Essential Functions & Responsibilities  

• Lead and develop a team of Innovation Managers responsible for sourcing and commercialization support across the business unit innovation portfolio mid and long term 

• Translate business unit and brand innovation priorities into clear team focus, resource alignment, and execution direction 

• Champion supplier-enabled innovation across the business unit and brands by helping the team identify, elevate, and connect supplier capabilities to the 3year innovation needs 

• Build the operating rhythm for innovation procurement across the portfolio, including prioritization, governance, issue escalation, and progress visibility 

• Coach Innovation Managers through complex sourcing, commercialization, and supplier challenges to strengthen decision making, problem solving, and execution quality 

• Remove barriers that slow innovation delivery by driving alignment across procurement, R&D, operations, finance, quality, legal, and business teams 

• Instill sourcing excellence across the team through strong standards in supplier selection, negotiation, contracting, commercialization readiness, and launch support 

• Drive consistency in how the team manages innovation sourcing activities, supplier engagement, transitions, and cross-functional coordination 

• Lead continuous improvement in innovation procurement ways of working to simplify processes, reduce rework, and improve speed, visibility, and execution effectiveness 

• Support portfolio-level prioritization and tradeoff discussions by surfacing risks, dependencies, capacity constraints, and execution challenges  

• Strengthen team capability in structured problem solving, risk sensing, scenario planning, and proactive stakeholder management 

• Partner with the Associate Director and core category procurement leaders to ensure alignment between innovation activity and broader business, supplier, and category strategies 

• Identify key areas for efficiencies post launch and set the base procurement teams up for success for the future  

• Ensure effective transition of launched innovation at external manufacturers from innovation procurement support into base business ownership after stabilization 

• Monitor portfolio health through key indicators related to sourcing progress, commercialization readiness, supplier readiness, timing, and execution risk 

• Foster a team culture of accountability, collaboration, learning, and continuous improvement 

Expected Experience & Required Skills 

• ​​​Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, business, finance, operations, engineering, or a related field; MBA and/or advanced procurement qualifications preferred 

• ​Significant procurement experience, ideally including innovation sourcing, external manufacturing, commercialization, ingredients, packaging, CAPEX, or related categories 

• ​Demonstrated people leadership experience, including coaching and developing high-performing teams 

• ​Strong experience supporting innovation, commercialization, supplier capability development, and launch execution in a fast-moving environment 

• ​Strong systems thinking, with the ability to connect innovation strategy, supplier capability, commercialization requirements, and cross-functional dependencies across the portfolio 

• ​Strong sourcing and supplier management foundation, with credibility to coach others on negotiation, contracting, commercialization readiness, and supplier execution 

• ​Curiosity about AI and digital tools, with interest in how they can improve visibility, decision making, efficiency, and team effectiveness 

• ​Strong solution-oriented mindset, with the ability to remove barriers, simplify complexity, and help teams move from issue identification to practical action 

• ​Strong communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills across matrixed teams and functions 

• ​Strong problem-solving, prioritization, and execution capabilities across multiple concurrent initiatives 

• ​Ability to lead through ambiguity, support team decision making, and escalate issues with sound judgment 

• ​Continuous improvement mindset with the ability to strengthen innovation routines, governance, and ways of working over time 

• ​Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and familiarity with source-to-pay tools such as SAP, Ariba, Workday, and related systems 

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Work Environment & Schedule 

This position is considered a normal office environment with moderate travel to customer locations, stores, manufacturing facilities, etc.; offices are open workspaces. To create a more agile and modern workplace, we allow Chicago/Aon Center based employees to work virtually for up to two days each week and expect them to work in-person during the defined core days at their assigned work location at least three days per workweek.