Address Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.
As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.
To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact
Click “Apply” to get started.
What will this role achieve?
- As the Head of Innovation, you will report to the Chief Marketing Officer. You will be accountable for setting a cross category innovation strategy that delivers efficiencies inside the business, wins in the marketplace, and builds a mid to long term strategy for category captaincy.
- Responsible for overall shape and strength of pipeline and sharing the responsibility of readiness together with commercialisation and brand teams.
- Guide and support the CMO and senior stakeholders in innovation decision making, advising on conflicts of interest across categories and bringing resolutions to the table to help achieve realistic, achievable and time deliverable innovations across brands.
- Your key requirement within the role is to aid projects in moving faster & with agility through the funnel, whilst aligning to brand and channel strategies to land in market with competitive advantage – this is to be shared with commercialization. This role is not solely responsible for delivery of pipeline
- Your interactions will be with senior stakeholders within the business, you will be responsible for creating an aligned innovation vision across departments and leaders
- You are responsible for overall shape and strength of pipeline along with readiness (readiness to be shared with commercialization)
- You will do this by fostering strong relationships with internal functional business partners in local and global business; harnessing efficiencies, sharing knowledge & making connections to fuel winning white space opportunities and aid the brand teams in delivering projects with agility and speed.
- You will be the centre of excellence for all things ‘innovation’; making strong connections with external partners & internal leads for areas such as packaging, co-man, ingredients, technologies, flavour houses etc. Brand teams will come to rely on you & this knowledge to unlock project barriers & gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. – this should not be your core responsibility area. This should be owned by RD and SC – you might be consulted
- You will own & deliver the Asset Out ideation process, running workshops on cold spots on lines to fuel the funnel and move white space opportunities from strategy to market with speed & competitive advantage.
- You will build a sense of one business, one organisation and one winning team across functions and departments, ensuring all are laser focussed on the innovation pipeline, the strategic plan and aligned across internal and external initiatives.
What will be your key deliverables?
- Your scope of work will be across all 3 categories, Savoury, Sweet & Health & Wellness
- Your responsibility is to define white space opportunities, build a market winning 3 year pipeline and to align all innovations to cross functional strategies – building the pipeline is a shared responsibility with brand teams. You are responsible for defining white spaced that will unlock growth for overall business and preventing any non-strategic idea to go into pipeline. A gatekeeper before idea is taken into pipeline
- You will be an active member of the MLT and a participant of the CLT and ELT, influencing decisions and guiding discussions to deliver the innovation strategy and pipeline through the cross functional teams – no need to be part of CLT
- You will be accountable for supporting brand teams from gates 0-2 in delivering the project management, unlocking project barriers through strong internal and external relationships. Brand teams will be responsible for day-to-day project management, commercial teams will be responsible from gates 2-launch - end to end ownership not only front end
- You will consult and be consulted post gate 2 on all projects together with brand teams and commercialisation, continuing to unlock barriers where possible or connect relevant individuals or knowledge from internal & external sources
- You will inform and be informed of cross business strategies across marketing, brand, channel, customer, supply chain and R&D. Making connections that will help innovations move at pace and with agility, fostering a sense of one winning team and being clear on the strategic direction of the portfolio
- You will fuel the funnel with Asset Out category leading innovation opportunities that deliver commercial value and build category captaincy against brand and channel strategies this is not only your responsibility. owned by SC as well
- Responsible for inspiring and capturing pladis employees’ ideas, or ideas from R&D, supply chain and factory, on an ongoing basis throughout the year and placing these into existing projects or white space opportunities to fuel the funnel with competitive opportunities
- Creation of a well-balanced, white space opportunity pipeline that delivers against demand space methodology, grows in line with strategic targets by brand & channel and wins across a 1-3 year horizon. Finance team to be responsible for delivering pipeline financial metrics and tracking – this role is accountable for overall shape and sufficiency
- Leading Quarterly Innovation Reviews (QIR) and Inno Day with senior stakeholders including the CEO and Chairman, Finance to provide the information required for reporting – this role holds the narrative for all those innovation related key meetings
Out of scope of this role
- Day-to-day project management – this is the responsibility of the brand teams and commercialisation
- Flavour strategy development - this is the responsibility of the brand teams. Head of Innovation will foster opportunities and relationships with internal and external departments to bring the strategy to life and will consult on the development of the strategy
- Co-man relationship management - this is the responsibility of the Head of Co-Man. Head of Innovation will scout early opportunities/technologies/suppliers that could align to white spaces (together with the Co-Man dept) and will bring these opportunities to the brand teams to fuel projects
- Channel & category strategy - this is the responsibility of the customer and category teams. The Head of Innovation will consult to the teams and support the brand teams in interpreting the category and channel requirements into live projects within the funnel
- Sourcing & supply chain strategy - this is the responsibility of Procurement and Supply Chain. The Head of Innovation will be informed of the strategy and consult to the brand teams on how this strategy can fuel the pipeline and white space opportunities
- Brand strategy development - this is the responsibility of each individual brand. The Head of Innovation will be informed of the strategy and be accountable for sharing internal and external opportunities that deliver with pace against white space opportunities within the funnel
- Pipeline financial efficiency, tracking and reporting - this is the responsibility of the Finance and Commercialisation teams. The Head of Innovation should be informed of the targets and be accountable for creating an innovation strategy that delivers against those targets.
- Creating the content for Innoday and QiR’s - this is the responsibility of the brand teams and leaderships. The Head of Innovation will consult on the narrative for the story and manage the standard reporting slides.
Shared responsibilities
- Delivering against pipeline targets, shared with brand
- Delivering against customer and channel targets, shared with Customer and Category teams
- Delivering innovation key metrics, shared across brand, finance & R&D
Bring your experience
- Proven project management skills
- Strong strategic thinker – to take our brands beyond products to engaging consumer experiences and growth platforms
- Strong FMCG ideation and innovation development experience. A background of having worked in innovation/project management role(s), with a proven track record of creating and delivering ideas grounded in brand equity and consumer insight
- Excellent leadership capability - can collaborate well to get the best from people and lead with conviction and with the respect of the team and stakeholders
- Proven commercial experience
- Strong track record of creating winning concepts that have delivered in market
- Winning mindset fuelled by curiosity, pace, agility and desire for growth
- Strong relationship building and alignment skills
- Resilience combined with emotional intelligence to build collaborative powerful relationships
- Comfortable with consumer research, interpreting results, and working with research agencies
- Deep front end innovation experience
- Food/snacking ideation experience
Our Purpose
Bring happiness with every bite
It’s a purpose that every one of our colleagues, all around the world believes in. And while we’re all unique, we also share the same values.
Each of our values is important on its own. In combination they’re incredibly powerful.
Our values have deep personal meaning to us. They’re part of who we are and what we stand for as an employer
Living our pladis values is a key part of success, look out for questions in your interview that link to these key pladis values.
Our Values
Purpose led – We’re energised and guided by our purpose to bring happiness with every bite
Agile – We’re ever evolving, we never stand still, always improving for our customers and our consumers
Positive – We’re highly motivated optimistic, courageous, and we inspire each other to be better
Resilient - We’re persistent in the face of setbacks, quick to adapt, learn and move forward
Collaborative – We gain strength from operating as one pladis, winning and succeeding together.
Best mix of ingredients
pladis is an equal opportunities employer, like every great recipe we’re a thoughtful mix. A happy and inclusive place to work that’s as diverse as our consumers and the communities we support, live and work in, all around the world. Where every voice is heard, and difference is celebrated. Where fresh perspectives and new ideas help us grow and thrive.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform key job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.
We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List. If you are a recruitment agency and wish to submit candidate to be considered for this vacancy, you must have agreed to, and signed, our terms of business.
We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.
We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.
