Director – Global Advanced Concepts
Job ID 2023-01397
Description
About Cuisinart:
Cuisinart is a renowned consumer product company delivering high-quality kitchen appliances and equipment designed to bring more joy to the heart of the home. With a strong heritage of innovation, Cuisinart inspires people to cook more often, explore their culinary creativity, and enjoy the process. Today, tomorrow, always — Cuisinart makes great cooking easier with products people are proud to own.
About the Role:
As the Director of Advanced Concepts, you will drive the creation of breakthrough product concepts that address emerging consumer needs and strengthen our global category strategies.
In this role, you’ll partner with Consumer Insights, Product Marketing, and R&D to accelerate early-stage innovation. You will manage a global cross-functional team to uncover key consumer pain points, brainstorm ideas to solve consumers’ toughest problems, and validate concepts to get them ready for consideration in category roadmaps.
If you’re energized by digging deep into global consumer needs and creating ideas for the “next big thing,” love to inspire teams, and drive consumer-centric innovation in a fast -paced environment, we’d love to hear from you.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Vision & Leadership:
- Shape/communicate a forward-looking vision that supports corporate/category strategies
- Provide insights on emerging technologies, consumer trends, and business models
- Champion culture of creativity, agility, & consumer-first thinking across organization.
Portfolio & Pipeline Management:
- Build portfolio of advanced concepts – moving ideas from ideation to proof-of-concept
- Evaluate projects for impact, feasibility, and strategic fit
- Ensure steady pipeline of validated concepts ready for category consideration
Consumer Insight & Market Understanding:
- Deeply understand the consumer
- Gather insights from global social media trends, ratings & reviews, & structure research to understand what home cooks need — and what delights them.
- Uncover the deeper emotional and functional drivers behind cooking behaviors.
- Identify knowledge gaps and build prioritized learning plans with consumer insights team
- Monitor global market trends and competitors to stay ahead of market shifts and identify emerging opportunities early
Concept Development & Vetting:
- Inspire global cross-functional team - insights, culinary innovation, industrial design, and R&D - to translate unmet consumer needs into actionable product opportunities
- Lead early-stage ideation, validation and refinement of concepts using global consumer insights and feedback.
- Ensure advanced concepts deliver real-world value by staying anchored in consumer behaviors and expectations
- Support global category leadership by sharing early insights, validated opportunities, and strategic recommendations.
Internal alignment + Excitement around new concepts:
- Spark excitement around new products — craft clear, compelling product stories that show how our new product ideas will “Wow” consumers and win in the market.
- Clearly explain market landscape, customer insights, & pain points to show the concept opportunity and how each new concept not only solve issues, but also delight the user
What You Bring:
Must-Have Qualities:
- Positive attitude, flexibility & adaptability to navigate uncertain environments
- Passion for food, home cooking, and the stories that bring products to life
- Obsession for deeply understanding the consumer, usability, and human-centered design and an infectious enthusiasm for creatively solve consumer problems
- Executive presence - exceptional communication and storytelling abilities
Experience, Skills, Other requirements:
- 10+ years driving global innovation, 5+ years in leadership roles
- Strong analytical, organizational, and strategic thinking skills
- Proficiency in Office, AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity), passion for new technologies
- Willingness to travel domestically/internationally (up to 20%) and take early/late calls to lead global team coordination with Asia Cuisinart team and our overseas vendors.
Environmental Factors:
- Working conditions are normal for an office environment.
- Must be able to sit for extended periods of time.
- Must be able to use a computer keyboard and view a monitor for extended periods of time.
- This role requires on-site presence Monday through Thursday, with the flexibility to work remotely from anywhere on Fridays.
What we offer:
- Comprehensive Medical/Dental/Vision plans
- Generous Paid Time Off Programs
- Life & Disability Insurance
- FSA/HSA/Dependent Care FSA
- Paid Parental Leave
- 401k and company match
- EAP & Employee Wellness Programs
- Volunteer Days Paid Time Off
- Free breakfast and lunch in the Stamford office
About Us:
Conair is a leading international designer, manufacturer, and marketer of branded personal care and small kitchen appliances, cookware, hairbrushes & accessories, cosmetic bags, and travel accessories.
Conair has always been driven by a passion for innovation; it’s part of the Company’s DNA. Trendsetting products have been invented by Conair since its inception in 1959, keeping the Company always a step ahead of the competition. The company's domestic and international divisions offer a diversified mix of consumer and professional products sold in over 120 countries. The Family of Conair brands includes CONAIR, Cuisinart, BabylissPRO, Scünci , TRAVELSMART by CONAIR, and Waring.
Conair’s passion for innovation gets stronger with each decade, as evidenced by the over 1,000 patents the Company has obtained worldwide. Today, Conair and its brands are names known throughout the world. Conair continues to introduce its brands to new and emerging markets, year after year. By the 1990s, most households in America owned at least one Conair product. Today many have more than one, and the Company’s goal is to ensure that every household in the world eventually owns one of our products.
At Conair, we inspire our customers with innovative high-quality products and
iconic brands that enhance their lives.
Are you passionate about this opportunity but worried that you don’t have 100% of the experience we’re looking for? We still want to hear from you! Apply online and let us know why you would make a great addition to Conair!