US Senior Product Manager, Blue Bottle Coffee
$120-166k
More information about location
Coffee roaster and retailer
Open for applications
Coffee roaster and retailer
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$120-166k
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To provide great coffee for everyone.
Role
Who you are
- A strategic business leader who enjoys bringing great ideas to market
- Equally comfortable discussing product innovation, brand strategy, and commercial performance
- An exceptional cross-functional partner who naturally aligns diverse teams around a common goal
- Deeply curious about consumer behavior, hospitality, coffee, and emerging market trends
- Highly organized and energized by managing complex programs with many moving parts
- Analytical and commercially minded, using insights and data to inform decisions without losing sight of the guest experience
- Calm in ambiguity and able to create clarity, momentum, and alignment across functions
- Passionate about building exceptional guest experiences that strengthen both the Blue Bottle brand and the business
- 7+ years of experience in product management, product marketing, category management, brand marketing, or commercial strategy within premium consumer, hospitality, retail, or food and beverage brands
- Experience leading products or category initiatives from concept through commercialization and lifecycle management
- A proven ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives involving Product Development, Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain, and Finance
- Strong commercial acumen with experience using consumer insights, business performance, and market trends to shape product and marketing decisions
- Experience partnering effectively with global organizations while adapting strategies for local market success
- Outstanding project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and stakeholders simultaneously
- Excellent communication, presentation, and influencing skills, with the ability to build trust across functions and levels
- A collaborative leadership style, exceptional organizational skills, and a bias toward action
- A genuine passion for exceptional coffee, hospitality, and creating products and experiences that people love
What the job involves
- Blue Bottle Coffee is seeking a strategic and commercially minded product management leader to join the U.S. Brand & Marketing team
- Reporting to the U.S. Head of Product & Experience, this role is responsible for translating Blue Bottle's global product and category strategies into successful launches and commercial outcomes across the U.S. market
- This role serves as one point of a critical partnership between Product Development, Brand Marketing, and Product Management
- Working at the intersection of these three functions, you will orchestrate the end-to-end commercialization process—ensuring products are thoughtfully developed, strategically positioned, operationally launched, and successfully brought to market in service of both the brand and the business
- Working closely with your Product Management counterpart in Asia and the Global Brand Center of Excellence, you will adapt global strategies for the U.S. market while sharing insights, performance, and opportunities that help shape future global innovation
- You thrive at the intersection of product, brand, and business—bringing together cross-functional teams to transform great ideas into exceptional guest experiences and strong commercial outcomes
- Develop regional category strategies based on Blue Bottle's global category strategy, leading successful new product launches and delivering commercial performance in the U.S. market
- Drive cross-functional project execution and continuous process improvement, coordinating teams across the organization to efficiently bring new products and initiatives to market
- Lead product positioning and commercialization by defining product concepts, value propositions, differentiators, target audiences, and go-to-market strategies
- Manage the full product lifecycle, from launch and optimization through expansion, evolution, and retirement
- Leverage consumer, market, and competitive insights to identify opportunities, shape product strategies, and recommend actions that strengthen both the brand and the business
- Lead strategic cross-functional initiatives that support key business priorities and advance Blue Bottle's long-term growth
- Drive cross-functional project execution and continuous process improvement, serving as the connective tissue between Product Development, Brand Marketing, and key business partners to efficiently bring new products and initiatives to market
Our take
Founded in 2002, Blue Bottle Coffee is a coffee roaster and retailers that became a major player in the third wave coffee movement, helped in part by the investment and expansion opportunities created through Nestlé's majority acquisition in 2017. Blue Bottle now operates more than 100 stores across the US and Asia, and continues to expand product collaborations, read-to-drink beverages, and merchandizing.
Blue Bottle Coffee's subscription business grew significantly following shifts in customer behavior toward premium at-home coffee experiences and recurring subscription services. Showing the company's ability to build a loyal customer base and capitalize on growing demand for higher-quality coffee products outside of traditional cafés.
The company also benefits from the pandemic period, where its scale and backing from Nestlé helped it remain resilient while smaller independent cafés struggled or closed completely.
However, Blue Bottle has now entered a new chapter following Nestlé's decision to sell the company as part of a wider strategy to streamline its portfolio and focus on core brands. The move reflects changing priorities withing Nestlé rather than weakness in Blue Bottle itself, with the brand remaining a recognized name in premium coffee and well positioned to continue growing.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
7% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Jun 2015
$70m
SERIES C
Jan 2014
$25.7m
SERIES B
Total funding: $135.7m
Company HQ
Old Oakland, Oakland, CA
Leadership
James Freeman
(Founder)Former Music Analyst at Mongo music and freelance musician.
Karl Strovink
(CEO)Karl initially joined the Blue Bottle team as the President and COO in 2019, becoming CEo in 2020. Prior to this, they spent over 10 years at Converse, holding various VP/GM roles.
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