Specialist Product Development
Requisition ID: 191593
Career Group: Corporate Office Careers
Job Category: Merchandising Food Experience
Travel Requirements: 30 - 40%
Job Type: Full-Time
Country: Canada (CA)
Province: Ontario
City: Mississauga
Location: Tahoe Office
Embark on a rewarding career with Sobeys Inc., celebrated among Canada’s Top 100 employers, where your talents contribute to our commitment to excellence and community impact.
Our family of 128,000 employees and franchise affiliates share a collective passion for delivering exceptional shopping experiences and amazing food to all our customers. Our mission is to nurture the things that make life better – great experiences, families, communities, and our employees. We are a family nurturing families.
A proudly Canadian company, we started in a small town in Nova Scotia but we are now in communities of all sizes across this great country. With over 1,600 stores in all 10 provinces, you may know us as Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, Lawtons Drug Stores or another of our great banners but we are all one extended family.
Ready to Make an impact?
Sobeys is full of exciting opportunities, and we are always looking for bright new talent to join our team! We currently have a full-time opportunity for a Specialist Product Development in our Fresh Merchandising team
Here’s where you’ll be focusing:
Execute product development strategy:
- Owns the sensory and development of Fresh Merchandising products and supporting processes from ideation to implementation and post launch evaluation in assigned categories
- Align to department objectives and strategic business objectives
- Executes the development of compelling, high impact Fresh Merchandising products that guarantee high regional support and high sustained customer loyalty
- Ownership of assigned project Timelines for Innovation and Development
- Responsible for leveraging customer insights, industry trends and market research to identify innovative product development opportunities
- Ensures on time, on strategy and on budget delivery of new products for Fresh Merchandising
- Ensure projects are on track & work with the team where assistance is required to meet and exceed desired outcomes
- Work closely with a multi-disciplinary team to ensure all products are delivered with pace and on strategy – team includes 3rd party suppliers, Quality Assurance, Procurement, Category Merchants and Central Kitchens where applicable.
- Work with SOP team to ensure consistency and accuracy of in-store SOPs
- Ensure all products meet the strategic objectives of the department.
- Reviews all packaging and provides recommendations as required.
- Conducts preliminary shelf life testing and makes recommendations to Category, 3rd party suppliers and Central Kitchens.
- Support vendor sourcing and provide recommendations
- When Commissary production critical mass is achieved, work on conversions to 3 party where applicable while enabling new capacity within the facility for innovation
- Work with Commissary Leads on challenges and opportunities as it relates to production to ensure a smooth end to end process. If redevelopment is required to aid production consistency, take the lead and work with 3rd party suppliers Central Kitchen Operations to do so
- Overseeing corporate culinary events across business
What you have to offer:
- An Undergraduate Degree and a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience
- Culinary degree or Food Science degree an asset
- Minimum 3 years developing products for bakery category (breads, potpies, pastries etc)
- Food Safety certification an asset
- Ability to travel (30-40%)
- Previous Project Management experience
At Sobeys we require our teammates to have the ability to adhere to a hybrid work model that requires your presence at one of our office locations at least three days per week. This requirement is integral to our commitment to team collaboration and the overall success of our office culture.
We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package, which varies by role and designed to help our teammates to live better – physically, financially and emotionally.
Some websites share our job opportunities and may provide salary estimates without our knowledge. These estimates are based on similar jobs and postings for general comparison, but these numbers are not provided by our organization nor monitored for accuracy.
We will consider factors such as your working location, work experience and skills as well as internal equity, and market conditions to ensure the selected candidate is paid fairly and competitively. We look forward to discussing the specific compensation details relevant to this role with candidates who are selected to move forward in the recruitment process.
Our Total Rewards programs, for full-time teammates, goes well beyond your paycheque:
- Competitive Benefits Package, tailored to meet your needs, including health and dental coverage, life, short- and long-term disability insurance.
- Access to Virtual Health Care Platform and Employee and Family Assistance Program.
- A Retirement and Savings Plan that provides you with the opportunity to build and add value to your savings.
- A 10% in-store discount at our participating banners and access to a wide range of other discount programs, making your purchases more affordable.
- Learning and Development Resources to fuel your professional growth.
- Parental leave top-up
- Paid Vacation and Days-off
We are committed to accommodating applicants with disabilities throughout the hiring process and will work with applicants requesting accommodation at any stage of this process.