Head of Innovation, Europe

Join this dynamic team focused on delivering better nutrition for every step of life’s journey.

The Opportunity

At Glanbia Performance Nutrition (GPN), our mission is to inspire people everywhere to achieve their performance and healthy lifestyle goals! We are a global leader in the performance nutrition industry and have a portfolio of nine brands, including Optimum Nutrition (ON), BSN, Isopure, Nutramino, Think!, and Amazing Grass.

There is an ambitious brand building agenda for GPN with Innovation and consumer centricity at the heart of the plan, enabling strong and healthy brands that are “First to mind” and “First to find”. We are looking for a Head of Europe Innovation, who will report directly to the Senior Director – International Innovation. This role will lead Innovation for UK, Ireland and Continental Europe which is the biggest part of GPN’s International region. The International business is projected to grow to over $800m in 2026 with a clear growth ambition that will come from a mix of innovation, profitable organic sales growth and expansion of market presence within specific geographies, as well as potential acquisitions.

The focus will specifically include responsibility of the innovation pipeline and strategy for key brands like ON and Isopure. The role will need to take into consideration varied consumer preferences, channel shifts, category evolution and competitor movements across a wide portfolio of markets to drive innovation in Europe. Partnership with the local regional teams, R&D, global innovation and the Insight and analytics function will be crucial to using innovation to drive:

• Sustainable business growth
• Brand equity
• Category leadership

This is a unique opportunity in an exciting category with a multi-market context.

Primary responsibilities for this role will include:

• Developing consumer centric regional product pipeline through multimarket initiatives for key GPN Brands focus on ON and Isopure.
• Leverage the international innovation growth platforms to build the EU 3 year strategy and innovation pipeline.
• Fill the mid-lower innovation funnel with a concrete 24-month product innovation pipeline for Europe, partnering closely with R&D, I&A and local market teams.
• At the bottom of the funnel (6 months before launch), handoff of conceptualised idea, final product, USP’s to central Brand team/in market teams to drive marketing plan.
• Influence the EU X-functional innovation team to build a high performing team.
• Constantly learn and improve the innovation process to increase efficiency and output.
• Drive impact of the innovation function and create an innovation driven culture throughout the organisation particularly the in-market teams and the London office.
• Represent Europe innovation in appropriate marketing forums.
• Establishing pipeline sufficiency metric for Europe.
• Partnering with finance on Pipeline sufficiency, product design CM% and analytics to highlight and solve pipeline issues.
• Support post launch analytics with markets and reporting to ensure accountability of regions in execution.

The skills you will bring to the team:

• 10+ years’ experience in product/innovation leadership roles, preferably within FMCG/ consumer goods.
• Experience in key markets of UK, France, Germany + Nordics preferred.
• Expert-level experience in innovation strategy development, using insights and competitor analysis to anticipate future opportunities.
• Passion for the category and GPN brands, an understanding of sports and lifestyle nutrition and a strong passion for sport and healthy lifestyle.
• Highly articulate and able to build relationships influencing stakeholders across a variety of functions.
• An optimistic and resilient team player, confident to voice opinions & challenge mindsets, always leading with consumer insights and passionate to foster this culture across an organisation.

Where and how you will work:

The opportunity will be based in Vauxhall, London with hybrid working arrangements available through which allows you a greater choice in how you work and live, giving you a better work-life balance.

About Glanbia:

Glanbia is a better nutrition company with three divisions: Performance Nutrition, Health & Nutrition and Dairy Nutrition. Collectively and with our partners we offer an incredible breadth of expertise in nutrition. We employ a team of 5800 people, work with global food and beverage companies, and sell our award-winning and market-leading brands and ingredients in more than 100 countries worldwide.

At Glanbia, we celebrate diversity, because we know that our individual strengths make us stronger together. We welcome and encourage interest from a variety of candidates, we will give your application consideration, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status. At Glanbia, our culture celebrates individuality, knowing that together we are more.