Assistant Category Manager - Coffee and Non-Coffee Beverages

We're hiring 2 Assistant Category Managers!

One will focus on Coffee & Espresso and the other on Non-Coffee Beverages.

These positions will work with cross-functional team to bring product offerings from ideation to testing, and then through launch and post-launch analysis. Support innovation pipeline development, menu renovations, and calendar planning for Dunkin'.

Responsibilities

• Work with Beverage Category Manager to help fill innovation pipeline through the following activities:
• Assist in identifying and staying on top of product trends through trend tours, secondary research, conferences/trade shows, and partnership with competitive intelligence team
• Partner with culinary team to ideate product innovation. Draft concept development briefs to start the product development process. Manage agendas and recaps for weekly meetings
• Partner with consumer insights team to evaluate opportunity size and determine positioning. Write idea and concept screeners to gauge consumer interest.
• Pull together business case including insights, competitive landscape, and target audience to align XF leaders on product kickoff
  
  

Work with Beverage Category Manager to plan out the calendar and get products ready for launch through the following activities:

• Work with XF team of R&D, operations, supply chain, demand planning, QA, commercialization and legal to ensure products are ready for launch
• Manage updates in the product tracker capturing all product details
• Partner with operations team on in-store testing and evaluating product performance against set criteria
• Partner with category manager and brand marketing team to help identify which products to launch based on learnings through screeners or testing
• Lead through and submit product readiness materials including readiness templates, POS forms, profitability forms, marketing input forms, app forms, and product one-pagers. Review all output from cross-functional teams.
• Write product briefs to kick off XF partners for agency briefings
• Help identify and resolve project-related risks and issues throughout process
• Assist Associate Category Manager Bakery on all calendar-related activities above, as needed
• Work with Beverage Category manager on post-launch activities including partnering with business analytics to measure and analyze the impact of programs, and assisting in field and franchisee communication and collaboration
  
  

Education Qualifications

• 4 Year Degree / Bachelor’s
• Business and/or marketing major preferred
  
  

Experience Qualifications

• 1-2 years total work experience (internships included).
• Food and beverage or CPG industry experience preferred but not required, especially in marketing, product development, or consumer insights roles.
  
  

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS Or ABILITIES

• Creative and strategic thinking
• Strong communications and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work individually and with large cross-functional teams
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, multi-task, prioritize, and be detail oriented
• Project management
• Financial acumen
• Problem-solving agility
• Strong PowerPoint and Excel skills
  
  

Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,000 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide.

We’re made up of some of the world’s most iconic restaurant brands, but we’re much more than just a restaurant company. We’re a team of hundreds of thousands who individually and collectively are changing the way people eat, drink, and gather around the table. We know that food is much more than a staple—it’s an experience. At Inspire, that’s our purpose: to ignite and nourish flavorful experiences.