Commercialization Manager (Maternity cover) in Reading

At PepsiCo UK, we’re proud to make some of the nation’s favourite snacks and drinks—like Walkers, Quaker, Doritos, Pipers, and Monster Munch. With sites across the UK, including our Quaker mill in Cupar and Doritos factory in Coventry, we’re also home to one of the world’s largest crisp factories in Leicester.

Commercialisation is at the heart of PepsiCo's growth and innovation agenda, helping bring new products, capabilities and strategic initiatives to market across Europe. Partnering with cross-functional teams, you will manage a diverse innovation pipeline, ensuring the business makes the right investment decisions while balancing value, risk, resources and commercial priorities. You will lead the delivery of innovation and commercialisation projects from concept through to launch, enabling speed to market and driving flawless execution across business unit commercial calendars.

Working closely with Sector and Global teams, you will help scale successful ideas, unlock synergies across markets and identify opportunities to simplify processes and eliminate duplication. You will play a key role in strengthening innovation governance, leading Stage Gate reviews and supporting critical business decisions that shape the future pipeline. The role also offers the opportunity to drive continuous improvement, enhance commercialisation processes, and build best-in-class capabilities, tools and ways of working that support sustainable business growth and transformation.

Responsibilities

• This Commercialization Manager role has responsibility for the management, readiness and flawless execution of innovation and change projects across brands in UK Foods.
• Projects will cover innovation as well as packaging optimisation and channel-specific packaging developments to maintain our best-in-class customer collaborations and support our PEP+ packaging transformation journey.
• The role will work closely with the UK Foods Marketing teams, Insights, Perfect Store, Supply Chain, Engineering, R&D, Finance & Sustainability to develop and execute the new product launches and commercial change projects.
• The focus will predominantly be responsibility for project managing Horizon 1 calendar projects, to deliver on time and on budget, supporting our PEP+ agenda, speed to Market and Fewer, Bigger, Better priorities and with ownership of timeline and delivery milestones.
• Responsible for communicating risks/issues and required trade-offs across senior stakeholders.
• Management of the myInnovation system to ensure data accuracy, governance and compliance to the Stage Gate process.
• Working alongside project prime movers to present and update at Activation Board and other key forums.
• Ensuring execution readiness, reviewing early performance vs plan, driving awareness & intervention alongside Prime Movers and project teams.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated performance managing successful projects.
• Strong communication & presentation skills with the ability to collaborate & influence peer groups & senior stakeholders across all functions.
• Broad, generalist knowledge of the UK&I Business and the ability to build & deliver business recommendations.
• Ability to quickly bring context and perspective to a given situation to aid sound decision making and prioritization.
• Strong Commercial awareness and an understanding of UK retail is desirable.
• Strong technical understanding of operations, supply chain and planning processes is desirable.
• Technical knowledge of PEP packaging and the relationship to PEP+ agenda desirable.
• Ability to manage a complex, fast moving agenda, managing significant amounts of change and time critical situations.

Why Join Us?

We offer a competitive salary, bonus, car allowance, flexible working, and a wide range of benefits—from critical illness cover and discounted gym memberships to enhanced parental leave and electric car schemes. Our commitment to wellbeing and career growth makes us a Top Employer for 14 years.