Director Innovation Design PepsiCo New York City

• 2-minute read •
Job Description:
This position will function on a cross-discipline design innovation team tackling the growth and innovation priorities of PepsiCo across both the food and beverage businesses. Projects may consist of a variety of innovation challenges including brand-led innovation, new business creation, new products, and strategic whitespace development. Designers will be working on cross-discipline design teams consisting of design innovation, brand designers, industrial designers, and key business partners to solve PepsiCo innovation challenges.

The Director, Design Innovation with a design and business background will be responsible for all aspects of the front-end design process, ranging from problem definition, performing and analyzing consumer research, to brainstorming and visualizing ideas. They are fueled by imagination and creativity and like the challenge of creating what has not yet been created. They have a strong work ethic that helps solve unique and complex problems that have broad impact on PepsiCo's business growth. They are also focused on new creation driven through the lens of the PepsiCo consumer.

Duties & Responsibilities:
The person in this role will be accountable for supporting the development and delivery of a wide range of innovation projects. S/he will need to help deliver projects from initial ideation, through concept development, to commercialization. The person in this role will work closely with internal and external partners to develop design projects that satisfy unmet consumer needs and the growth of PepsiCo's portfolio.
Partners with R&D, consumer insights, brand managers etc. to develop new design platforms grounded in consumer insights and leverages technology and trends to create new sources of growth. This includes working with business partners to properly scope, brief, and plan innovation projects that may include concepting for new food/beverage products, services and experiences, or new business ecosystems.
Provides leadership and content development for cross-functional teams in the front-end innovation process providing strong direction on activities (across observation, analysis, directions, ideation, concept refinement) that will lead to strong and high-quality outputs and concepts.
Candidates should have significant operational experience taking offerings to market whether as an entrepreneur
Provides leadership in business model thinking and prototyping to bridge the design to business gap, including projecting financials, defining KPIs, etc.
Provides business framing for all Design Innovation initiatives and projects, ensuring that innovation strategies are aligned with enterprise, brand, and financial objectives
Must have strong experience with quantitative methodologies for demonstrating new concept value propositions, benefits, and positioning
Well-versed and experienced in innovation ethnographic research, techniques, planning.
Provides design leadership around innovation analysis and synthesis, including the ability to framework, articulate definitive innovation insights, clear design principles with clear link to ideation and idea refinement
Able to develop criteria and point of view on innovation opportunity areas and prioritization
Has a strong capability to identify people's unmet needs and is able to articulate and deliver that into a design strategy and business opportunity.
Has the ability to visualize new design platforms / products and can effectively leverage design tools (e.g. sketching, prototypes, video etc.) to bring their vision alive.
Able to plan and facilitate dynamic work sessions for both small and larger groups who may not be familiar with the innovation process or culture of innovation.
Has experience in developing prototype and pilots for services, experiences, or in-market experiments. Able to lead "lean startup" build-learn-measure methodology.
Influences with strong character as a cultural steward, providing clarity and direction in highly ambiguous and fast moving culture. Must be an articulate communicator comfortable defending ideas, enrolling business partners, educating teams on methodology, and presenting to high-level stakeholders. A positive and motivating leader for innovation teams to build a strong innovation culture.

Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in design
MBA or equivalent life experience.
10+ years of Design and Business innovation experience, start-up Entrepreneurial experience
Proven ability to perform within a matrixed organization (marketing, sales, R&D, insights)
A creative problem solver
Strong presentation skills
Ability to work in an ambiguous and dynamic work environment
Can build strong relationships with multiple stakeholders and project leads
Prior Global Experience preferred
Prior Supervisory Experience preferred
Prior Corporate Experience a plus



Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in design, Masters preferred
10+ years of Design Strategy and Innovation experience
Proven ability to communicate with a technical organization (e.g. R&D) and a creative marketing organization
A creative problem solver
Strong presentation skills
Ability to work in an ambiguous and dynamic work environment
Can build strong relationships with multiple stakeholders and project leads
Prior Global Experience preferred
Prior Supervisory Experience preferred

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