Job Description

Purpose:

Come work on one of the world’s most iconic brands and join our transformation journey at KFC Canada. Founded by a real man, with a real recipe that continues to be prepared and served today claiming the title of the world’s (and Canada’s) best tasting fried chicken. As the Snr Manager of Innovation and Strategy, you will be the driver of the creative, strategic and commercialization direction of our Finger Lickin’ Good menu, innovation and experience pipeline. You will be a key enabler of supporting KFC’s modernization journey across our food and experience and champion the ‘how’ we do business as a force for good with our Food, Planet & People.

As the leader of an integral part of our portfolio your role will include dreaming up new products and ideas (Double Down, Plant Based, etc.), food strategy and future trends, conceptualization, and innovation.

We champion heart, smart and courage and believe in leaders who embrace big ideas and challenge the status quo. We leave pretention where we leave our forks, in the drawer. The world of QSR is incredibly competitive and is moving faster than ever before, the Snr Innovation & Strategy Manager must thrive on pace and challenge with a solutions mindset and have the capability to deliver on strategy and manage their team as well as a complex set of stakeholders through ambiguity and transformation.

Love Food and most importantly chicken? Love innovation? Love having an impact? Then this is your chance to unleash your inner Colonel and help us build the exciting next chapter of the brand.

Key Responsibilities (includes but not limited to):

• Lead strategic thinking and ideation to evolve the KFC Canada experience and menu strategy over the short, medium and long-term.
• Deliver credible thought leadership to align internal and external stakeholders, including franchisees on bold growth ambitions.
• Act as the guardian of our brand’s food philosophy. Following in the Colonel’s footsteps as architect of our menu vision, defining the principles and plans that will guide food product development.
• Dream up some amazing new product ideas, both independently and via collaboration with the wider team.
• Get to grips with what gets our customers’ tastebuds tingling - validating and testing our product innovation pipeline to ensure it meets their tastes, preferences, and expectations. You will be the guru within the team on customer testing of food concepts and products.
• Ready for a long list? Because you’ll also be in charge of thinking through all aspects of a product concept - taste, texture, build, packaging, price, promotions, need-state, occasion, etc. Told you it was a long list.
• Manage consumer insights across our internal resources and agency partners to deliver insight lead growth strategies and build a consumer-centric business planning muscle across the organization.
• Balance high-level strategic thinking with a creative hands-on approach.
• Develop presentations and documents that bring our vision and innovation pipeline to life in dynamic and compelling ways.
• Oversee the creations from start to finish… as products move from concepts to being designed by the FIT (R&D) team and ultimately launched, you will work closely with your colleagues to ensure strategic foundations remain sound and the launch is a success.
• Work collaboratively with stakeholders from across the business, including Retail Marketing, Brand Communications, Operations, Supply Chain and FIT.

Key Qualities & Qualifications:

• Post secondary degree, with 7+ years experience with demonstrated strategic chops, E2E innovation development and insights to action capabilities.
• A strong track record of brand development and food innovation in the restaurant, food manufacturing/FMCG or food retail sector.
• Experience thinking about complex business growth challenges through a customer and brand lens.
• You must be able to demonstrate outstanding strategic thinking and superb communication skills. So basically love a good chat.
• It’s a team sport, so you’ll build strong relationships cross functionally – so you’ll need a total team player mentality and a drive to getting things done.
• Above all, you will have a huge passion for food and trends. We’re looking for a real brand champion and foodie to take our chicken to the next level.
• This role requires domestic and/or international travel 15% of the time

About You – So We Go Together Like Gravy & Original Recipe Tenders:

• Someone who lives, breathes, dreams (and ideally eats!) food. A mild inclination towards fried chicken might help.
• Someone who is fascinated and excited about building modern brands, in particular with food brands.
• You are intellectually curious and creative – you eat, therefore you are.
• You’re ambitious and want to grow your career in food brand management. You don’t want it to stop just there though - we’ve got a culture of building great international leaders.
• You thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment, and bring a solutions mindset and creativity to challenges.
• A huge part of Yum! is our internal culture, and it’s something that we genuinely pride ourselves on. Key to this is being able to recognise and celebrate the successes of the company and our peers, as well as constantly striving to work together for better results.
• We’re looking for someone solution driven, meaning you’ll be inquisitive, tenacious and determined… always looking for new ways to deliver ground-breaking work.

What makes KFC a great place to work?

Our People. We invest in people capability above all else, with a proven track record of developing internal talent to leadership levels across the business both in Canada and globally. We want people with smart, heart and courage that have the opportunity to not just make impact today but to become leaders of the future.

Our Culture. We are known for a culture that rewards and recognizes great effort, big or small, and providing the work life balance that is so important to staying inspired and engaged. We don`t just say it, we mean it – every Friday is a half day at KFC Canada! We will focus on your personal development as much as your professional development to ensure you can bring your best self to work.

KFC, part of Yum! Brands, is the world's most popular chicken chain and every day, we serve more than 12 million customers in more than 45,000 restaurants around the world. Our commitment to great food and service is the same commitment Colonel Harland Sanders had when he founded the concept more than 55 years ago, and that's why KFC remains the worldwide leader in the category.

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