Brand Commercialization Manager Innovation

Job description

Who You Are:

You are a decisive and highly organized leader who consistently drives complex work across the finish line. You bring structure to ambiguity, excel at prioritization, and communicate with clarity and intention across diverse stakeholders. You operate with a growth mindset, quickly assessing tradeoffs, re-prioritizing when needed, and guiding teams forward in dynamic environments.

The Task At Hand:

The Brand Commercialization Manager, Innovation leads the execution of Once Upon a Farm’s innovation and commercialization process. This role is responsible for driving new product development from concept through launch, ensuring cross-functional teams remain aligned, timelines are met, and launches are delivered with excellence. Serving as the brand owner of commercialization execution, this role translates strategy into action by managing the full process from early ideation to shelf readiness. The Brand Commercialization Manager, Innovation, plays a critical role in bringing big ideas to market by providing structure, accountability, and momentum across the innovation pipeline.

In This Role, You Will:

• Project & Process Leadership
• Own and lead the end-to-end commercialization process for all projects (innovation, renovation, display, PPA & packaging graphic updates).
• Develop and maintain integrated project plans, stage gates, milestones, and deliverable trackers across multiple workstreams.
• Lead cross-functional forums and working sessions to drive alignment, decision-making, and issue resolution
• Anticipate risks, dependencies, and resourcing constraints, proactively escalating and resolving issues to keep projects on track
• Commercialization Readiness and Execution
• Partner with Operations Commercialization Manager to validate feasibility, comanufacturing strategy, and timelines
• Ensure all commercialization inputs are complete and aligned ahead of stage gate reviews and leadership checkpoints
• Cross-Functional Leadership and Communication
• Serve as the central point of accountability for innovation commercialization, ensuring clarity across teams and stakeholders
• Deliver clear and concise status updates, dashboards, and launch readiness reporting to senior leadership
• Own stage gate planning across project timelines, ensuring all stage gate dates are accurate, aligned, and reflected in agendas and leadership materials
• Maintain tight alignment with the Senior Brand Manager, Innovation, providing timely insights and visibility to support leadership team communication
• Ensure consistency across projects by reinforcing process discipline, standard templates, and best practices.
• Operational Excellence
• Reinforce process discipline, standard templates, and best practices across the innovation pipeline
• Identify and implement improvements to workflows, tools, and ways of working to increase speed, clarity, and scalability
• Lead or oversee special projects that support the evolution of the innovation and commercialization operating model

In This Role, You Will Bring:

• 6 – 8 years of operations and or project management professional experience required
• Brand management experience in the CPG industry is highly preferred
• Prior professional experience leading and managing project teams required
• Able to work cross-functionally among teams and allocate resources
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Exceptional multitasking and time-management skills
• Organized and detail-oriented, enjoys using organization tools to clearly manage and track work activities
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel, including pivot tables and VLOOKUPs, specifically in a supply chain environment
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in ambiguity, deeply understand business needs, develop a cohesive strategy and make decisions requiring a high level of judgment
• Up to 10% travel required: Although this role is a remote work-from-home position, we “Farmers” do meet as a company and/or as a department a few times a year
• Must reside in the United States to be considered for this position
• Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this position

Compensation:

• Full-Time, Salaried, Exempt
• The anticipated salary range for this position is $110,000.00 to $140,000.00. The actual salary offer will carefully consider a few factors, including your skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Certain positions are eligible for additional forms of compensation such as bonuses, stipends, equity, and role-specific perks.

Additional:

• Remote-first work environment
• Annual Bonus
• 401(k) program + 4% company match after three months
• New Hire Remote Life Stipend + annual Nourish and Nurture Allowance
• Monthly Cell and Internet Stipend
• Quarterly Farm-to-Fridge home deliveries and Employee Discounts
• New Parents: Up to 18 weeks of paid Parental Leave, Baby Steps Back To Work, 3 months’ supply of Once Upon A Farm products, and breast milk shipping service and support for those who travel after birth for the duration of your breastfeeding journey
• Unlimited Paid Time Off
• Paid Volunteer Time
• Paid Time Off to fulfill civic responsibilities including jury duty and voting in local, state, and national elections
• Medical Insurance for the employee covered at 100% on select plans with additional plan options at a reduced cost to the employee
• Vision and Dental Insurance covered at 100% for the employee and dependents
• Life insurance
• Flexible spending account and Health savings accounts for applicable plans
• Employee assistance program (EAP)
• All other benefits, leaves, and insurance as required by law, based on your specific residence
• And so much more!

Who We Are

Our Purpose: Drive systemic improvement in childhood nutrition for a healthier, happier, and more equitable world.

Our Business: At Once Upon a Farm, farm-fresh taste grows here. We’re on a greater mission in providing organic, crave-worthy snacks and meals for children of all ages. Our recipes are crafted with only the best organic ingredients – whole fruits and veggies, cold-pressed (our pouches), or freshly frozen (our meals) to perfection– to support your growing kids at every stage. Each of our organic, non-GMO, non-dairy recipes contains no added sugar and are free from artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives – just simple, real, nutritious snacks your entire family will love.

We support and champion farmers who supply the highest-quality organic ingredients for our foods.  We help parents keep their promise to provide the best nourishment for their children’s bodies and souls. We treat our consumers, customers, suppliers, investors, and all our valued employees with the same high level of dignity and respect that we expect from others. We will always fight for and support efforts to drive positive social change and food justice for the benefit of parents, kids, and families. Lastly, we foster an entrepreneurial and collaborative culture that values humility, honesty, passion, positive social impact, and fun.

Our Team: We’re all fully remote, which makes us a highly collaborative, dynamic, and supportive bunch. We share a singular mission to make the world a better place through the highest quality, most delicious, nourishing, and nutritious products made accessible to every home, from our farms to your fridge. And while we’re invested in our product, we’re equally invested in one another’s success.

Once Upon a Farm is a purpose-driven brand made up of an inclusive group of individuals with diverse backgrounds, passions, and beliefs. We hire self-motivated, independent thinkers and those who are genuinely passionate about improving childhood nutrition for a healthier and happier planet. Bring your whole self to your work at Once Upon a Farm, a proud equal-opportunity employer. In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use.

In an effort to help us remove unconscious bias from our resume review process, we ask that you please remove all identifying information from your resume (like profile photos) before you upload it. Once Upon a Farm is committed to cultivating an inclusive environment where a diverse group of people can and want to do their best work, and that starts with our hiring practices.

Once Upon a Farm, PBC, provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants in all company facilities without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, cast, citizenship status, pregnancy, childbirth, physical disability, mental and/or intellectual disability, age, military status or status as a Vietnam-era or special disabled veteran, marital status, registered domestic partner or civil union status, gender (including sex stereotyping and gender identity or expression), medical condition (including, but not limited to, cancer-related or HIV/AIDS-related), genetic information, or sexual orientation in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

This job description is a summary of duties; it is by no means an all-inclusive list but is merely a broad guide of expected duties.

You must reside in the United States to be considered for this position.