Head of Food Marketing

Overview

At Nando's, we operate our business through the lens of Shared Value, making a difference to the lives of our people (Nandocas), our customers, our suppliers and the communities we serve.

We strive to balance commercial excellence with a much-loved brand and a market-leading culture.

The Customer team plays a pivotal role in creating meaningful experiences, products and communications that drive customer growth and brand love.

The Head of Food Marketing is a critical role that leads and manages the cross-functional creation of our EPD and NPD plans and sees them through to delivery.

It marshals the business from insight & diagnosis, through strategy & plan, to launch, review and beyond, ensuring that we have a menu packed with food we feel proud to serve, which delights customers, creates brand love and drives commercial results.

This senior role has a wide-reaching area of influence across many teams: Customer, Food, Commercial, Operations and the UK&I Leadership Team, and works closely with senior stakeholders, including our owner.

Key Responsibilities

• Food Marketing Strategy & Vision
• Define the role of food in support of the wider 5 year business strategy.
• Create and manage a rolling 2-year menu pipeline that meets our business objectives, combining brand buzz, customer love, profitability, sales volume, operational ease, sustainability and Nandoca excitement.
• Translate brand positioning into compelling food concepts and strategy.
• Monitor food trends (health, sustainability, flavour innovation, convenience, premiumisation).
• Validate concepts through consumer testing and feedback loops.
• Product Development Leadership
• Work with Insight managers to commission research and use insight to inform our food strategy and pipeline.
• Build short, mid, and long-term roadmaps.
• Orchestrate the programme of work, and lead the team to manage various projects.
• Initiate product development briefs that represent the voice of the customer and are in line with our menu strategy and business goals.
• Ensure feasibility, scalability and market differentiation throughout the development process from concept to customer.
• Deploy trials intelligently and ensure that all NPD/EPD and category plans deliver brilliant product launches.
• Champion food collab opportunities in key category areas that help us drive volume growth, brand buzz and relevance.
• Represent Brand and Customer throughout the stage gate process, ensuring all innovations strengthen brand equity and positioning.
• Support go‑to‑market strategy and drive launch readiness across stakeholders and internal teams.
• Menu, Communications & Activation
• Deliver our most important marketing asset: the menu.
• Build, own and govern in‑restaurant customer communication, ensuring the right messages in the right place and the right time to deliver our food proposition effectively.
• Use behavioural economics insight to delight customers and maximise sales opportunities across the menus by actively managing menu architecture and product rotation.
• Work cross‑functionally with e‑commerce team to define the merchandising product plan across the year.
• Develop robust product naming strategy and practices, ensuring a customer‑led approach in line with brand and product tone of voice.
• Ensure IP protection and legal safeguarding for food propositions and assets.
• Food Policy
• Subject matter expert within the Customer Team on all food policies and legal requirements both current and emerging.
• Partner with Head of Technical Sourcing to ensure we are compliant on all customer‑facing communication and advertising channels, including how we represent our products to customers across all touchpoints.
• Ensure the Food Brand Team builds and uses expertise taking a leading role and supporting the rest of the team, specifically Campaigns & Content and PR in Food Policy (e. g.

HFSS).

• Team
• Heartfelt people‑first leadership who creates the conditions for every member of the Food Marketing team to fulfil their full potential.
• Actively role‑model leadership behaviours and the Nando's values.
• Drive our foodie culture through passion, connectedness and curiosity.
• Spread an innovative attitude and stretch thought processes across the team.
• Strengthen our innovation processes, making us more efficient and effective (explore the potential to automate) creating more time for the work that will make us distinctive (insight, research, ideation, creativity).

Qualifications

• 10+ years in Brand/Food/Product Strategy.
• Immersed in food culture and inspired by emerging customer trends.
• Passion for leadership and people development, helping the team deliver on their objectives and driving integration across the business.
• Proven project management skills, able to distinguish the critical from the chaos and lead a team of internal peers and external partners with sleeves rolled up.

What We Offer

• An opportunity to help grow a high‑profile, meaningful brand in an ambitious fast‑paced, growing business.
• A culture with strong purpose & values, intent on driving positive cultural and societal change.
• An environment which is supportive, relaxed, informal and highly collaborative – with a hefty dollop of ambiguity, plate‑spinning and challenge.
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