{"id":3567798,"url":"https://alion.io/job/mars-sr-manager-innovation-kind","title":"Sr. Manager, Innovation– KIND","company":{"id":94439,"name":"Mars","domain":"mars.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/mars","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":58,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":17,"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"}},"role":"Marketing","role_family":"Marketing","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Chicago, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":153600,"max":211200,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":211200},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-27T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-27","last_verified_at":"2026-11-03T12:48:34Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":7,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":7},"description":"Job Description:\nSr. Brand Manager, Innovation - KIND\nAccelerator, a global Division of Mars Snacking, is on the front line of unlocking growth across high-potential categories and brands to fuel what’s next for Snacking. It’s home to both emerging and enduring brands, including KIND, TRÜ FRÜ, NATURE’S BAKERY, RXBAR, EGGO, POP-TARTS and RICE KRISPIE TREATS. Combining the scale of Mars with the agility of a start-up, our Division has the ambition to accelerate the future of snacking by delivering products consumers love today, discovering category-shaping innovations for tomorrow and developing entrepreneurial teams whose impact will last for generations.\nWe’re looking for passionate talent who dare to dream big, agile collaborators who talk straight and decide fast, and driven performers with a growth mindset. We’re proudly part of Mars, while also building something boldly different. If this inspires and energizes you, you’ve found the right place where you can do cool things with fun people for one of the biggest snacking companies in the world!\nWhat You’ll Do\nReporting to the Senior Marketing Director, KIND, the Sr. Brand Manager, Innovation owns what KIND launches next. The role is accountable for the brand’s 18-month to 3-year innovation pipeline end to end: the consumer needs the brand should solve for, where it plays next, the propositions that get it there, the products that make them real, and the stage gates that decide what moves forward and what stops. Every launch starts with a real consumer problem, and this role is the brand’s deepest expert on who the KIND consumer is, what they want from snacking, and where the unmet needs are. This role leads a team of a Brand Manager and a Senior Associate Brand Manager, each owning a platform, and holds the earliest-stage bets personally until they earn an owner. The role works shoulder to shoulder with Consumer Research and R&D from the first consumer question to the final formulation, and hands the Core team launches that are ready to win.\nWhat will be your key responsibilities?\nInnovation Strategy & Portfolio Direction\nOwn the KIND innovation strategy: where the brand plays next across formats, occasions and adjacencies, grounded in a deep understanding of the consumer, their snacking needs and occasions, category dynamics and the brand platform.\nBuild and maintain the brand’s innovation insight foundation: who the KIND consumer is and could be, the jobs they hire snacks to do, the tensions and unmet needs in the category, and where KIND has the right to play.\nRepresent KIND innovation to Better For You leadership and global markets, building platforms that can travel and bringing market and consumer learning back into the pipeline.\nBring the Accelerator way of working into the brand: founder-style ownership, fast and cheap experiments, clear kill criteria, and the willingness to scale hard when something proves out.\nPipeline Management & Business Case Development\nBuild and own the 18-month to 3-year pipeline, sequencing launches against capacity, investment and the commercial calendar so the brand always has news coming.\nOwn the stage-gate and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) steps and make the portfolio calls on what enters, accelerates, parks or stops. Decide early, decide with consumer evidence, defend the decision.\nBuild the business case for every launch, volume, margin, investment, incrementality and return, and partner with Finance to secure funding.\nOwn the early-stage bets personally from consumer insight through concept and validation until each passes a gate and earns an owner or stops.\nProduct Design & Development\nWrite propositions that start with the consumer: the problem, the person, the reason KIND wins, and the evidence that it will.\nLead product design across every component: formulation, format, pack structure and graphics, nutrition, taste and texture, naming and claims, so the product delivers the proposition in the hand.\nSet the learning plan with Consumer Research for each platform, from concept screens through sensory and in-market validation, and stay close to the consumer throughout, in the research and in the field.\nPartner with R&D as co-owners of the product on cost, capacity and ingredient trade-offs, and own the standard a KIND product must meet before it launches.\nLaunch Readiness & Cross-Functional Leadership\nHand each launch to the Core, Equity & GTM team at a defined point of go-to-market readiness, with proposition, product, business case and launch plan complete, and stay accountable for the first-year read.\nLead the innovation workstream across R&D, Supply, Finance, Insights, Category, Sales and Omni as one plan with shared milestones and KPIs.\nBuild and manage the external partnerships the pipeline depends on.\nTalent & Capability\nLead and develop the Brand Manager and Senior Associate Brand Manager, giving each real platform ownership and cross-functional leadership.\nBuild innovation capability into the brand: faster concept testing, AI-enabled insight and ideation tools, and a repeatable path from idea to gate.\nBring the outside in: consumer and cultural trends, category, competitor and adjacent innovation, and what the brand can learn from how others are winning.\nWhat are we looking for?\nUndergraduate degree required, preferably in Marketing, Business Administration or a technical discipline. MBA or other graduate degree preferred.\n8+ years of progressive experience in Marketing, Brand Management or Innovation within CPG, with at least 4 years in an innovation role on a scaled consumer brand. Challenger brand, start-up or growth business experience is a strong asset.\nDeep consumer understanding: has built innovation from a real consumer insight rather than a product idea, is fluent in qualitative and quantitative research, and can turn what consumers say and do into a sharp, ownable proposition.\nHas taken a product from insight through concept, development, business case and launch, with clear accountability for the result in market.\nHas run a multi-year pipeline and stage-gate process, including making and defending kill decisions.\nHas led product design across formulation, format, pack, nutrition and sensory in deep partnership with R&D and Consumer Research.\nHas managed external partners such as co-manufacturers, ingredient and technology suppliers or research institutions.\nBuilds business cases that hold up: sizes the opportunity, models volume, margin and investment, and can defend the number with senior stakeholders.\nHas managed and developed people and led cross-functional teams without direct authority in a matrixed environment.\nEntrepreneurial by instinct, with a bias for action, comfort with ambiguity and curiosity for how data and AI-enabled tools can change the speed and quality of innovation.\nThe base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is between the range listed below, however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including but not limited to job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position will include variable pay, medical and dental benefits, participation in 401k plan, and paid time off benefits. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an applicant receives an offer of employment.\nThe pay range shown is applicable to all US locations listed within the job posting:USD 153,600.00 - USD 211,200.00","description_format":"text","description_chars":7483,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Pet Food, Supplies & Care","Confectionery"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-31T13:20:27Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":4,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":192500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":57,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.629,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":7,"expected_fill_days":17,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","win:mid","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-03T05:54:40Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":211200,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/mars-sr-manager-innovation-kind","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/mars-sr-manager-innovation-kind.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-03T12:59:18Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":17903,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-04T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":94439},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=94439"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmars-sr-manager-innovation-kind"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmars-sr-manager-innovation-kind"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmars-sr-manager-innovation-kind"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/mars-sr-manager-innovation-kind\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmars-sr-manager-innovation-kind"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3567798}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"mars.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3567798},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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