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Head of Innovation

  • Location: Hertfordshire
  • Salary: Negotiable per year

Posted over 1 year ago

  • Sector: CPG
  • Contact: Sophie Brocklebank-Fowler
  • Contact Email: sophiebrocklebank-fowler@betterplaced.com
  • Client: Client A1 Better Placed
  • Expiry Date: 28 September 2023
  • Job Ref: 52296_1693306726

Brilliant FMCG food business, well known brands, growing team and lots of autonomy!

Do you have?

  • 5-10 years experience within a leading FMCG or other brand-led organisation.
  • Innovation experience encompassing strategy, business case development, cross-functional team leadership, market delivery.
  • A track record of delivering successful big bet innovation to market with proven scale.
  • Strong bias for action, a high degree of personal accountability and an entrepreneurial spirit.
  • Desire to identify new ideas and ways of working, encouraging teams to think "outside the box" to make things happen.
  • Strong commercial orientation; comfortable analysing market data, digging under the surface to uncover insights, making compelling business recommendations, ensuring we can bring our biggest ideas to market in a profitable way.
  • A strong coach, collaborator and leader of others within the wider team - inspiring them to "go the extra mile".
  • Personal Impact and Influence; proven ability to communicate clearly & concisely to win support from senior stakeholders.
  • Effective at prioritising, "putting first things first" to deliver a complex innovation programme across multiple categories.

Responsibilities:

  • You will be responsible for building a pipeline of Innovation and delivering this successfully to market, in this category and our priority Expansion sectors.
  • Innovation is set to be the major incremental growth driver to our business over the next few years, growing our brands' penetration and usage beyond traditional occasions.

You will…

  • define the most attractive "where to play" spaces for our brands, taking into account scalability, trends & consumer needs
  • develop "big bet" concept, product & packaging innovation that enables us to win in those focus areas
  • lead innovation projects through the Gate process, aligning up to Exec level and securing the required resource
  • take accountability for the P&L on those innovation projects, ensuring they are scalable and profitable for the business
  • lead the wider cross-functional team to deliver success including R&D, Factory, 3rd Party & Commercial stakeholders
  • stay connected to the external landscape & technologies available globally, with relevant application to our pipeline.

  • You'll be part of the team alongside other members of the Marketing team (Brand Management, Insights).
  • You'll partner closely with a wider cross-functional team that spans R&D, Factory, Commercial Planning, Sales and Finance.
  • You'll have a direct report (Innovation Manager) who you will coach and support in delivery of the categories innovation agenda.