Product Marketing Manager (Ready to Eat)

Perdue Foods has a goal of becoming the most trusted name in premium proteins by creating products for consumers and for retail and foodservice customers around the globe while changing the way animals are raised for food. It is part of Perdue Farms, a fourth-generation, family-owned food and agricultural business deeply rooted in tradition yet with a forward-thinking mindset. We believe that success starts with our people, and our culture is built on a foundation of teamwork, integrity, and respect, where every voice matters and everyone is encouraged to contribute to our shared goals. We are dedicated to creating a supportive, inclusive environment where associates feel valued and inspired to make an impact, both within the company and in the communities we serve. From promoting growth and development to prioritizing work-life balance, we’re committed to helping our team members thrive. That's Perdue.

Summary

Drive growth and shape the future of Perdue’s Ready-to-Eat business. As a Product Marketing Manager for Ready-to-Eat (RTE) products, you will lead the strategy and execution of innovation and renovation initiatives across our Frozen Fully Cooked and Refrigerated Fully Cooked portfolios. You will play a critical role in driving profitable market share by identifying consumer and market opportunities, optimizing existing products, and bringing new offerings to life. Partnering closely with cross-functional teams, you will translate insights into successful commercialization strategies and ensure products are effectively positioned, launched, and grown in market. This role is ideal for a strategic, results-oriented marketer who thrives on collaboration, innovation, and delivering meaningful business impact in a dynamic, consumer-focused environment.

The salary range for this position is $89,000- $133,000 per year, based on experience and qualifications with annual bonus available (variable depending on performance).  

In addition to the base salary, Perdue offers a competitive benefits package, including medical/Rx, 401(k) with employer match after 1 year, critical illness, accident insurance, dental, vision, life insurance, optional group life insurance, short-term and long-term disability protection, flexible spending accounts and paid time off.  

Principal Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Define opportunity spaces by identifying white spaces using consumer insights, market trends, and competitive analysis.
• Shape product concepts by translating insights into compelling product ideas, including claims, formats, flavors, and packaging.
• Develop positioning and value propositions by crafting clear, differentiated messaging, including benefits, reasons to believe, and primary points of advantage.
• Lead concept testing and validation by partnering with insights teams on concept screens, CLTs, and in-market tests.
• Develop business cases by building volume forecasts, pricing strategies, margin expectations, and profit and loss estimates.
• Identify portfolio performance gaps by analyzing POS consumption data and consumer and customer feedback.
• Drive product and packaging improvements by leading updates to formula, claims, package design, sizing, and merchandising.
• Refresh positioning by re-articulating messaging to remain relevant to evolving competitors and consumer needs.
• Manage portfolio strategy by identifying SKUs to grow, improve, rationalize, or exit.
• Translate data into strategy through consumer segmentation and needs analysis.
• Conduct competitive benchmarking, including head-to-head analysis.
• Track trends related to taste, health, economics, and other relevant factors.
• Represent the voice of the consumer in cross-functional discussions.
• Define target audiences, occasion-based use cases, and key benefit hierarchies, including health, taste, and ingredients.
• Ensure alignment with brand architecture and long-term strategy.
• Lead packaging strategy, including front-of-pack messaging such as claims, hierarchy, and callouts.
• Develop visual identity, including appetite appeal and visual cues.
• Partner with research and development, regulatory, and legal teams to ensure claims substantiation and ingredient communication strategies.
• Develop launch plans covering retail strategies, including channel and customer mix.
• Establish pricing and promotional strategies.
• Set distribution and velocity targets.
• Partner with sales teams to develop sell-in materials and retailer presentations.
• Collaborate with integrated marketing teams to build support plans, including in-store and out-of-store initiatives, trial, and awareness efforts.
• Own launch readiness and execution.
• Track post-launch performance, including POS consumption, velocity, ACV, repeat rate, price elasticity, and promotional performance.
• Refine messaging, packaging, product offerings, and quality based on performance data.
• Act as the central point of coordination across research and development, insights and analytics, sales and category management, supply chain, finance, creative agencies, and other partners.
• Drive alignment and decision-making through stage gate and commercialization processes.
• Prepare business cases, manage deliverables, and own timelines, opportunities, and trade-offs from ideation to launch.
• Own product-level profit and loss inputs, pricing strategies, cost and packaging architecture decisions, and margin targets for new product development.
• Support portfolio-level growth, mix optimization, and trade-offs between innovation and renovation.
• Build compelling narratives for internal leadership, including investment business cases.
• Develop retailer presentations that support distribution decisions.
• Create clear and impactful consumer messaging.
• Present recommendations confidently to both small and large groups and lead discussions in high-stakes scenarios.

Minimum Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business administration, or a related field.
• 3+ years of product management experience, preferably within the food or consumer packaged goods industry, including exposure to ready-to-eat products or convenience foods.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to and execute marketing plans effectively.
• Proven experience using syndicated data, storytelling presentations, PowerPoint, Excel, forecasting tools, concept testing tools, and consumer research methodologies.
• Demonstrate strong communication, organizational, and project management skills.
• Demonstrate ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• Demonstrate curiosity, proactivity, and creative problem-solving with strong attention to detail and an ownership mindset.

Physical Requirements and Environmental Factors

• Position is mostly sedentary but may require occasional moving to other offices or buildings.
• May need to move light equipment or supplies from one place to another.
• May need to access files, supplies and equipment.
• Work activity is in an office, open-partitioned, cubicle environment.

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Perdue Farms Inc. is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.