Job Description

Whole Foods Market is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Team Leader to lead our Product Commercialization Center of Excellence, including direct leadership of at least 5 Product Commercialization Leads. The Senior Team Leader will work with leadership from other COEs including Sourcing, Product Development, Logistics and additional functions supporting Whole Foods Market’s Exclusive Brands. In doing so, the Senior Team Leader will be tasked with leading key initiatives aimed at driving measurable improvement in speed to market, while maintaining our best-in-class product and safety standards. Critical to delivering measurable improvements in end-to-end product commercialization, including product launch execution, will require the selected individual to drive improvements in use of the company’s current data sets to evolve reporting and analysis disciplines focused on product launch success metrics.

Successful leadership of the Product Commercialization Team entails carefully planning and team collaboration in reviewing and organizing resources to successfully deliver against new item launch initiatives with optimal efficiency and speed to shelf. The Senior Team Leader will also support and oversee their team of Product Commercialization Leads in daily project-related responsibilities, guidance, and training needs. They will inform new process design, improvements to current processes, and support in training/ execution and adoption of new and/or optimized processes. This position is also responsible for ensuring processes and best practices are used consistently across the team while helping to identify potential pain points and opportunities for improvement. This leader will be required to focus support on their Team Members’ needs related to areas of recently expanded team scope of responsibility and, in turn, will provide career development feedback and coaching to their direct reports.

Additional Information:
This role will observe the 3-day hybrid office model and be based in Austin, TX.

Additional Responsibilities: 

• Lead a team of at least five (5) Product Commercialization Team Members.
• Collaborate closely with the Product Commercialization Team Leader to ensure consistent commercialization management practices are well-understood and applied across the product commercialization org as it pertains to all SOPs.
• Guide development and improvement of team member knowledge base and competencies to execute current process requirements, new process adoption, and to foster individual team member growth and career development.
• Cultivate a servant leadership-driven team to ensure team energy and outputs are harmonized with business priorities.
• Foster adaptation skills that will support successful execution of unanticipated priorities with a sense of urgency.
• Nurture a high functioning relational stance with internal stakeholders as needed to facilitate the successful execution of team responsibilities and accountability to performance objectives.
• Embody Whole Foods Market Leadership Principles, especially servant leadership, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking, while modeling adaptability with open and highly respectful communication.
• Actively models and reinforces the Whole Foods Market mission, Core Values, and culture.
• Identify and lead continual improvement in operational excellence by pursuing process improvements that will benefit not only the Product Commercialization Team, but the Sourcing & Product Development Organization and process at large.
• Support and enable an environment suited to team actualization by protecting time for project execution, strategic thinking, problem solving.  This is to be achieved, in part, by supporting setting of boundaries and expectations, removing roadblocks, empowering decision making within the team, celebrating collaboration that, at times, results in intentional yet thoughtful risk-taking, and using individual and group misses as opportunities for process and professional growth.
• Remain apprised of health of projects on the desks of direct reports to ensure on-time delivery of the project portfolio and elevate status and any concerns to Executive Leader.
• Utilize systems and leverage tracked KPIs to generate monthly and quarterly performance reports and quarterly project statistics and portfolio composition data. Prepare and present department performance metrics to Sourcing & Product Development senior leadership. 
• Engages with leaders and representatives from each discipline involved in Product Commercialization to understand business requirements including ‘definition of done,’ documentation expectations, resource limitations, risks, and challenges.
• Liaises with Team Members and Leadership to ensure a mutual and shared understanding of project expectations.
• Ensures data-driven, customer-focused decision making.
• Partners with third parties and teams across WFM to ensure alignment, collaboration, and wide-spread knowledge sharing.

Qualifications: 

• Excellent communication skills, including written, verbal, and listening. Must be comfortable presenting and sharing information.
• Maintains positive working relationships with all cross-functional team leadership and other stakeholders on the team as necessary and beneficial to fostering open communication on all project and process updates.
• Ability to assess and organize available data to then apply clear data delivery approaches which effectively answer business questions.
• Successful in customizing communication and data sharing approach to specific situations and audiences.
• Knowledge of project and file management software, such as SharePoint, OneDrive and working knowledge of Project Lifecycle and Compliance Management systems.
• Handles detailed, structural problems, identifying roadblocks to task completion.
• Uses existing procedures as primary resource to resolve standard problems.
• Understands the strategy, goals, and objectives of the company, business unit, and/or project.
• Identifies alignment and misalignment of the team’s project priorities with larger organizational strategy, goals, and objectives.
• Ability to understand and analyze retail product assortments and supplier base, as well as understanding other retail operation teams and their key functions.
• Established record and reputation for offering smart, creative solutions that help earn trust and deliver results.
• Proven ability to lead and develop a team of direct reports.
• Passion for food and drive for continuous learning and growth.
• Models an organized and systematic approach to work and the ability to prioritize and delegate responsibilities.
• This role location is at the company headquarters in Austin, TX.
• Travel, including overnight trips, may be required.

Education & Experience:

• BBA/BA/BS degree and 5+ years’ relevant experience OR equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Direct Project Management experience as well as experience in training and successful team application of PM methodologies including PMP, Agile and DMAIC (Lean Management / Six Sigma).
• Min 5 years’ leadership experience

At Whole Foods Market, we provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all Team Members and candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Whole Foods Market hires and promotes individuals solely based on qualifications for the position to be filled and business needs.

Whole Foods Market works with job sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter to promote opportunities at our company. Please be aware that other career sites may not be accurate or up to date and may even be fraudulent. We encourage and recommend all candidates to apply via our site.