Brand Incubation Manager

The Mission

We’re looking for an Brand Incubation Manager to help lead the next wave of growth at Downeast. You will own the development, testing, and launch of new beverage brands, from early concept through in-market pilots. This is a cross-functional, fast-moving role that blends creativity and business acumen.

Job Responsibilities

• Identify Opportunities
• Monitor trends, consumer behavior shifts, and competitor activity
• Identify whitespace opportunities and translate them into actionable ideas for new products or brands
• Develop Concepts
• Turn insights into compelling brand and product concepts
• Collaborate with creative and R&D teams to shape the core idea, flavor direction, and brand identity
• Build Testable Products
• Lead the development of new products, including creative direction, packaging design, pricing, and go-to-market strategy
• Partner with R&D and Ops to turn concepts into real, shelf-ready products
• Test in Market
• Design in-market pilot strategies
• Launch tests quickly and efficiently, balancing speed with actionable learning
• Track Performance
• Use both qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate product and brand performance
• Monitor consumer feedback, velocity, and trade response
• Make Recommendations
• Deliver clear, data-backed recommendations on each test (kill, adjust, or scale)

Qualifications

• Must have 1-3 years of experience in either consulting or sales
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
• Exceptional interpersonal skills and ability to interact effectively across functions and organizations
• Good judgment and taste (ability to identify good ideas and know what looks / sounds good and what doesn’t)

Nice to Have

• Proficient with consumer research and syndicated data
• Product development experience (including creative design)

About Downeast

We aspire to build an enduring company with a world-class brand, known as an extraordinary place to work. It’s been 15 years since our first batches of unfiltered cider were fermented in the dorms of Bates College, Maine, and while we’ve gained 115 new teammates and 1.6 million cases of tasty drinks - with a growing assortment beyond cider - we remain 100% founder-owned. We’re a scrappy team that enjoys the hard work of creating a company because we get to work on fun things with people we like. We like to hire the way we like our cider, unfiltered. With the understanding that we can learn and grow from each other’s differences, we are proud to hire regardless of gender, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, or anything else that makes us who we are.