Senior Innovation Manager

Kerry Dairy Ireland is a vertically integrated Dairy Business that encompasses a number of divisions spanning from its Agribusiness through to Dairy & Nutritional Ingredients & its Dairy Consumer Foods Business. With its strong Dairy heritage, world class sustainability credentials, a deep-rooted connection to its 3000 Farmers & milk suppliers, right through to its portfolio of household favourite Brands, Kerry Dairy are one of the World’s Leading Dairy Businesses, with a Revenue in excess of €1.3bn annually.

The Dairy Consumer Foods division is home to a number of the UK & Ireland's favourite Dairy & Plant Based Brands (Strings & Things; PURE Dairy-Free; Dairygold, Charleville, Golden Cow, Coleraine, Low Low & Attack a Snak). On top of this, we are the largest supplier of Private Label Dairy spreads in the UK & supply all major Retailers in the UK, Ireland as well as parts of mainland Europe.

As the Senior Innovation Manager, you will spearhead the end-to-end innovation process—identifying consumer trends, developing new product ideas, and delivering winning innovations to market. You’ll work cross-functionally with insight, marketing, R&D and category teams to build a robust innovation pipeline that drives growth and strengthens our brand position in the competitive dairy landscape. This role will be responsible for leading innovation across our drive brands, including the iconic kids’ brand Strings & Things, and our market-leading Irish brands Dairygold and Charleville, both of which are #1 in their categories in the Republic of Ireland. You will play a pivotal role in ensuring these brands remain innovative, relevant, and future-ready.

Key responsibilities

• Opportunity Identification: Proactively identify and evaluate emerging consumer needs, market gaps, technological advancements, and competitive activities within the UK dairy market to uncover unmet needs and whitespace opportunities.
• Idea Generation & Concept Development: Lead and facilitate ideation sessions, leveraging insights and resources to generate a robust pipeline of innovative product and process concepts.
• Concept Validation & Feasibility: Collaborate closely with insight to design and execute research to assess consumer appeal and market potential of new concepts.
• Project Leadership & Management: Lead cross-functional project teams through all stages of the innovation process, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards. Oversee gate process, timelines, and cross-functional alignment.
• Strategy Development & Execution: Develop and own the 3–5 year innovation pipeline aligned with brand strategy and business objectives.
• Continuous Improvement: Monitor performance of launched innovations and identify learnings for continuous improvement.
• Culture Building: Champion a culture of innovation within the organisation, encouraging creativity, experimentation, and continuous improvement.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Build and maintain strong relationships with internal stakeholders including R&D, Marketing, Insight, Category and Sales.

Qualifications and skills

• Degree qualified
• 5+ years’ experience in Innovation or NPD roles within FMCG
• Curiosity & interest in consumer behaviour, motivations & consumer trends that will shape the future of food.
• Enterprising spirit – experience of identifying new revenue streams, launching new business models, or brands.
• Commercial mindset - ability to translate insights into future / new business growth opportunities (experience of managing P&Ls and delivering brand-led business impact).
• Influence: Personal impact & ability to influence all levels of the organisation including Senior Stakeholders.
• Commitment to & demonstration of key behaviours: Think Bigger, Prioritize the Priorities & Make it Happen, underpinned by our Kerry values.