Head of Innovation Commercialization

Job title: Head of Innovation Commercialization

Location: Amsterdam

Additional location: Budapest

Type: Full-time, 12 month fixed-term contract

About us

With over 200 brands sold in nearly 180 countries, we’re the world’s leading premium drinks company. Bring your passion and use your curiosity as you explore, collaborate, and innovate to build brands consumers love. Together with passionate people from all over the world, you’ll test new ideas, learn and grow, and unlock a brighter, more exciting future.

Join us to create a career worth celebrating.

About the Function

Our Marketing team are creators, helping to build and nurture some of the world’s most loved brands. We craft amazing connections with people around the world to celebrate our brands’ legacies and reimagine them for the world today, and into the future.

Everything we do is underpinned by a deep understanding of our consumers, behaviours, trends, and technologies. Using our genius and creativity, we unlock our brands’ uniqueness, understand their purpose, and put them at the heart of celebrations everywhere. Together, we’re celebrating diversity and challenging stereotypes through our advertising and marketing. Wherever your talents lie, from Design to Consumer Planning, you’ll be celebrated and supported in our inclusive culture.

About the role

Innovation is a critical part of the Diageo business and plays a key role in brand building, driving brand equity, recruiting new consumers in new occasions as well as supporting premiumisation and building the ‘triple win’. 

Role Responsibilities

• Shape the future of the Innovation strategy and lead the execution and implementation through the deep understanding of customer needs, using these insights to lead and develop projects   

• Drive the Innovation gate process in IOI by leading key projects with the cross-functional teams, facilitating, and adhering to the scope required & aligning key collaborators to drive brilliant business outcomes for Innovation projects and the pipeline.   

• Develop and nurture relationships with key Stakeholders in the Market, all functions, Europe Innovation and Supply, (Beer and European Spirits, Brand Change Teams)     

• Partnering with the European innovation team to deliver the pipeline, working with them to bring the innovations successfully to market.   

• Work in conjunction with the marketing team to bring projects to Gate approval ensuring robust science-based validation has taken place in market to enable approval of pack, concept and size of prize.   

• Working with teams across Brand, Activation and RGM to lead best in class launches, champion and lead exit plans where required, drive interventions when needed and always ensure we deliver our Annual Operating Plan. 

• Collaborate with commercial and brand teams to set clear launch objectives  owning the review and course correction where needed for each and every launch. 

• Lead the performance review in all internal BPM sessions, as well as with cross functional teams to build the Innovation growth code and growth drivers to support IOI launch.   

• Monitor execution for Innovation ensuring prioritisation across IOI channels & customers to deliver the biggest impact in market working closely with consumer and shopper planning to develop key learning plans.   

• Embed & lead the performance management of Innovation within the working day performance cycle within the Island of Ireland – creating performance management tools and visibility of performance vs. our business gate ambition and AOP.   

• Lead the IOI & Europe Innovation Finance Monthly BPM Review, with the ability to identify drivers of performance.  

• Establish outstanding commercialisation principles for the IOI business across Innovation process, ways of working, tools, accountabilities with a view to improving probability of success. 

• Key Collaborators will be the Irish Executive Leadership team along with Brand, Commercial and Supply leadership teams.  

Experience / skills required

• 8+ years of relevant marketing experience – delivery in Consumer or Customer Marketing leadership roles.   

• Outstanding ability to build and maintain genuine relationships 

• Successful management of senior partners at all levels, resulting in strong and positive outcomes.  

• Creative problem solver    

• Holistic abilities across all marketing pillars as well as a track record of leading ground-breaking business results.  

• Ability to excel when navigating ambiguity, complexity and working within a fast-paced and matrixed environment.  

• Strong end to end commercial FMCG understanding, alongside high levels of numerical capability and attention to detail.  

• Experience of leading a team, whether directly or indirectly.  

Flexible Working Statement   

Flexibility is key to our success. Talk to us about what flexibility means to you so that you’re supported to manage your wellbeing and balance your priorities from day one.

Diversity statement

Our purpose is to celebrate life, every day, everywhere. And creating an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued and that they can belong, is a crucial part of this.

We embrace diversity in the broadest possible sense. This means that you’ll be welcomed and celebrated for who you are just by being you. You’ll be part of and help build and champion an inclusive culture that celebrates people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational backgrounds, experiences, mindsets, and more.

Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. Join us and help transform our business as we take our brands to the next level and build new ones as part of shaping the next generation of celebrations for consumers around the world.

Feel inspired? Then this may be the opportunity for you! If you require a reasonable adjustment, please ensure that you capture this information when you submit your application.