PROGRAM MANAGER - BRAND MARKETING

Community Coffee - Baton Rouge, LA

Full-time - Mid Level

Baton Rouge, LA

Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods

About the position

The Program Manager will manage the new product development (NPD) process for Community Coffee. This includes the creation, leadership, and daily management of the NPD stage gate process. The NPD pipeline includes, but is not limited to, new product innovation, material replacements, packaging updates, and all other changes to products across Community Coffee's portfolio of products. This role leads cross-functional teams through a myriad of steps starting from product ideation to the final commercially available product release date while ensuring projects are completed on time and within budget. Throughout the lifecycle of the project, the Program Manager tracks project status and manages project resources to mitigate issues and risks. This role will be heavily involved with Marketing, Green Coffee/Research & Development, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Procurement, Quality, and outside vendors. Qualified candidates will possess a deep understanding of the complete product development process for food/beverage products and/or consumer packaged goods. Expert project management skills and proficiency in project tracking software is essential. Lastly, superb leadership and ability to work well with others in a fast-paced environment is key in this role.

Responsibilities

• Executes the Community Coffee NPD stage gate process with documented operating procedures, tracking methodology and gate approval process.
• Coordinates communication between all cross-functional departments to establish comprehensive product development schedules with detailed action items, due dates, owners and dependencies for each new product development deliverable.
• Leads NPD status meetings and communication cadence to keep development teams connected, informed and focused on action.
• Provides executive summary and presentations to executives on status of NPD pipeline.
• Disseminates meeting notes for timely communication among the cross-functional teams.
• Fosters a team environment of shared ownership in the execution and success of the project.
• Works alongside department heads and/or stakeholder(s) to identify suitable strategies and objectives to hit project milestones and timelines.
• Proactively communicates status of projects to stakeholders and elevates issues to department leaders to keep projects on track by removing bottlenecks.
• Initiates and facilitates team meetings and issue resolution involving the right parties to resolve problems.
• Creates and implements project R.A.C.I. models for role clarity and conflict resolution.
• Continually evaluates and makes recommendations on process improvement to ensure the most efficient and effective methods are utilized to complete projects and meet the business and stakeholder objectives.
• Identifies and utilizes project tracking software to maintain status and milestones for all NPD projects.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in related field from four-year college or university required.
• 5 or more years actively working as a Program Manager/Project Manager for the development of consumer-packaged goods.
• Experience with Community Coffee, even if unrelated, may fulfill this requirement at the discretion of the hiring manager with approval from Human Resources.
• Certified in Program Management or PMP certification is not required, but is highly preferred.
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office; working knowledge of program/project management software (Microsoft Project, etc.) is a strong advantage.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to communicate to various levels of management.
• Excellent leadership and organizational skills.
• Ability to easily adapt to a fast-paced and rapidly changing environment.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in the food and beverage industry.
• Familiarity with sustainability practices in product development.

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Life insurance
• 401(k)
• Short- and long-term disability
• Paid time off
• Employee assistance program