Senior Manager, Innovation

Location: American Fork, UT or remote; must be willing to travel to UT at least 4x / yr

Type: Full-Time

About BUILT

At BUILT, we don’t just make protein bars, we’ve redefined them. We indulge the snacking senses in unexpected, better-for you ways. Our flagship BUILT Puff has 17g of protein and a light, marshmallow-y texture. You’ll see why so many people are loving our products and saying, “What the Puff!?” when they first try it.

Our culture is fast-paced, fun, and driven. We move quickly, think creatively, and celebrate wins as a team. Headquartered in American Fork, Utah, BUILT is a place where big ideas meet bold execution, and ambitious people can make a real impact.

If you want to be part of a company that’s changing the way people snack (and having a blast while doing it), BUILT is the place for you.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Manager, Innovation to lead the strategy, development, and commercialization of breakthrough products that shape the future of our brand and deliver meaningful value to consumers. This role leads a cross-functional innovation effort from whitespace exploration and concept development through commercialization and in-market performance.

You will identify emerging consumer needs, uncover new growth territories, study categories, design platforms, develop test-and-learn protocols, devise and deliver consumer testing protocols and results, and influence across the organization to bring transformative innovation to market.

This role blends strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and operational excellence with a passion for food, nutrition, and a high-performance growth environment.

While this role reports to the Sr. Director of Brand, the successful candidate will collaborate extensively with Chief Commercial Officer and VP R&D and needs to demonstrate strong strategic, communication and business acumen.

Key Responsibilities

Consumer & Market Insight

- Mine consumer insights, trends, and competitive intelligence to uncover whitespace opportunities

- Leverage data (quant, qual, social listening, retail & DTC analytics) to fuel innovation strategy

Innovation Strategy & Pipeline Development

- Identify unmet consumer needs our brand can solve with products that fit our brand DNA

- Define near- and long-term innovation platforms rooted in consumer, category, and cultural insights

- Translate consumer and category insights into differentiated product concepts and scalable platforms

- Build and manage a robust innovation funnel that meets volume, revenue, and margin targets

- Generate consumer testing protocols / methodologies to validate concepts, fit with concept and size of prize

Cross-Functional Leadership & Commercialization

- Lead the full innovation process: insights → concepting → feasibility → formulation → packaging → launch

- Partner with R&D, Consumer Insights, Brand, Supply Chain, Sales, and Finance to deliver innovation on time & budget

- Collaborate with culinary and R&D teams to validate product direction through prototypes and sensory evaluations

- Guide consumer research, rapid testing, and iteration to validate product-market fit

Go-to-Market & Post-Launch

- Build go-to-market strategies and forecasts, and track and support customer sell-in

- Track post-launch performance and optimize product positioning, packaging, and messaging as needed

- Lead cross-functional post-mortems and embed learnings into future pipeline development

Qualifications

Required

- 7+ years experience in classic CPG or challenger brand food marketing, with at least five in innovation specifically; candidates with no food and/or non-alc beverage experience will not be considered

- Proven success designing and launching new products, preferably including category extensions

- Strong foundation in brand strategy including packaging hierarchy, consumer insights, and portfolio management

- Deep experience partnering with R&D, supply chain, finance, and sales on commercialization

- Comfort in ambiguous, fast-moving environments; strong bias for action and learning

- Experience leading gated innovation processes

- Strong financial acumen, including volume/margin modeling and P&L implications

Preferred

- MBA or advanced degree in marketing, food science, business, or related field

- Experience with health, wellness, functional foods, or better-for-you categories

- Background in sensory testing, formulation collaboration, or culinary innovation