Associate Brand Manager, Strategic Growth & Innovation

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At Lactalis in the USA, we're committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive-whether you're just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed.

As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we're proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together.

In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani Italian cheeses and ricotta, President specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone's cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond cheddar, and Parmalat milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi's, Stonyfield Organic, Brown Cow, Oui, Yoplait, Go-Gurt, :ratio, Green Mountain Creamery, and Mountain High, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun, Gopi, and Arz.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values-Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone's unique background and ideas are valued.

Even if you don't meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy.

From your PASSION to ours

Lactalis Heritage Dairy, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Associate Brand Manager, Strategic Growth & Innovation based in Chicago, IL.

Job Summary

The Associate Brand Manager (ABM), Strategic Growth & Innovation plays a pivotal role in shaping the long-term future of the Lactalis Heritage Dairy portfolio. This newly created role focuses on long-term growth planning, innovation pipeline development, and building resilient strategies rooted in consumer, category, and macro/micro consumer trend insights. This individual will act as both a co-pilot and independent driver, helping to identify whitespace opportunities, translate insights into growth platforms, and advance early-stage concepts through cross-functional collaboration. This role will also own the private label business strategy, partnering closely with Sales, R&D, Finance, and Operations to craft retailer-specific opportunities that drive incremental growth.

This role will help architect the future of Lactalis Heritage Dairy - shaping the long-term trajectory of iconic brands, incubating new growth platforms, and influencing strategic decisions at the highest levels. This is an opportunity to build something new, operate with both creativity and strategic rigor, and directly impact the resilience and relevance of our brands for years to come.

This position reports to the Brand Manager of Strategic Growth & Innovation.

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

• 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.

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

Education

• Bachelor's degree is required.
• Majors in Business, Marketing, or related field is required.

Experience

• 4+ years of CPG, marketing, strategy, consulting or related experience is required.
• Experience with syndicated (Circana, Nielsen) and/or shopper data (Numerator) preferred.

Certifications and specific knowledge

• 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 mMove 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.

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. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities.

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