Manager, Culinary Innovation

What's
Unique
About You
Is What Makes Us Better Diversity is our strength and competitive advantage. Bring your flavor to the Papa John's team today

Job Summary
The Manager, Culinary Innovation is responsible for developing and commercializing products Papa Johns limited time offers and menu. This role combines strong food industry knowledge with expertise in interpretation to bring to life industry trends on products, ingredients, and flavors. This role is involved with all aspects of product research and development including ideation, use of customer data/demand, development and commercialization, working within cost constraints, working with suppliers, and working cross-functionally within Papa Johns' teams including supply chain, operations, quality assurance, food safety, finance, brand marketing and consumer insights. This role is involved in developing products for both core menu and limited time offers

Duties And Responsibilities

• Product development for Papa Johns' menus, based on Product Development Briefs that are launched
• Develop and work within the outline of the Product Development Brief, while applying creative thinking and operational common sense to the product
• Participate in market research, product testing and validation. Understand, interpret and use consumer and leadership data gathered at check-in points
• Use market, competitive and customer satisfaction analysis to direct the development and optimization of new menu items.
• Explore supplier opportunities with both PJI operations and external sources
• Stay abreast of market trends and customer preferences to identify innovation opportunities; keep a rolling plan of potential seasonal and permanent menu items
• Define and own the process by which conceptual ideas are translated into a commercialized formulation. Leverage internal and external resources to lead product development from bench-top design to commercialization
• Work with Marketing and other internal stakeholders on finished product design
• Participate in ongoing post-launch analysis of products developed

Education, Experience & Certifications

• 3-5 years of experience in product development, project management, innovation or related field in the food industry
• Degree in culinary, food science preferred

Functional Skills

• Analytical Skills: effectively uses data in the R&D process
• Keen eye towards operational simplicity
• Organized, an effective planner and an ability to prioritize projects
• Able to manage several projects at once
• Financial and business acumen
• Team player, effective and honest communicator
• Ability to use rigorous logic to solve problems with innovative effective solutions
• A desire to continually improve
• Ability to build and leverage talent
• Ability to work in a challenging, fast-paced environment and to adapt to new situations as they arise
• Ability to effectively communicate, inform, and influence senior leaders
• Ability to work cross-functionality on multiple initiatives with a successful record of advancing projects

Our Values

• EVERYONE BELONGS – We believe connectedness and belonging are the essential ingredients to our success.
• DO THE RIGHT THING –We are relentlessly focused on quality and integrity and make the right choices, even when it's difficult.
• PEOPLE FIRST – To craft positive experiences for our customers, we take care of each other first.
• INNOVATE TO WIN – We champion and challenge for a better way in all we do.
• HAVE FUN – We find joy, create meaningful impact and celebrate the journey together

Our Core Competencies

• CUSTOMER CENTRIC - We leverage data and insights to craft a customer experience that builds relationships, cultivates trust, and delivers excellence
• RESULTS DRIVEN – We focus on measurable outcomes by remaining optimistic, tenacious, and persistent even in the face of challenges.
• CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT –We champion for better through strategic risk taking, experimentation and challenging the status quo.
• BIAS FOR ACTION – We courageously lead, drive towards decisions, and maintain agility to meet the demands of our dynamic industry.
• WINNING TOGETHER – We work together to unlock our full potential by actively collaborating and contributing in a cross-functional capacity

Papa Johns is an equal opportunity employer.
Everybody loves pizza, which means they also love the people who are behind the scenes working to deliver it. This is complex and challenging work – but let's face it – it's also pizza If you want a fulfilling career with a company that's always moving forward, we're the right place.

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