Innovation Manager

A.G. Barr; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Uncapped bonus

Pension

34 days holiday

Flexible benefits

Healthcare

Life assurance

Staff discount

Learning & development

Job summary

AG Barr is seeking an Innovation Manager to lead end-to-end product and brand innovations across its portfolio, leveraging consumer insights and market trends. This hybrid role draws on both consumer marketing and commercial skills to drive value across launches.

You will guide cross-functional teams, collaborate with agencies, and translate blue-sky ideas into viable launches with clear business cases and 3-year P&L targets, while maintaining AG Barr’s culture and values.

Qualifications

• Ideally degree educated with significant experience in innovation or marketing.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams in fast-paced FMCG environments.

Responsibilities

• Build a healthy pipeline of ideas grounded in consumer insight and identify latest technologies and trends.
• Lead workshops with agencies to create concepts for validation and qualitative/quantitative testing.
• Translate blue-sky concepts into commercially viable pipelines.
• Manage innovation projects through AG Barr’s process with cross-functional collaboration.
• Develop propositions for launches and brief agencies to deliver brand/product identity.
• Create and execute marketing plans to support launches across the full marketing mix.
• Develop robust business cases for new launches and 3-year P&L targets.

Skills

Innovation strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Consumer insights

Brand management

FMCG experience

Education

Degree in Marketing/Business

Job description

Job Title: Innovation Manager

Location: Hybrid working from any of our HUBS (Cumbernauld, Middlebrook, Milton Keynes, Farringdon)

Contract and working pattern: 37.5 hours per week - Permanent

Are you ready to Be Your Best Barr None?

Lets Grow!!!

We are all about Being Your Best Barr None and having a career with real Moments that Matter!

Employing around 850 people across the UK, we are proud to be a responsible business that takes care of our people, values diversity, gives something back to our communities and works to minimise our environmental impact.

For 150 years AG Barr has been building great brands and is home to some of the nations favourite flavours.

At our core is IRN-BRU, launched in 1901 and still going strong today, the vibrant RUBICON fruit based brand, Boost making every moment better with a caffeine kick, hydration hit or tasty treat, and FUNKIN where real fruit means authentic taste.

We also have a number of exciting owned brands within our portfolio including MOMA, which crafts quality oats into great tasting oat drinks and porridges.

There's never been a better time to join us!

What we’re looking for…

Innovation is a key strategic pillar within our growing business. This role combines both consumer marketing & commercial skills, with success being measured on the business value delivered by the innovations developed.

At the heart of this role is the ability to create, manage and execute innovation from end to end. Starting with the generation of compelling insights from multiple data sources, developing and refining concepts and taking validated concepts from ideas into reality, including the development of launch plans.

This is a full end to end role from strategy to execution. In delivering successful innovation you will lead and inspire cross-functional teams, with strong levels of collaboration, strategic thinking and creativity. Once launched you will ensure that projects continue to be managed through the incubation period, creating long term support plans and influencing across the business to maintain focus and momentum.

As our Innovation Manager, you will be:

• Helping to build a healthy pipeline of ideas, grounded in consumer insight by proactively understanding and identifying latest technologies and consumer trends and their application to our portfolio.
• Leading workshops and engaging agency partners to create concepts for validation - undertaking qualitative and quantitative research in order to identify those concepts that provide consumer appeal at scale.

• Translating “blue-sky” and white space concepts into commercially viable pipelines.
• Managing innovation projects through AG Barr’s innovation process. This requires excellence in cross functional working and the ability to bring teams together to drive solutions towards a common goal.
• Development of the proposition for each new launch and excellence in briefing agencies to deliver brand/product identity and positioning that delivers against these propositions. Working closely with R&D, packaging and design agencies to create products that deliver against the proposition.
• Creation and execution of successful marketing plans to support the launch of new brands and products across the full marketing mix.
• In conjunction with the commercial team, develop robust business cases for new launches, based on clear and well-founded assumptions, to deliver a 3 year P&L that will provide the business with the targets for all innovation launches.

What you’ll bring…

• Ideally degree educated and significant experience in industry across innovation or marketing functions.
• Comfortable working in a fast paced and entrepreneurial environment.
• Strong brand management experience within FMCG.
• Experience within soft drink and or alcoholic beverage categories, welcomed.
• Ability to create compelling consumer insights from diverse sources.
• Creative thinker with experience in a branded goods marketing role – including branded New Product Development
• Strong FMCG innovation and ideation experience. Evidence of having worked at the front end of innovation, with a proven track record of creating winning ideas grounded in consumer insight
• Evidence of managing multiple and often complex projects / priorities in a fast-paced environment. Ability to multi-task and manage multiple projects at once and navigate ambiguity.
• Sufficient process & research knowledge to generate & validate new concepts & turn these into workable business solutions.
• Strong leadership, communication skills & influencing skills.

• Commercially astute and able to effectively analyse large volumes of data into insights and actionable recommendations
  Previous experience managing internal and external partners.

You will also demonstrate our AG Barr behaviours of Being Honest, Accountable, Connected and Brave.

What we offer…

We believe in creating a diverse and inclusive culture where your voice can be heard. Our skilled, loyal and committed people are critical to the future success of AG Barr which is why we are continually investing in our employees to develop their talent.

We look after our employees by offering a competitive salary and benefits package which includes;

• Uncapped bonus linked to business performance
• Defined contribution Pension
• Up to 34 days holiday (depending on shift pattern)
• Flexible holiday trading
• Flexible cash pot to spend on benefits
• Healthcare Cash Plan
• Flexible benefits e.g. discounts & cashbacks, gym memberships, technology purchases etc
• Life assurance
• Save as you earn scheme
• Staff sales discount
• Free AG Barr products throughout your working day and staff sales
• Annual salary review
• Ongoing professional development and access to Learning and Development programmes and content

And much more!

To find out more about what it is like to work for AG Barr, please visit our careers platform here.

We are an equal opportunities employer and happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments that may be needed for successful candidates with a disability, health or mental health condition.

While we have highlighted our ideal requirements for this role, we are realistic that the successful candidate probably won't meet every single requirement in this advert, but we are big advocates of people growing in role. So even if you don’t meet every single requirement, we encourage you to submit an application - you may be just what we are looking for!

Speculative CVs from agencies will not be accepted.

Latest closing date for applications is 15th November

Please note, we may close vacancies early where we receive significant numbers of applications, so