Director of Innovation & Commercialisation, UK&I

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive because we expect pace and agility, 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.

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 KPI’s 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; harnessing 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 KPI’s 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.
• 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-years 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.

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.

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!

Benefits:

• Annual Incentive Plan (AIP) – this is the business’s annual bonus scheme.
• Car Allowance.
• Private Medical.
• Leadership Incentive Plan.