Innovation Manager

About Us

For 48+ years, Mattson has partnered with a variety of consumer packaged goods (CPG), chain restaurant, and food and beverage ingredient supplier clients, ranging from startups to iconic industry brands. Our passion is creating big business opportunities for clients. 

We help them figure out where to play and more importantly, how to win. But we’re unique in that we don’t stop there. We help clients execute upon the new business and/or product opportunities we’ve identified by:

• Completing immersive market opportunity assessments
• Creating new product concepts using Mattson’s proprietary AI tools
• Formulating early prototypes through full development
• Scaling-up & Commercializing
• Testing with Consumers
• Developing the Brand & Position

We operate at a lightning-fast pace, allowing our clients to be smarter and quicker in getting new products to market.  We provide hands-on resources, industry expertise, insight, and award-winning creativity across food and beverage categories, segments, and channels.

What You’ll Do

As a Mattson Innovation Manager, you will be responsible for managing cutting-edge innovation projects. You will wear two hats in this role, including being:

• Detail-oriented, making sure timelines are met, work is documented and quality deliverables are achieved 
• Highly creative, working with our creative and development teams to cleverly design brands, concepts, and products.  

You will be an important part of strategic conversations with clients that range from the most inexperienced of start-up founders to the seasoned marketers, researchers, and R&D members within the largest of our multinational clients.

We are looking for someone who is a self-starter, can anticipate both client and internal team needs, and can develop a point of view to share with the team. 

Our business is relationship-based and we enjoy collaborating closely with our clients. You should be comfortable with one-on-one client contact, able to help establish long-term client relationships and can deliver world-class project management. 

You’ll be working in a “Make It Happen” job (one of our core values), where taking the initiative, troubleshooting, and finding creative solutions are all critical for ensuring the team’s success.

This role requires collaborative and independent activities, including both short-term, single-deliverable projects as well as longer-term, multi-faceted initiatives.

About You

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in business, marketing, social sciences, food science/nutrition or related sciences or in a related field
• Project management experience
• 5+ years experience working in the food industry (CPG or foodservice/restaurant)
• Brand management experience
• Consumer insights experience
• Agency-side client and/or engagement/project management
• Clear verbal and written communication skills 
• Engaging, energetic presentation skills and ability to develop and create presentations to clients and internal teams
• Comfortable advocating a strong and compelling point of view
• Ability to take the initiative

Bonus Points

• Business development experience or exposure
• Food or beverage entrepreneurial experience
• Food science/culinary degree or certificate
• Flexibility
• Strong collaboration skills and personality
• Able to work cross-functionally across all departments, as well as with clients.  

What’s in it for You?

A job at Mattson will immerse you in the world of food.  You must be passionate about food and beverage.  The more you can articulate your passion, the more interested we will be in interviewing you.  At Mattson, food is not just our business; it’s our life.

We offer a rich package of benefits, including 401K, health, dental, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Account, participation in our ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), which provides you the opportunity for profit-sharing and outstanding, delicious breakfast and lunch served fresh every Monday-Friday in our office. Oh and we also like to have fun. It’s food, after all!

We’re located in the San Francisco Bay Area and our office houses a 20,000 square foot food development lab, brand development studio, consumer research facility, and an on-site pilot manufacturing plant. Come join us and see why we’re the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Salary range is $104,000 - $156,000 per year.