Position Snapshot

Location: Vevey, Switzerland or Fremont, MI, USA.
Company: NPTC Nutrition
Act. Rate: Full-Time Act. Rate 100%
Type of contract: Permanent contract

What we offer at Nestlé

Flexible work policies in terms of core hours and working from home. Please talk to us during the recruitment process about what flexibility could look like for you!
Genuine opportunities for career and personal development
Modern “smart office” locations providing agile & collaborative workspaces
Dynamic international working environment
Attractive additional benefits

Position Summary

At the Nestlé Development Unit (NDU) Nutrition in Orbe, we develop new products, processes and packaging concepts in the areas of Infant Cereals and Healthy Snacks for Nestlé worldwide. In addition, we also provide technical assistance to our factories around the world.

The Nutrition “Strategic Business Unit” (SBU) is part of the Nestlé Group. Our mission is to nurture a Healthier Generation. We will achieve this by leading the way in research and development of science-proven nutrition solutions and by partnering with parents and healthcare professionals around the world. At the heart of our mission is the knowledge and understanding that nutrition in the first 1000 days of life, from conception, through pregnancy and throughout the child’s first two years of life - has a direct and significant impact on health and performance in later life. Our product portfolio includes such trusted and well-recognized brands as NAN, LACTOGEN, NESTOGEN, GERBER, CERELAC, SMA, ILLUMA and NIDO.

As a “Innovation & Strategy Manager”, you will work with internal R&D and commercial teams from our Baby Food business as well as external innovation partners to apply user-centered innovation approaches to ensure the identification and translation of consumer insights and employee ideas into new opportunity areas to ultimately create relevant new products, packaging propositions, business models & services opportunity areas and/or concepts, while continuously seeking to improve the methods and tools available to drive innovation performance.

We offer a dynamic, inclusive, and international working environment with many opportunities across different companies, functions, and regions. Don’t miss the opportunity to join us and work with different teams in an agile and diverse context.

A Day in the Life of an Innovation & Strategy Manager

• Lead and coach teams to identify innovation sweet spots between consumer desirability, technical feasibility and financial viability
• Act as a Guide and inspire idea owners and project teams in the development, testing and business potential assessment of ideas
• Act as a bridge between R&D, Strategic Business Unit, Markets and agencies to develop and build strategic innovation roadmaps
• Understand trends and consumer insights to incorporate them into strategic and ideation workshops and research activities
• Accelerate translation of consumer insights into validated concepts using approaches such as Lean Start-up, Design Thinking and Digital Prototyping
• Drive the delivery of innovation concept storytelling as well as minimal vial development for products and service (UX design, user testing)
• Plan and execute Test & Learns, shop tests or pilot launches to establish business opportunities
• Plan, execute and facilitate strategic and ideation workshops with the most relevant approach and tools
• Manage end-to-end work with external innovation partners including growth hackers, design and innovation agencies, start-ups
• Understand of markets, consumers/influencers and the competitive landscape to identify business development opportunities
• Build and exchange innovation best practices with internal & external networks

What will make you successful

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Marketing or Scientific / Engineering areas is preferred.
• Qualification and/or proven working experience in Innovation and/or Design Thinking, UX, BMC, VPC, LEAN/Agile and/or similar approaches. (Can apply, coach and train)
• Ability to effectively engage and collaborate with cross-functional teams
• Excellent stakeholder management and presentation skills
• Experience in people management and leadership
• Strong Project Management skills and experience
• Proven strategic thinking and solution finding in complex projects
• Proven experience in product development and cross-category knowledge are a plus
• Proven experience working with a variety of cultures in effective ways is desirable

At Nestlé, we want to help shape a better and healthier world, inspire people to live healthier lives and deliver impact at a scale and pace that makes a difference. We do this by fostering a diverse, friendly, supportive, and collaborative environment, that creates positive disruption, embraces innovation, and empowers people and teams to win.
We aim to hire friendly, respectful, inspiring people who care about the people’s lives that we touch every single day.
Be a force for good. Join Nestlé and visit us on www.nestle.com