in a fast-paced environment, meeting deadlines, and communicating status. Demonstrated problem-solving skills.
• Proven innovation and creativity.
• Understanding in design and execution of sensory and consumer science methods including, but not limited to, qualitative and quantitative research, concept development, prototyping and consumer-based specifications.
  
  
  

Other Requirements

• Travel up to 25%
• Ability to lift 25 kg.