Innovation Manager

Maplewood Karate; St Albans; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading food company seeks an Innovation Manager to drive growth through strategic innovation. You will identify new opportunities, lead projects from concept to launch, and work autonomously to deliver impactful results. This role offers high autonomy and the chance to shape the innovation strategy in a collaborative environment.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Bonus

Up to 7.5% pension

Life assurance

Wide range of online and in-house training

Employee discount scheme

Qualifications

• 3+ years of successful experience in FMCG or brand-led organization.
• Experience in innovation development and project ownership.

Responsibilities

• Identify scalable innovation opportunities in partnership with the Innovation Controller.
• Own NPD projects from concept to launch.
• Lead project meetings with a focus on innovation and branding.

Skills

Results-driven

Action-oriented

Comfortable with ambiguity

Job description

Innovation Manager - Central

12 month FTC

Based in St Albans/Hybrid WFH

Premier Foods is on an exciting journey, transitioning from turning the business around to becoming an 'outperformance business' by accelerating growth ahead of UK market norms. Innovation is at the heart of our strategic building blocks and is the number one driver for long-term sustainable growth. We have multiple strategic innovation elements, including:

• Continued healthy growth of our core UK business through fewer, bigger, better innovation and increased brand marketing investment
• Expansion into new whitespace categories within the UK, e.g., ice-creams and breakfast
• Exploration of new markets, e.g., complete nutrition DTC
• Acceleration of international growth by driving existing markets and expanding into new ones
• Selective M&A to complement our growth

Central Innovation is a high-profile team focusing on whitespace expansion to deliver continued outperformance. The mission is to discover and deliver game-changing ideas to enhance the quality and value of our innovation pipeline at an accelerated pace. The role offers high autonomy and an opportunity to shape the innovation strategy.

What we need from you...

• Bring positive disruption by challenging the status quo and being comfortable breaking free from established norms
• Results-driven with a tenacious attitude, leveraging big data to identify opportunities, understand performance, and influence senior stakeholders
• High accountability and comfortable working autonomously to deliver credible results quickly
• Action-oriented with the ability to cut through obstacles to enable delivery
• Responsibly daring, unafraid to take calculated risks and onboard key stakeholders
• 3+ years of successful experience within a leading FMCG or other brand-led organization
• Experience in innovation development and project ownership

What you'll be doing...

Impact & Influence the Innovation Pipeline - turbocharge whitespace ideas by:

• Expanding heritage brands into new categories
• Identifying opportunities in incremental categories, subsectors, channels, and markets, including creation of new brands and leveraging existing ones
• Identifying future pipeline opportunities that complement the core portfolio, e.g., Ambrosia Ready to Eat Porridge
• Targeting big categories for disruption, high-growth areas, and new technologies

Lead and Land Your Whitespace Ideas

• End-to-end accountability from concept to market launch
• Full ownership of launch outcomes, understanding key performance drivers and barriers
• Ability to work independently when necessary
• Seeking RTM solutions, leveraging contacts and relationships
• Applying a test & learn approach, being inquisitive and resilient to ambiguity

Deliver With Agility and Pace

• Landing ideas in market within 3-12 months using rapid innovation models
• Proposing and leading effective WOWs to cut through at pace
• Adopting a 'fail fast and pivot quickly' mentality

Responsibilities

• Identify scalable innovation opportunities in partnership with the Innovation Controller
• Own NPD projects from concept to launch, including business case development and influence on timelines
• Lead project meetings with a focus on innovation and branding
• Support recipe briefings, validation, and insights with R&D
• Manage design briefs, repro sign-off, and budgets
• Create sell stories and organize samples for external sell-ins
• Apply rapid innovation techniques to deliver 'test & learn' ideas and launch with agility
• Ensure successful pipeline delivery aligned with governance and commercial targets

What we offer you in return...

• Competitive salary
• Bonus
• Up to 7.5% pension
• Life assurance
• Wide range of online and in-house training
• Employee discount scheme at nationwide retailers

Ready to apply...?

Click apply and submit an up-to-date CV tailored to this opportunity. We look forward to hearing from you.

A Great British Food Company

Premier Foods is one of Britain's biggest listed food companies, employing over 4,000 colleagues across 13 manufacturing sites and offices nationwide. Many of our brands have been part of UK life for over a century and are present in 90% of British households.

We believe in inclusion, authenticity, and individuality. Our culture welcomes everyone, encouraging colleagues to bring their true selves to work, regardless of who they are or what they believe in.