Associate Manager, Innovation

Stella & Chewy's

At Stella & Chewy’s, we put pets first; behind everything we do is our mission to help dogs and cats thrive. Founded in 2003 by Marie Moody to help her own rescue dogs, we are the innovators of raw frozen and freeze dried raw pet food. Today, we are a full line manufacturer of premium pet food, focused on best-in-class nutrition with high-quality ingredients, offering a range of products including frozen raw, freeze dried raw, kibble, wet food, and treats. We are the fastest growing pet food brand in neighborhood pet and offer a flexible and dog-friendly office culture. As pet parents ourselves, we’re committed to bringing both pets and pet parents everywhere Only the Good Stuff! Our products are available for purchase in the United States, Canada, Singapore, China, Hong Kong and South Korea. We proudly manufacture our food in our headquarters facility in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and use ONLY the best and safest ingredients.

https://www.stellaandchewys.com/

Position Details

Associate Manager, Innovation
Job
Full-time
8/12/2024
Southeast Wisconsin
Oak Creek, WI
  • Support innovation projects as they move from concept to launch within the StageGate™ process 
  • Assist with the creation and management of our new product pipeline for the domestic and global businesses helping to research, size and forecast ideas as needed 
  • Manage inputs for databases that help drive the development and tracking of new products 
  • Lead & support data gathering and analysis of consumer, competitor and industry insights 
  • Become a category expert and find unique but compelling data points for product sell in and concept rationales. 
  • Coordinate and assist with the testing of unique product ideas and prototypes against key consumer needs 
  • Work with R & D to lead the management and tracking of product testing throughout the development lifecycle 
  • Assist with management and relationship building with our outside vendors to ensure we are a priority client, driving to create quality outputs, while remaining on time and on budget 
  • Work closely with our R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing and Sales teams to effectively support innovation projects cross functionally 
  • Coordinate retailer council partnerships and sales inputs that can be used to gain new product insights 
  • Manage detailed deliverables related to the creative execution of new products including timelines, technical documents and packaging proofing to ensure on time art delivery with internal and external agencies 
  • Work with our Project Management team to effectively manage the product development process, including timelines and stage gate deliverables; coordinate inputs as needed 
  • Support the implementation of improved innovation processes across the organization

Requirements:

  • 2+ years of experience in innovation, brand management or marketing role in the Consumer Package Goods industry, pet food experience a plus 
  • Bachelor’s Degree in Business or related field required 
  • Highly motivated self-starter with ability to manage multiple projects at various levels of complexity in a fast-paced environment 
  • Detail-oriented with strong analytical skills to generate data-driven recommendations and decisions 
  • Experience in using syndicated data sources such as Nielsen to enable analysis of industry data is a plus 
  • Experience with research tools and processes 
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills 
  • Comfort working with a remote manager, while working alongside a well-developed Oak Creek based Marketing team. 
  • Strong collaborator with proven ability to work with many cross functional stakeholders

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