Nestle
Foods people love. Brands people trust. And a career that nourishes your future like no other.
If you’re driven by the passion to do something meaningful that changes lives, Nestlé is the place for you. Nestlé USA is one of seven operating companies that make up Nestlé’s presence in the United States. We’re in 97% of American homes, and as the leading food and beverage company, our goals are to continue to deliver quality food and beverage products, strengthen our local communities, and reduce our environmental and climate impact.
We’re determined to challenge the status quo and be better tomorrow than we are today. As individuals and teams, we embrace our entrepreneurial culture and have created a workplace where collaboration is essential, courage is rewarded, speed is expected, and agility is the norm to delight our consumers every single day. Here, you will find limitless opportunities to learn and advance your career and feel empowered to succeed in the workplace and beyond. Because our focus is not only on nourishing our customers, but also about enriching you.
This position is not eligible for Visa Sponsorship.
Do you want to blaze the path to the future of food & beverage with the industry’s largest company?
Do you want to deliver the next generation of innovative solutions to consumer, customers, and colleagues across the globe?
Are you someone who thinks bigger, learns faster, pushes further, and believes in the power of collaboration?
If so, the role of Open Innovation Manager, in Nestle USA’s New Business Ventures, wants you!
In this role, you will play a critical role in driving Nestle’s culture of innovation & experimentation leading and expanding Nestlé’s enterprise-wide crowdsourcing platform, leveraging the wisdom of crowds to deliver novel capabilities, incremental growth, and marketplace disruption. End-to-end accountability spans program management, senior leader engagement, Challenge conception, intrapreneur mentorship, supplier & startup collaboration, cross-functional project execution, and stakeholder communication with speed, agility, and impact.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Strategy
- Support the Director of Open Innovation in building a robust strategy for Open Channel, including internal and external-facing crowdsourcing challenges for Nestle USA and beyond.
Execution
- Execute Open Channel pipeline strategy, defined and approved by the management teams.
- Manage geographic expansion to other Nestle operating companies, share best practices, and align with global team on crowdsourcing guidelines & priorities.
- Lead and refine the Challenge execution process across all stages: Identification, Issue/Promotion, Idea Generation & Selection, Pitch Day, Prototype Development, Launch, Analysis, Exit.
- Steer & coach “founder team” Lean validation of target desirability, commercial feasibility, and financially viability of solution prototypes in collaboration with cross-functional teams, division leaders, and external experts.
- Ensure teams and projects operate & execute with speed & agility in pursuit of pre-aligned KPIs that will drive persevere, pivot, or kill decisions in a timely, resource-responsible fashion.
- Oversee the “exit” transition from Open Channel initiative to Division/Function/OpCo adoption.
- Document and evangelize Open Channel organizational impact, inclusive of Ways of Working best practice “playbooks”, strategic partners, and the “Triple Bottom Line”.
Change Management / Strategic Communications
- Support Director of Open Innovation in overall initiative communications to cross-functional upper management.
- Drive communication plan with internal comms team, promoting upcoming Challenges ,“in market” pilots and program storylines.
- Inspire “founders”, functions, divisions and OpCos with Open Channel’s idea-enabling culture and ways of working, communicating insights, thought leadership, and best practices in against NBV’s core values (Think Bigger, Learn Faster, Push Further, Better Together).
REQUIREMENTS AND MINIMUM EDUCATION LEVEL:
- Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years’ experience.
- 4+ years proven experience in innovation roles and significant strategy & influence experience in a matrixed organization.
- Travel Requirements: 10-20%, Solon based would be 20%-25% travel and Arlington based 10% travel.
- Location requirement: Arlington, Virginia hybrid or Solon Ohio hybrid.
- Worked & flourished in entrepreneurial environment with proven record on building a culture of innovation across the org.
- Demonstrable experience leading and running incubators / accelerators; either externally or within a corporate setting.
- Proven results track record (high performer).
- Extraordinary leadership skills.
- Strong General Management acumen.
- Project Management experience of 5+ years.
SKILLS/COMPETENCIES
General:
- Strong bias for action and results.
- Curiosity and ingenuity.
- Is seeking to promote teams and individuals to think and act as an entrepreneur.
- Collaborative with an innate ability to connect and work with others with a “ONE TEAM” mentality.
- Ability to adapt to change and quickly pivot.
- Courage to challenge the status quo and be decisive with limited information.
- Focuses exclusively on value-added work, always looking to cut inefficiencies to drive speed.
- Consumer-obsessed.
- Ability to think and act as an entrepreneur and make an impact with limited resources.
- Ability to influence others at the highest levels.
- Strong storytelling & communications skills, both oral and written. Both qualitatively and quantitively.
- Possess excellent creative problem-solving skills.
- Strong business & financial acumen.