Food and Beverage Strategy Manager

MCS Group; Belfast; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading FMCG organization based in Belfast is seeking an experienced Food and Beverage Strategy Manager to lead the design and delivery of strategy initiatives. You will coordinate activities across teams, support Trading in category strategies, and ensure effective stakeholder communication. The ideal candidate will possess significant experience in managing complex programs and have strong interpersonal skills. This hybrid role poses an opportunity to contribute to major strategic projects and sustainability initiatives.

Qualifications

• Experience in leading and delivering large complex programmes.
• Ability to manage multiple stakeholders and projects simultaneously.
• Strong structured working method with issue identification skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of Food & Beverage Strategy.
• Coordinate program activities and ensure stakeholder communication.
• Support Trading Team in implementing category strategies.

Skills

Leadership of complex programmes

Stakeholder management

Interpersonal skills

Technical IT skills

Education

Bachelor's degree or 5 years relevant experience

Tools

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio)

Job description

Food and Beverage Strategy Manager

Location: Northern Ireland / Hybrid

MCS Group is delighted to be working with an award-winning FMCG organisation based in Belfast to recruit an experienced and driven Food and Beverage Strategy Manager to join the growing team.

The successful candidate will lead the design, development, and delivery of the Food & Beverage Strategy, aligning key initiatives with the Commercial and Brand Strategies. They will coordinate programme activities, ensuring effective communication across all stakeholders. Supporting the Trading Team, they will drive category strategies and monitor progress against key objectives. Working with Sales and Marketing, they will ensure efficient implementation of initiatives and data-driven offer development. They will also represent Trading in key forums and contribute to major strategic brand projects and sustainability initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the overall design & development, planning, and scheduling of the Food & Beverage Strategy, ensuring all key initiatives best represent the Commercial Plan and Brand Strategies.
• Facilitate coordination across all programme's initiatives and functions and be the key point of contact for Food & Beverage Strategy.
• Support the Trading Team to deliver long and shorter-term category strategies that enable the delivery of Food & Beverage Strategy, ensuring all stakeholders have clear direction and are clear on their role in delivery of this strategy.
• Track and report on progress/activities across the program & initiatives to ensure all stakeholders (Retail Management Team, Executive Team and key stakeholders) are regularly updated.
• Working with Sales & Marketing colleagues ensure the planned & efficient implementation of all initiatives.
• Support new ways of working in relation to mission based & segmentation data approaches that drive more consumer and commercially led offer development across the business.
• Represent Trading on key Forums and at retailer engagement sessions - Steering, Retailer Councils.
• Contribute to Strategic Brand Projects and Sustainability, coordinating Trading input and strategy development.

• Support in developing, managing, and coordinating the commercial and profitability aspect of relevant workstream to ensure that the strategy delivers profitable sales growth.
• Support the development of data and analytic models that allows for easy decision making and monitoring of progress.

Essential Criteria

• Experienced in leading and delivery large complex programmes.
• Strong interpersonal & stakeholder management skills.
• Experienced in connecting to and working with mid and senior management positions.
• 3rd level Bachelor's degree or minimum of 5 years relevant experience.
• Ability to engage multiple stakeholders and manage multiple commercial projects simultaneously.
• Previous people and programme/project management experience.
• Technically advanced IT skills- Word, Excel, PowerPoint, MS Project, Visio and other MS Office tools.

• Structured and independent way of working, including strong issue identification and hypotheses generation skills to mitigate implementation risks.

To speak in absolute confidence about this position please send an up to date CV via the link provided or contact Molly Rea, Specialist Consultant at MCS Group on 028 969 355 22