Associate Brand Manager, Strategic Growth & Innovation

Chicago, IL (Hybrid)

$84K/yr – $115K/yrMid Level4+ years expFull time

Posted 4 months ago

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Job Summary

Drive growth strategy and early-stage innovation for Lactalis Heritage Dairy, owning private-label planning and cross-functional analytics.

  • Own private label strategy and cross-functional coordination across R&D, Insights, Sales, and Finance.
  • Must-have: 4+ years in CPG/marketing/strategy with strong analytical and financial modeling.
  • Standout: Experience building business cases from syndicated data and leading early-stage innovations.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Strategic Growth & Long-Range Planning: Support development of long-term brand and portfolio strategies grounded in consumer, category, competitive, and market trends. Map macro and micro consumer trends into actionable opportunity territories and platform strategies. Build strategic frameworks to guide prioritization, opportunity sizing, and long-term decision-making.
  • Innovation Pipeline Development: Co-lead front-end innovation workstreams, including opportunity identification, concept creation, feasibility assessments, and early Stage Gate progression. Partner with R&D, Consumer Insights, Finance, Sales, Supply Chain, Legal and Regulatory to bring concepts through early development milestones. Assist in defining business cases, volume estimates, margin profiles, and commercialization considerations for early-stage ideas.
  • Private Label Strategy & Ownership: Serve as the day-to-day owner for Lactalis Heritage Dairy’s private label business strategy. Develop retailer-specific strategies across positioning, pricing, packaging, and innovation aligned with customer needs and category dynamics. Monitor performance, competitive activity, and margin profiles to guide actionable recommendations and long-term planning. Own all recurring private label business forecasting and reporting needs.
  • Insights & Analytics: Analyze syndicated data (IRI/Circana), shopper data, internal and external research studies, and retailer insights to identify trends, validate hypotheses, and build strategic narratives. Translate quantitative and qualitative insights into clear recommendations that guide growth strategy and innovation direction. Build forecasts to evaluate the realistic and ambitious growth opportunities for the innovation pipeline to support decision-making and sales strategies.
  • Cross-Functional Leadership: Act as the connective tissue across R&D, Insights, Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, Legal, and Regulatory teams. Drive alignment and forward momentum in complex, ambiguous projects by creating clarity, structure, and actionable next steps. Manage timelines, deliverables, and communication to ensure project milestones are met.
  • Project Management & Communication: Develop compelling presentations and strategic narratives for leadership and cross-functional teams. Manage early-stage project budgets, research plans, and executional workflows. Ensure clear documentation and cross-functional visibility across projects and pipeline activities.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's degree is required.
  • Majors in Business, Marketing, or related field is required.
  • 4+ years of CPG, marketing, strategy, consulting or related experience is required.
  • Strong analytical and financial acumen with ability to build business cases, interpret syndicated data, and model opportunity sizing.
  • Demonstrated ability to thrive in ambiguity—bringing structure, clarity, and executional discipline to new or undefined spaces.
  • Proven cross-functional leadership with ability to move initiatives forward through trust and collaboration.
  • Strong communicator with excellent verbal, written, storytelling, and interpersonal skills.
  • Highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing complex projects.
  • Entrepreneurial mindset—resourceful, proactive, curious, collaborative, and comfortable with fast-paced environments.
  • Strategic thinker with passion for consumer insights, category trends, and innovation.

Preferred

  • Experience with syndicated (Circana, Nielsen) and/or shopper data (Numerator) preferred.

Benefits

  • At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options.
  • We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one.
  • We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement.
Lactalis Heritage Dairy Inc logo

Lactalis Heritage Dairy Inc

Lactalis Group, the world leader in dairy, is a family-owned business with more than 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals worldwide, committed to providing healthy and delicious dairy products that bring people together every day. At Lactalis, our core values of AMBITION, ENGAGEMENT, and SIMPLICITY are at the heart of everything we do.If you’re looking for a unique experience with a company that offers strong brands, professional expertise, and a dynamic work environment that champions entrepreneurial spirt, hands-on responsibility and real opportunity for career development, we want to hear from you!Lactalis Heritage Dairy: inviting you to share with us your STORY, your PASSION, and your EXPERTISE.

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
22.7M
Monthly Google Ads Budget
$1.6M
Traffic Source Mix
Search
13.6%
Direct
59.7%
Referral
22.6%
Social
3.4%
Paid
0.4%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~427

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
75 (18% of company)