Global Head of Product Innovation in High Wycombe

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 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.

Context and role purpose: pladis operates in highly competitive, fast-moving markets where it is essential to maintain and extend market share through profitable branded growth. Successful innovation through product development, continuous value improvement and consumer perceived quality superiority vs. the competition are critical. This is a senior role responsible for leading the team to develop and deliver against an ambitious and transformational breakthrough product strategy that is aligned to the growth ambition and sustainability aspirations of the company.

The role requires an individual adept at multi-cultural cross-functional collaboration and who can work effectively with external partners to identify appropriate opportunities and drive development of innovative solutions, best practice approaches & systems and a high-performing matrix team. The ideal candidate will have excellent core technical skills and be able to understand the needs of the business, our consumers and customers to drive an exciting product agenda. You will be a self-starter, possess a drive for results with experience in a range of companies at various stages of growth. You will have a proven ability to upskill others, both technical and non-technical audiences.

This role operates in a highly complex, fast‑moving global environment, requiring close collaboration with multiple regions and functions. The incumbent must demonstrate resilience, persistence and learning agility to influence, co‑create and deliver breakthrough innovation amid ambiguity, challenge and evolving requirements.

pladis organization model is based on 8 regions with full accountability of their own P&L:

• Global
• UK & Ireland
• Europe & Developing Markets (EDM)
• Turkey, Central Asia (TURCA)
• Middle East, North Africa, India (MENAI)
• North America (NAM)
• Asia Pacific (APAC)
• Godiva (Global)

A few global functions support all regions, leveraging size, expertise and best practices. Among those functions stand Global R&D and Procurement. Global R&D works hand in hand on many initiatives with partners in the other functions (both globally and within regions) to create strong competitive advantages for pladis including:

• Product Innovation
• Portfolio transformation for Health and Happiness
• Sustainability (i.e. environment-friendly initiatives)
• Transformational Productivity, through product reformulation

Specifically on Breakthrough product, this role requires:

• Define and deliver a medium to long term roadmap for their category(s) – Indulgence and Next Generation Kids (tbc), and align an agenda to drive innovation sustainability and productivity.
• Build the internal cross-functional expertise and relationships to deliver that agenda.
• Support the Global Procurement team as we build strong and mid-term Sourcing Strategies.
• Build strong collaborative relationships with Suppliers to capture the best practices on the market and monitor project implementation.

The position will report directly within R&D to the position of Director – Breakthrough Product. It is expected that the incumbent will work very closely with their counterparts in Global Growth Commercial and Supply Chain to effectively deliver the joint growth and transformation agenda and ensure balanced focus on the productivity and sustainability deliverables.

pladis works in highly competitive, fast-moving markets where it is crucial to maintain and extend market share through profitable branded growth. It also has an exciting growth plan for emerging markets where offering the right value proposition is critical! Innovation through product development, continuous value improvement and consumer perceived Quality superiority versus competition are critical and key to delivering the business targets. This role will support in challenging and pushing the boundaries of conventional development to deliver differentiated product ideas.

The Head of Innovation will be responsible for developing and delivering growth for pladis. They will manage high value global innovation projects in their category, delivering projects and products in line with our growth strategy and critical consumer demand spaces. They will influence the global growth strategic plan, working as cross-functional and cross-regional partners to develop product development strategies.

Principle Accountabilities

The Global Head of Innovation’s key responsibilities include:

• Breakthrough Innovation
• Functional Excellence
• Utilise consumer, customer and competitor knowledge to develop a robust (sufficiency & readiness) innovation growth funnel for your portfolio, alongside marketing partners. Drive the successful delivery of global breakthrough projects in their category(s).
• Define and deliver the technology roadmap to ensure early identification of technology-based opportunities that align with longer term business and consumer needs in their category(s).
• Ensure delivery of at least 1 breakthrough project per year in their category(s) with a clear path to commercialization and market launch, not limited to proof‑of‑concept.
• Lead a team of scientists and engineers ensuring effective resource management and development in line with business needs.

Partnership excellence:

• Work with Growth and FEI (front-end-innovation) team to co-develop effective development briefs that clearly articulate the needs of both the business and the consumer and the development jobs to be done.
• Collaborate with Global Procurement to ensure effective supplier innovation management across all ingredients and process OEMs.
• Build strong partnerships with suppliers and constantly be assessing new ingredients and technology to deliver innovation to your category. Ensure strong collaborative partnerships with key suppliers to benefit pipeline creation and delivery for both growth and productivity.
• Build excellent cross-functional partnerships to ensure successful delivery of plans, appropriate and timely resource allocation, collaborative ways of working and seamless handovers.
• Actively assess and pilot external technologies, ingredients and formats (including start‑ups, scale‑ups and emerging technology providers) to strengthen the breakthrough innovation pipeline.
• Work closely with internal open innovation and external partnership programmes to translate novel solutions into scalable, pladis‑ready applications.

Execution excellence:

• Ensure technical rigour in project delivery consulting with appropriate SME’s in peer review processes.
• Ensure project portfolio is delivered with effective risk management and mitigation processes and follows the Global gating and New Technology Development processes.
• Manage the delivery of a portfolio of (highly) technically complex projects with new to pladis / breakthrough technologies.
• Monitor trends and developments in the external world.
• Sponsor projects and authorise key stages within the technical change process.
• Oversee the end-to-end NPD process and highlight potential for growth.
• Follow market and competitor moves whilst collaborating closely with marketing and consumer insight team to have robust understanding of consumers, consumption occasions and evolving consumer needs.
• Ensure robust understanding of key competitor portfolios and constantly be assessing opportunities for improvement to the core products in your portfolio.
• Ensure new products are launched with robust specifications and quality standards, which are aligned and reviewed post launch.
• Lead the team, by setting and exhibiting high work ethics, standards of delivery, and by role‑modelling resilience, curiosity and accountability in the face of challenge.
• Be a visible and living example of pladis’ values and culture.
• Be an ambassador for R&D in the business.
• Ensure a deep understanding of the team’s capabilities and ensure clear plans are in place to upskill against the areas of technical competency required to deliver your growth, productivity and improvement pipeline.
• Lead delivery of technically complex, high‑uncertainty projects, adapting plans rapidly in response to learning, setbacks and regional feedback.

Business Excellence:

• Understand the process and operational capability of relevant lines across the fleet appropriate for each active project and ensure development reflects the capabilities of existing or potential new lines.
• Build understanding of the global demand framework across the team and ensure product development is in line with the identified demand space requirements and ideal attribute matrix.
• Manage cost centres with appropriate reporting.
• Actively support the creation of a cost saving programme for your portfolio and be accountable for the delivery of the projects.
• Establish clear requirements for product characteristics distinguishing between those that are essential for consumer delight and those that are less defining.
• Review and agree project charters.
• Make recommendations for product changes that will yield improved profitability.
• In line with AOP processes, build a robust budget ensuring effective resourcing and OPEX requirements for their category(s).

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 candidates 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.