Director, Innovation & Product Development

Overview

The Director, Innovation & Product Development leads Sprouts Brand's Product Development function and serves as the organization's innovation leader.

This roleis responsible foridentifyingemerging trends, uncovering category white space opportunities, developing differentiated product concepts, and leading the creation of innovative products that strengthen Sprouts Brand's competitive advantage.

As the team isestablishedand grows, this leader willoperateas a hands-on player-coach, balancing strategic innovation leadership with direct product development responsibilities. The Director will personally lead high-priority development projects while building the processes, capabilities, and partnershipsrequiredto support a best-in-class innovation organization.

Working closely with Category Strategy, Merchandising, Brand, Packaging, Quality, Supply Chain, and supplier partners, this role ensures Sprouts Brandremainsahead of evolving customer needs while accelerating innovation speed and delivering products customers cannot find elsewhere.

This position is located at our Store Support Office in Phoenix, Arizona, and operates on a hybrid schedule (in office Tuesday - Thursday).

• Develop and lead the multi-year innovation strategy for the Sprouts Brand portfolio, establishing priorities that drive sustainable growth, competitive differentiation, and long-term brand equity
• Own the enterprise innovation pipeline, ensuring a balanced portfolio of breakthrough innovation, platform expansion, renovation initiatives, and future growth opportunities aligned to business objectives.
• Identify and translate emerging consumer, health and wellness, culinary, ingredient, sustainability, and marketplace trends into innovation platforms, category opportunities, and strategic growth initiatives.
• Partner with executive and cross-functional leaders to define innovation priorities, allocate resources, and align product development investments with enterprise growth strategies.
• Lead the development and commercialization of high-impact, strategically significant products and innovation platforms that strengthen Sprouts Brand differentiation and market position.
• Establish and govern innovation portfolio management processes, evaluating opportunities through customer, competitive, operational, and financial lenses to maximize return on investment and business impact.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, ingredient partners, and external innovation networks to accelerate innovation, access emerging capabilities, and identify future growth opportunities.
• Champion product development excellence by establishing scalable innovation frameworks, best practices, stage-gate processes, and commercialization standards that improve speed-to-market and launch effectiveness.
• Drive continuous improvement in innovation and product development processes, increasing organizational agility, reducing development cycle times, and enhancing commercialization success rates.
• Serve as the enterprise subject matter expert for product innovation and development, influencing category, merchandising, sourcing, and brand strategies through deep consumer and market insights.
• Lead, develop, and build organizational capability within the Product Development team through coaching, succession planning, talent development, and creation of a high-performance innovation culture.
• Communicate innovation strategy, portfolio performance, business cases, and growth opportunities to senior leadership, influencing strategic decisions that support long-term organizational success.

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Product Development, Consumer Science, Business, Marketing, or related field;
  Master's degree preferred
• 10+ years of progressive experience in product development, innovation, category management, merchandising, private brand, or related functions
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing teams, developing talent, and leading cross-functional business initiatives
• Demonstrated success developing and commercializing innovative consumer products and driving measurable business growth
• Experienc…