Associate Director, R&D Consumer Experience

Essential Functions & Responsibilities  

• Lead how consumer needs identification, experience trade-offs, and design targets are defined and activated for assigned categories/brands in North America Grocery across renovation and innovation programs. 

• Lead and be accountable for category-level consumer experience (CX) roadmaps for assigned NA Grocery categories/brands, including value curves and experience targets aligned to business priorities. 

• Set and steward CX category knowledge and expectations for NA Grocery renovation/innovation programs, ensuring experience requirements are embedded in processes and decision materials. 

• Own and steward key CX business metrics and benchmarking outputs for NA Grocery, ensuring outputs are actionable and used to drive in-market improvements. 

• Lead two key teams supporting North America Grocery brands; set priorities, ensure consistent ways of working, and develop talent. 

• Serve as the primary CX business partner to Category R&D, Brand, and BU leadership for North America Grocery Categories, translating benchmarking and performance monitoring into clear actions, priorities, and experience improvement plans. 

• Co-lead Corporate Global Benchmarking program & Performance Monitoring program, including governance/ways of working and performance tracking; translate global benchmarking insights into NA actions and roadmap priorities. 

• Program-manage the integration roadmap for the Consumer Driven Specifications Program and Digital Modeling for key NA Grocery categories, in partnership with Sensory and the Digital Modeling Sr Principal Scientist, connecting consumer targets/benchmarking to specifications and predictive/digital approaches to enable adoption. 

Expected Experience & Required Skills 

• ​​Bachelor's, Master's or PhD in Science (e.g., Engineering, Industrial Design, etc.) or Consumer Psychology disciplines with 10+ years of progressive experience in consumer research, UX design, product innovation or related disciplines, including direct exposure to product development and commercialization 

• ​Proven track record leading brands, categories, or portfolios in a matrixed environment. 

• ​Experience owning category or portfolio-level consumer strategy, gate or development governance, and value curves or experience frameworks. 

• ​Proven people leadership, including leading senior individual contributors and managers. 

• ​Strong ability to influence R&D, Brand, Marketing, and Sensory partners. 

• ​Deep understanding of food product development and commercialization. 

• ​Strong business, storytelling, and executive communication skills. 

• ​Ability to communicate insights and recommendations using standard business tools and platforms.  

• ​Travel required based on project and business needs, typically up to 10 to 15%.​ 

Work Environment & Schedule 

This position operates primarily in a hybrid work environment and is based at the Kraft Heinz R&D Innovation Center in Glenview, IL. Our hybrid model provides flexibility based on business needs, allowing employees to work virtually up to two days per week, with an expectation to work on-site at least three days per week at the Glenview Innovation Center.