Foundry Innovation Lead

This job is with Unilever, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.

Please Note: The deadline for applying is 23.59 the day before the job posting end date.

Location: Port Sunlight Research Lab

The Foundry was set up in 2014 to support Open Innovation activities focused in Marketing (MarTech/AdTech) and to help connect Unilever with the external ecosystem (start-ups and partners) to create collaborations with like-minded organisations and to accelerate roadmaps and areas of focus within Unilever. To date the Foundry has been a successful and integral part of Unilever while also operating as a small, close-knit and nimble team which brings an outside-in perspective to Unilever teams. The Foundry connects the internal businesses with an external ecosystem of start-ups resulting in some 400 commercial relationships, supporting the exploration of new solutions and providing much needed partnership relationships to deliver on category and divisional roadmaps.

More recently, we have stretched our capabilities beyond establishing collaborations with start-ups to now also being able to help the organisation define innovation strategies, define potential concepts, and test and validate solutions and start-up partnerships. We also have established direct investment capability which allows us to support and co-fund scaling of solutions through equity.

Over the years, the topics we have supported have varied but as of today, we are single-mindedly focused on the biggest science & technology challenges for Unilever, meaning we must look toward biotechnology, new material chemistry, digitizing fragrance design & creation and more to address these challenges.

The Foundry is a global team, however in the UK we are looking to build capability that can directly interface with the UK based R&D teams, as well as take advantage of the strong ecosystem that exists in the UK and Europe. The opportunity now exists to have a seasoned Innovation Lead located in either our London or Port Sunlight office, cultivating and developing out relevant opportunities from the central teams sitting in this location, serving as a strategic and thought leader back into the organisation and managing the formation of collaboration deal constructs globally especially across biotechnology, new material chemistry, and sustainable packaging. This role will also require being a representative of Unilever Foundry across all our topic areas within the UK and European ecosystems when required.

Main purpose

The Foundry Innovation Lead is a critical role and will interface with all the relevant category leaders as well as geographical leads to ensure that we are generating an appropriate level of deal flow based on the R&D needs of the organisation. This Innovation Lead will ensure that we have the right frameworks and processes to engage and develop collaborative partnerships, whilst also developing, sourcing and maintaining an appropriate funnel and portfolio for the group globally.

Areas of specific focus include:

• Innovation - experience across biotechnology, new material chemistry, and ideally some knowledge around sustainable packaging. Able to stay constantly up to date on latest technologies and bring these to the business.
• Strategy - ensuring that engaging with external ecosystem and leveraging start-up capability is part of the strategies of the BG/BU in the region and importantly that we are linked to critical value projects.
• Ecosystem Development - be the primary face into the start-up ecosystem globally across relevant topics, cultivating appropriate relationships; providing Unilever with strength of voice. Manage the bi-directional relationship with the ecosystem to support sourcing, solution validation and scaling.
• Validate and collaborate - develop and implement methodologies for concept creation, validation at speed, and importantly integration pathways for collaborating with start-ups.
• Unlocking Scale - Thinking outside the box and dot connecting for how we can get the best solutions past pilots - designing creative deal architecture with public and private funders & support entities. Also facilitating 2-3 equity investments annually for most relevant opportunities - requiring strong storytelling, business case building, and stakeholder management skills.
• Portfolio & Project Management - manage a portfolio of opportunity, particularly through the various phases of sourcing, engagement, validation, deal creation and milestones.
• Collaboration and Investment archetypes - have strong knowledge of startup engagement archetypes and be able to structure relevant business cases to support these engagements and represent these across the business to various stakeholders to gain acceptance and endorsement.

Additionally, in cooperation with the Head of Strategy and Operations, the Port Sunlight Innovation Lead will assist in:

• Help position the Foundry as an internal vehicle for identifying and validating collaboration opportunities with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• Continue to help develop the Foundry brand and demonstrate it is a partner of choice for start-ups and enabling partners such as accelerators and investors.
• Put in place best in class operational elements for the team, to help manage our sourcing, validation and portfolio management activities.
• Build enabling partnerships with accelerators, investors, tech transfer offices and more - which help the team to build a sourcing & scaling machine.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the start-up collaboration process across focus areas - biotechnology, new material chemistry, sustainable packaging.
• External partner liaison (start-up community) to ensure the Foundry has a voice with key partners.
• Management of sourcing and portfolio management in your relevant focus areas.
• Work with the Innovation Leads across the globe and in other parts of Unilever and external experts to construct content and structure for the various activities of the Foundry - tools, capabilities, processes, case studies.
• Structure the relevant collaboration and investment recommendations and business cases and obtain buy in across the business.
• Evangelise the Foundry model both internally and externally.

ALL ABOUT YOU

Skills

• Strong innovation, and business acumen.
• Externally focused, always looking for opportunities to create value leveraging the ecosystem.
• Good understanding and experience with the principles of innovation, business models, start-up collaboration, concept development and prototyping (operating within corporate setting).
• Able to work in fast-moving, iterative environments.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and build strong & trustworthy relationships with people from across different functions.
• Creativity in designing collaboration and funding models between early stage innovators and large scale corporates.
• Understanding of cultural differences driven by a global role and able to implement across multiple geographies.
• Experienced in Lean and Agile methodologies and environments; Evidence of strong project management skills.

Experience

• A Bachelor's degree (Business related preferred), and MBA is desirable.
• Minimum of 8 years' experience in an innovation-based environment, working with or within corporate environments, ideally an accelerator or incubator business, could also be innovation consulting background.
• Experienced in innovation cycles (ideation through to MVP) and can build appropriate frameworks and processes.
• Has worked with portfolio management tools (ie. TRXCN, Affinity) has ability to customise and implement.
• Experienced ecosystem developer and engagement - innovation and start-up ecosystem.
• Demonstrated thought leader in the delivery of best of class innovation activity.
• Global team experience - working across multiple geographies and cultures.
• Operational excellence - ideally experienced in creating and implementing external and internal facing innovation.
• Some history of working with equity investments - dealflow, setup, portfolio management.

Please apply via this portal as e-mail applications may not be processed and include your Future Fit Plan if possible.

By applying for this vacancy, you are confirming that you have made your Line Manager aware of your application and that you are at a point in your career with Unilever where it is appropriate for you to be applying for other positions.

Should you require additional information or reasonable adjustments to allow you to present your best self during this process, please contact your Talent Partner.

What we offer: Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to present your best self.

Please be aware if you are applying for this role from outside the UK, if successful, your application will be treated as a self-initiated Change Location Outside of Country (CLOC) transfer. This means any relocation costs must be self-funded with the potential to reclaim some specific pre-approved expenses up to £5,000.