Job Description

Our family of 134,000 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 1500 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.

All career opportunities will be open a minimum of 5 business days from the date of posting.

Overview

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.

Key Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills and Experience Requirements

• An Undergraduate Degree and a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience
• Culinary degree or Food Science degree an asset
• Food Safety certification an asset
• Ability to travel
• Previous Project Management experience

We offer teammates competitive total compensation packages that will vary by role and location. 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 or monitored for accuracy by our organization. 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.

Sobeys is committed to accommodating applicants with disabilities throughout the hiring process and will work with applicants requesting accommodation at any stage of this process.

While all responses are appreciated only those being considered for interviews will be acknowledged.

We appreciate the interest from the Staffing industry however respectfully request no calls or unsolicited resumes from Agencies.

Sobeys