Director of Innovation & Commercialisation, UK&I

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.

As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact.

In 2021, pladis proudly opened the doors to our vibrant global hub, the MIU Campus. Located in the heart of Chiswick Park, West London. Just a short 5-minute walk from Gunnersbury Station, our campus is nestled within 33 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens, offering a welcoming and inspiring environment for all. Chiswick Park is home to both our UK and Global Corporate teams, bringing together diverse teams across the business.

Role and Responsibilities

What will this role achieve?

As Director of Innovation & Commercialisation, UK&I you will report to the Chief Marketing Officer and be responsible for driving the UK&I innovation strategy and execution. Your role will focus on delivering innovation financials (P&L) by managing the end-to-end innovation process of pladis UK&I, from leading the regional innovation strategy development and ideation process to ensure they are strategically aligned to business ambition to innovation execution to ensure projects are operationally ready, and successfully launched in the market.

• Strategic Leadership: Responsible for overall shape and strength of the long term (3 to 5-years) innovation pipeline and project readiness in short terms (1-3 years). Owns the strategic leadership of innovation ideation and project execution process by developing and implementing commercialization strategies aligned with business objectives and growth targets.
• Financial Ownership of Innovation P&L: Responsible for Innovation financials (NS growth, GP) and P&L for operating year and upcoming 3-5 years. Other KPIs the role is accountable for include: Innovation pipeline shape, sufficiency, readiness, health.
• Innovation Strategy and Ideation: Own and develop innovation strategy & own and deliver the annual Compass innovation ideation process, collaborating across the business to generate new white spaces and asset-out innovation ideas aligned with strategy, and moving through to execution across all demand space areas with speed & competitive advantage.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Owns cross-functional coordination for innovation. Act as the operational leader bringing together marketing, R&D, supply chain, commercial functions, finance and regulatory teams to deliver launches on time and within budget.
• Process Ownership: Oversee stage & gate (planview) process, ensuring discipline and visibility across all gates. Aid projects in moving faster & with agility through the funnel, aligning to brand and channel strategies. Foster strong relationships with internal functional business partners in local and global business; harness efficiencies through a strong understanding of our asset base, sharing knowledge & making connections to fuel winning white space opportunities and aid the brand teams in delivering projects with agility and speed. Track and report project status, risks, and compliance to plan, ensuring timely escalation to MLT and UKLT.
• Market Readiness: Assess risks and ensure compliance with quality and regulatory standards.
• Performance Monitoring: Track KPIs such as readiness, on time delivery, financial performance (shared with commercial finance) and post-launch reviews to drive continuous improvement. Responsible for innovation financials and P&L in short term and long term (3-5 years).
• Guide and support the CMO and senior stakeholders in innovation decision making: Advising on conflicts of interest across categories and bringing resolutions to the table to help achieve realistic, achievable and time-deliverable innovations across brands.
• Centre of Excellence in Innovation: Making strong connections with other pladis regions, external partners & internal leads for areas such as packaging, co-man, ingredients, technologies, flavour houses etc. You will leverage your expertise to unlock project barriers, define new growth opportunities for pladis UK&I region & gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

You will build a sense of one business, one organisation and one winning team across functions and departments, ensuring all are laser focused on the innovation pipeline, the strategic plan and aligned across internal and external initiatives.

Key Deliverables

What will be your key deliverables?

• Team Leadership & Resource Planning: Lead and manage a team of 16, ensuring effective resource allocation across projects. Anticipate and resolve resource challenges, aligning stakeholders as needed.
• Governance & Reporting: Lead all innovation meeting platforms including UKLT meetings, global meetings, owning all financial and project level reporting. Track and report innovation financials, project status, risks, and compliance to plan, ensuring timely escalation to UKLT. Reporting responsibility expands to 5-year time-span.
• Strategic Influence & Leadership: Serve as an active member of the MLT and participant in the ELT, influencing decisions and guiding discussions to deliver the innovation strategy and delivery. Inform and be informed of cross-business strategies across marketing, brand, channel, customer, supply chain, and R&D, fostering agility and alignment. Key partners to commercial stakeholders all related to innovation and commercial innovation.
• Capability Building & Regional Leverage: Understand asset and NPD capabilities across all pladis regions and leverage them to drive growth in UK&I. Manage and improve performance and ways of working with key stakeholders to ensure timely, high-quality delivery.
• Senior Stakeholder Engagement: Lead Quarterly Innovation Reviews (QIR), Innovation Day, Monthly UKLT meetings, Global Innovation platforms with senior stakeholders, including the CEO and Chairman, owning the narrative and delivering with impact.

Bring your experience.

Qualifications & Experience

Essential:

• Experience as a Senior Leader in either Commercialisation or Innovation, with strong project management depth.
• Excellent leadership capability - can collaborate well to get the best from people and lead with conviction and with the respect of the team and stakeholders.
• Strong change management capability, with the ability to reset processes, modernize and influence large stakeholder groups to drive new ways of working.
• Strategic thinker – to take our brands beyond products to engaging consumer experiences and growth platforms.
• Financial understanding – to own pillars of growth from innovation.
• Excellence in Project Management.
• Strong understanding of commercial process and what makes an innovation successful.
• Strong FMCG ideation and innovation development experience. A background of having worked in innovation/project management role(s), with a proven track record of creating and delivering ideas grounded in brand equity and consumer insight.
• Winning mindset fuelled by curiosity, pace, agility and desire for growth.
• Strong relationship building and alignment skills.
• Strong track record of creating winning concepts that have delivered in market.

What will the interview process be?

Initial Telephone call with Talent Acquisition. 1st stage interview – 45 minutes competency-based interview based on our company values and your experiences. 2nd stage interview – 90 minutes – a technical interview to understand your skill set/case study or presentation interview. 3rd Interview with 2 x Key Members of Leadership team. pladis does also use both Psychometric and Aptitude tests to support our processes so you may be asked to complete these as part of your process. Some processes may differ, but we will keep you updated!

What does pladis offer you?

• Annual Incentive Plan (AIP)– this is the business’s annual bonus scheme.
• Car Allowance.
• Private Medical.
• Leadership Incentive Plan.
• Opportunity to self-enrol into Health Cash Plan.
• Enhanced parental leave and a supportive phased return-to-work program to help colleagues balance family and career.
• Stakeholder Pension Scheme.
• Life Assurance Cover ~ upon enrolment to Stakeholder Pension Scheme.
• 25 days + bank holidays.
• Holiday Enhancement Scheme.
• 1 Volunteering Day per year.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Discount and Cashback Scheme – make your everyday spending work hard for you on major high street brands, supermarkets and services.
• Access to Employee Assistance Programme.
• Financial Wellbeing Support.
• Access to great training and development opportunities.

Best mix of ingredients

pladis is an equal opportunities employer, like every great recipe we’re a thoughtful mix. A happy and inclusive place to work that’s as diverse as our consumers and the communities we support, live and work in, all around the world. Where every voice is heard, and difference is celebrated. Where fresh perspectives and new ideas help us grow and thrive.

Accessibility at Chiswick: Our Chiswick site has step-free access, accessible entrances and lifts between floors to support individuals with mobility needs. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, and where possible to perform key job functions.

pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.

We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List. If you are a recruitment agency and wish to submit candidate to be considered for this vacancy, you must have agreed to, and signed, our terms of business. We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.