Summary of Responsibilities: 

The Associate, New Product Development plays a key role in the success of Home Chef’s business by contributing to projects within their respective vertical of the New Product Development process. The role supports ideating, vetting, and developing product ideas within their vertical, and collaborates with stakeholders across the organization and with Kroger to bring these products to life. The position is part of the New Product Development team within Product and reports to a Manager of New Product Development. The role is based in Chicago, IL with some travel.

Detailed Responsibilities:

• Product Support and Ownership:
• Support projects within their respective vertical (e.g. ecomm, retail, deli) and contribute to development of long term product strategy
• Adhere to product road maps and do everything necessary to ensure successful completion of related projects
• Support Manager, New Product Development to build alignment with external stakeholders to remove roadblocks and prioritize projects




• Getting Stuff Done
• Take initiative and proactively find solutions to sticky challenges
• Constantly seek to optimize upcoming or launched products, thinking through ways to drive improvements to the top and bottom line
• Roll up your sleeves and be prepared to take on any task
• Take risks - be ready to test and learn, fail, pivot and try again




• Innovation & New Product Development:
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to innovate, ideate and develop new products, processes and customer experiences
• Stress test new product ideas in collaboration with Culinary, Supply Chain, Consumer Insights, Retail, Marketing and Kroger
• Analyze internal customer data and leverage industry trends respective to their vertical to influence product development
• Conduct competitive assessments of product market space to guide development strategy
• Partner with Consumer Insights (and 84.51) to develop product insights and transform learnings into tangible recommendations
• Partner with the Data Team to build product performance trackers 




• Cross-Departmental Collaboration and Execution:
• Collaborate internally with Retail, Culinary, Supply Chain, Marketing, Finance, Ops and others to ensure smooth and successful delivery of projects
• Contribute/lead working teams to bring new projects from idea generation to full execution and rollout
• Support communication on project updates and priorities within Home Chef to ensure organizational alignment
•  Assist with development and sourcing of all inputs to shepherd projects through the Home Chef stage gate process

Qualifications: The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, ability and/or other characteristics needed for this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities.

• 1-3 years of experience in a rigorous fast-paced work environment – CPG/FMCG, product development, innovation, consulting, startups
• Ability to work within a scrappy ambiguous fast-moving environment
• Extremely detail-oriented and organized with the ability to develop and make progress against multiple concurrent project plans
• Data-driven decision maker who can use data to drive, validate and make progress against potential courses of action
• Ideal candidate will have experience working in the fresh and packaged food space, culinary and/or retail
• Self-starter inclined towards finding solutions and who is comfortable working independently and with a team
• Strong communicator and relationship builder
• Intellectually curious
• Must have a sense of urgency and be capable of dealing with fast-changing priorities and ambiguity
• No ego team player excited to solve a wide range of challenges
• Completion of 4-year degree

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