Director Innovation Consulting - FMCG

Nicholson Glover; Greater London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Nicholson Glover is seeking a Director to join their multi-award-winning innovation consultancy. This remote-first role demands a strategist and skilled qualitative researcher, capable of leading innovation projects for top FMCG brands. With the flexibility of a boutique team environment, you will own client relationships and leverage AI tools for enhanced project delivery. Candidates should have a strong FMCG background and be ready to operate at the Director level from day one.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to lead end-to-end innovation projects.
• Experience in moderating qualitative research.
• Strong background in FMCG and consumer goods.

Responsibilities

• Lead innovation projects for major FMCG and consumer brands.
• Moderate focus groups and qualitative research.
• Facilitate workshops and client collaboration.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Qualitative research

Client relationship management

AI tools usage

Job description

Location: Remote-first | UK-based Level: Associate Director stepping up to Director

You're ready for more. You just need the right place to do it.

You've spent the last few years doing great work...leading projects, shaping strategy, getting in the room with consumers and drawing out what really matters. You're good at it. Your clients trust you. Your team leans on you.

But somewhere along the way, you've started to feel like you're operating above your title. The work you're doing is Director-level. The recognition hasn't quite caught up yet.

Sound familiar? Read on.

The Opportunity

We're working with a multi-award-winning innovation consultancy — a boutique, Director-only team of around 12 specialists working remote-first across the UK and New York. They're looking for someone to join at Director level, and they're specifically open to a strong Associate Director who's genuinely ready to make that step up.

This isn't a "we'll consider ADs" footnote. It's a deliberate choice. They know that the best person for this role might not have the title yet — and they're hiring on capability, not seniority.

Why This Role Is Different

No layers. No account managers. No juniors to delegate to. Everyone owns their projects, their clients and their outcomes. It's the kind of environment where your work is visible, your impact is real and your growth is entirely in your hands.

Remote-first and UK-based, with a transatlantic team that spans London and New York.

The Day-to-Day

• Leading end-to-end innovation projects for major FMCG and consumer brands — from brief through to delivery
• Moderating qualitative research yourself — focus groups, in-home interviews, ethnography, jobs-to-be-done, concept and product clinics
• Designing and facilitating workshops and co-creation sprints with clients and consumers
• Writing concepts and product briefs; collaborating with R&D and technical teams
• Using AI tools day-to-day to sharpen analysis, accelerate synthesis and elevate the quality of your work
• Building client relationships and growing accounts — with an eye on winning new ones

Who You Are

You're a strategist first — someone who leads with thinking, shapes commercial direction and knows how to translate consumer insight into something a client will act on.

But you're also a skilled qualitative researcher. You've been doing this since early in your career — not as a bolt-on, but as a core part of how you work. You moderate. You write discussion guides. You know what a good focus group looks and feels like from the inside.

You've been trained in FMCG. Consumer goods is your grounding — the sector where you learned how insight drives innovation, how products get built and how brands grow. You may have worked across other sectors since, but FMCG is where your instincts were formed.

You use AI practically and confidently — not as a talking point, but as a genuine part of how you work.

You're independently minded. You do your best work when you own something end-to-end.

Remote-first isn't a compromise for you — it's how you prefer to operate.

And you're ready. Not nearly ready. Not "give it six more months." Ready now — to own clients, win work and deliver at Director level from day one.

Apply below. I'd love to have a conversation.

Remote-first | UK-based | FMCG & Consumer Goods