Director, Innovation Strategy

About The Role

The Director of Innovation Strategy at Kinder's will play a pivotal role in our efforts to continue delivering at market-leading speed as we grow. You will be responsible for supporting the development and continuous evolution of our innovation strategy, connecting organizational and brand priorities with market landscapes, consumer needs, customer priorities, brand permission, opportunity size, and organizational capabilities to shape our innovation pipeline, prioritization, and growth. You will also be a key partner to the broader leadership team in communicating innovation priorities, facilitating decision making, and framing implications across the organization.  

This role requires a results-oriented leader with strong communication skills, project management discipline, analytical capabilities, and the ability to collaborate cross-functionally. In this role, you will report to the VP of Innovation to support the evaluation and execution of a broad range of strategic projects and initiatives.  

Key Responsibilities

Long-Range Innovation Planning & Strategic Opportunities 

• Lead the development and ongoing evolution of Kinder’s long-term innovation plan, translating enterprise and brand growth priorities into a focused set of strategic opportunities, platforms, and categories to explore 

• Build and maintain market and category maps that identify consumer needs, emerging behaviors, competitive activity, and potential white space for Kinder’s 

• Partner with Culinary, R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Commercialization, and other functions to understand current capabilities and constraints and identify new capabilities or investments required to unlock future growth 

• Collaborate with Finance, Sales, and other partners to develop fit-for-purpose business cases for potential growth initiatives (including sizing, volume scenarios, and economic perspectives appropriate to the maturity of each opportunity) 

• Serve as a trusted thought partner to the Innovation team and enterprise leaders, constructively challenging assumptions and helping distinguish attractive ideas from opportunities most likely to create consumer value and meaningful growth 

• Synthesize complex market, consumer, financial, and operational information into clear narratives and recommendations for executive and cross-functional audiences 

Innovation Portfolio Prioritization & Decision Facilitation 

• Refine and apply a consistent approach for assessing opportunities across strategic fit, consumer value, differentiation, brand permission, operational feasibility, financial viability, capabilities requirements, timing, and risk 

• Translate prioritized opportunities into structured exploration, with clear hypotheses, questions to answer, and evidence required to inform decisions 

• Plan and lead portfolio reviews, ensuring leaders have a concise fact base, explicit tradeoffs, and actionable recommendations 

• Capture decisions, rationale, and follow-up actions, ensuring approved decisions are reflected in portfolio plans and communicated to the teams responsible for execution 

Pipeline Visibility & Portfolio Health 

• Maintain a single, integrated view of active, emerging, and upcoming innovation initiatives, including status, timing, key milestones, major dependencies and risks, investment and/or resource needs, and decisions required 

• Monitor the balance and health of the portfolio across time horizons, categories, growth platforms, and types of innovation, identifying gaps, overconcentration, and disconnects from strategic priorities 

• Anticipate portfolio-level capacity constraints and competing demands early, bringing the right partners together to resolve sequencing, resourcing, or scope tradeoffs 

Innovation Strategy Tools & Ways of Working  

• Build and continuously improve practical tools that strengthen innovation decisions and help the Innovation team to evaluate and advance new opportunities (e.g., market maps, opportunity screens, project charters, volume models, dashboards, templates for consumer learning) 

• Establish standards for inputs at each stage, balancing discipline with Kinder’s entrepreneurial pace and tailoring the depth of analysis to the size and uncertainty of the decision 

• Establish a practical cadence for long-range planning, portfolio reviews, and prioritization that provides forward visibility without unnecessary process 

What You Bring to the Table

Education / Experience 

• 10+ years of experience in innovation strategy, portfolio strategy, corporate or brand strategy, management consulting, or a related role 

• CPG or food industry experience a plus (but not required) 

• Demonstrated experience translating market, consumer, competitive, and business inputs into long-range growth choices and prioritized innovation opportunities 

• Strong strategic problem-solving skills and analytical capabilities, including market landscaping, opportunity assessment, scenario development, and early sizing 

• Strong project and portfolio management discipline, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams and maintain an integrated portfolio view without becoming the day-to-day project manager for each  

• Demonstrated ability to lead and influence cross-functional stakeholders, communicate complex issues clearly, and build alignment around decisions