Senior Director, Innovation

Who You Are:  

The Senior Director of Innovation will lead the development and execution of the company’s end-to-end innovation strategy, driving sustainable, long-term growth through a robust and balanced pipeline of new products, platforms, and renovation initiatives. This role is accountable for shaping the future of the business through identifying and unlocking new growth opportunities across products, formats, and business models that expand the brand’s reach and relevance. 

The Task At Hand:

As a key member of the Marketing team, this individual will operate at the intersection of brand, R&D, insights, and commercial functions, serving as the connective tissue that translates consumer needs and market opportunities into commercially successful innovations. They will own the innovation agenda from early-stage concept through commercialization and in-market performance, ensuring ideas are not only compelling but executable, scalable, and financially impactful. 

This leader will define where to play and how to win, building a disciplined yet agile innovation engine that balances core business growth with bold, forward-looking bets. They will bring a strong external lens grounded in consumer trends, competitive dynamics, and category evolution while also driving internal alignment, prioritization, and resource allocation to maximize impact. 

In This Role, You Will:  

Innovation Strategy & Pipeline Leadership 

• Define and own the rolling 3-year innovation strategy and pipeline, aligned to enterprise growth goals, category whitespace, and consumer needs 

• Owns innovation as a primary driver of enterprise growth and long-term value creation while partnering with executive leadership to shape company-wide growth strategy beyond innovation function 

• Establish clear “where to play” and “how to win” frameworks, grounded in jobs-to-be-done, consumer insights, and competitive dynamics 

• Build and manage a balanced pipeline across core renovation, adjacent expansion, and breakthrough innovation.  

• Lead stage-gate processes, ensuring concepts are rigorously evaluated based on size of prize, financial viability (P&L), feasibility, and strategic fit 

• Continuously assess and optimize pipeline health, prioritization, and resource allocation 

• Allocates resources strategically across core and breakthrough innovation 

Concept Development & Commercialization 

• Translate insights into winning product concepts, value propositions, and positioning strategies 

• Partner closely with R&D and operations to bring products from ideation through development, testing, and launch 

• Oversee end-to-end commercialization, including packaging, pricing strategy, claims, and partner with brand team for go-to-market plans 

• Ensure all innovation is grounded in strong consumer desirability, technical feasibility, and business viability 

Consumer, Category & Trend Leadership 

• Lead identification of emerging consumer trends, whitespace opportunities, and category disruptions within baby and kids foods and adjacent spaces 

• Defines clear business opportunity spaces from the trends and sleepy category insights 

• Champion a consumer-first mindset, leveraging qualitative and quantitative insights to shape innovation strategy 

• Synthesize data from multiple sources (market trends, velocity, competitive landscape, retailer feedback) into clear strategic recommendations 

• Represents the company externally as a thought leader in innovation and category evolution 

Cross-Functional Leadership 

• Serve as the central connector across Marketing, R&D, Sales, Supply Chain, and Finance to drive alignment and execution of innovation initiatives 

• Partner with Sales to ensure innovation aligns with channel strategy, retailer needs, and commercialization priorities 

• Collaborate with Operations and Supply Chain to ensure scalability, cost efficiency, and speed to market 

• Serves as a key strategic advisor to SLT, influencing enterprise priorities, investment decisions, and growth strategy 

• Drives decision-making at the executive level on innovation bets, trade-offs, and resource allocation 

• Be a trusted voice and partner with key retailers at Top-to-Top meetings to shape existing pipeline and plan adjustments to take advantage of presented opportunities 

Brand & Portfolio Integration 

• Ensure innovation strengthens and evolves the overall brand strategy and portfolio architecture 

• Partner with brand/marketing teams to develop compelling storytelling and launch plans for new products 

• Maintain consistency across innovation initiatives while enabling brand stretch and expansion into new territories 

• Owns prioritization decisions, including trade-offs and de-prioritization of initiatives to maximize impact