Head of Product - Dairy in Blagdon

At Yeo Valley, we're about more than just making great food – we're here to Nurture & Nourish People & Planet by Making Great Food the Right Way. Forever. As a co-owned business, we invest in our people, encourage growth, and believe in doing things properly. We aim to be a successful, visionary and purposeful food and farming business powered by people who feel inspired by our purpose and valued as co-owners.

The Head of Product - Dairy is the accountable lead for all activities relating to Dairy Product Development within Yeo Valley Farms Production. The purpose of this role is to work with the Senior Head of Innovation to set out the insight led, Innovation plan which delivers on our Demand Strategy. This role is accountable to delivering on the needs of our YVO brand and our Own Label Dairy business and is accountable to driving engagement with senior customer stakeholders to ensure our plans are well understood and valued.

Responsibilities:

• Leadership of the Dairy innovation teams for YVO and Own Label products.
• Inspire the Dairy Innovations team through effective 121s and development plans with direct reports.
• Work very closely with the Senior Manager in charge of the Process team, to ensure priorities are aligned.
• Work with the Dairy Brand Management leads, ensuring robust clarity on priorities for the short, medium and long term.
• As part of the Product leadership team, ensure alignment of all of the Development teams on priorities.
• Play a key role in helping the Senior Head of Innovation define our Innovation strategy, including where we want to invest to grow capability.
• Engage with retailers at Senior Manager level on a quarterly basis, to ensure strategic alignment between our plans and our customers strategies.
• Ensure that the Innovation Managers are well organised to meet the critical paths required to deliver on our product ambitions.
• Be an advocate for our category vision, and ensure we are bringing this to life in our innovation approach.
• Regular meetings with Senior Development managers in our most strategic retail partners to ensure alignment through the teams on priorities for now and the future.

This role sits within the Central Development team and reports to the Senior Head of Product. The working hours are 40 hours per week Monday - Friday, and the role is based in our YVHQ offices in Blagdon, Somerset. Whilst we operate with flexible working principles, we expect our co-owners to be present in the office 2-3 days a week. This role comes with a company car allowance.

Essential qualifications:

• Broad based product development experience.
• Success in food/drink innovation in brands and OL.
• Excellent leadership credentials and ability to nurture talent.
• Able to work with multiple senior stakeholders.
• Success in overseeing multiple projects at the same time and ensure our resources are aligned to their success.
• Strong track record in effective budget management.

Why join the family?

We’re independent, British and proud to be making the highest quality yogurts, desserts and ice cream under the Yeo Valley brand and for many of the UK’s major retailers. Operating from four dairies and two logistics centres in Somerset and Devon, we employ over 1700 staff and produce more than 25% of the UK’s packaged yogurt. We’re sure you don’t need convincing, but there’s a whole host of benefits that we offer including:

• 25 days + bank holidays.
• Non-contributory pension scheme.
• Annual bonus (as part of the Employee Benefit Trust, based on company performance for the year).
• Life cover.
• Healthcare cash back plan.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Subsidised Yeo Valley products and services.
• Preferential rates with our partners.
• Learning and development opportunities; we’re committed to ensuring all of our employees have the chance to grow.

Our closing dates are a guide for when the application window should close, although we may close the advert sooner if we can. So, we recommend you get your application in straight away – and don’t miss the opportunity to join us! Unfortunately, we’re not able to provide employment sponsorship to candidates at this moment in time. Please note that Yeo Valley do not accept speculative agency applications; we will only accept applications from preferred suppliers that have been submitted to us via our recruitment portal at the point of instruction.