Senior Manager, Brand Design

General Mills

Food. Purpose. You.

We serve the world by making food people love. As one of the world’s leading food companies, General Mills believes that food should make us better. Food brings us joy and nourishes our lives, connecting us to each other and the earth. General Mills operates in more than 100 countries and markets more than 100 consumer brands, including Cheerios, Häagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Annie’s, Lara Bar, Yoplait and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, General Mills had global net sales of US$17.6 billion during fiscal 2015.

We seek out the best talent, and then give them development resources, support and the chance to lead something big. Choosing a career with General Mills means joining a company where you can make a difference in the lives of millions of people. There is tremendous opportunity here for individuals who want to advance food through innovation and serve the world.

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http://www.generalmills.com


Position Details

Senior Manager, Brand Design
Job
Full-time
2/6/2017
Twin Cities Metro
Minneapolis, MN

Design, we believe, can be a competitive advantage for modern brands. In crowded categories, how a brand looks, sounds, acts, and feels determines its appeal. And yet, design remains a science shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding. We need somebody who practices that science with the kind of expertise and grace that makes large diverse teams better.

The Senior Manager, Brand Design will lead our brand design efforts across the company. Traditionally, the brand design team has focused its efforts on packaging graphics, helping conceive and execute the hundreds of designs we implement each year. This team works very closely with our marketers, our design agencies, and our designated printing partners. They shepherd diverse groups, including researchers, retail-specialists, and pre-press professionals to help ensure our brands show-up on shelves in the most powerful way possible. The person who assumes this role will lead this team and elevate those efforts.

And yet, this leader will also expand our sense of what “design” can do for a brand. What is “great packaging” in a world of e-commerce? How do we develop a brand’s identity from its logo to its voice across all of its content? How do we modernize our brands without sacrificing their traditional equity? What should food look like? … These are some of the deep, critical questions this leader will help us answer while marshaling our resources to make more powerful, effective work.

Key Responsibilities include:

  1. Being an inspiring thought leader for the power of design as a force for growth. Helping us understand the principles and expression of design that give our brands competitive advantage.
  2. Leading the development of brand identity (with internal partners and external agencies) for key projects — both our most significant brands and our most experimental brands.  
  3. Managing relationships with design agencies — curating our roster, elevating our briefs, guiding team feedback as work develops.
  4. Supervising design production of all our work including our packaging, pre-press, and graphic supply chain operations.

The most qualified applicants will possess all the skills of a modern marketing leader — an ability to inspire innovation across diverse constituencies and an ability to imagine creative possibilities and articulate them effectively. Specifically, this role also requires an ability to manage the complexity of our design supply chain on a global scale.

The ideal candidate might be a designer or a design strategist with significant experience (10+ years) either at agencies or working directly for brands. S/he will have an impressive, proven track record of using the power of design to help brands grow. This candidate will be steeped in the science of design but also possess an ability to explain that science to peers in a way that drives better decisions. S/he will have taste — a modern, food-passionate visual sensibility. S/he will be an artist, a thinker, a manager, and perhaps most importantly, a teacher.



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