Head of Inventory & Blending

Head of Inventory & Blending

Your Manager: Distillation & Maturation Director - UK

Team: Distillation & Maturation

Location:  Dumbarton, with travel across other sites, as required

Be part of something big

We are Pernod Ricard, a leading company in the global spirits industry with over 19,000 employees globally. We own 16 of the world’s top 100 Spirits Brands and hold one of the most prestigious and comprehensive brand portfolios in the industry with premium brands available in over 160 countries, including: Absolut vodka, Ballantine’s, Chivas Regal, Royal Salute, and The Glenlivet Scotch whiskies, Jameson Irish whiskey, Martell cognac, Havana Club rum, Beefeater, Malfy and Monkey 47 gins, Malibu liqueur and Mumm and Perrier-Jouët champagnes.

Here in the UK

In the UK, Pernod Ricard is made up of 4 businesses:

• Chivas Brothers, the largest brand company in the Group, responsible for the production and management of our award-winning Scotch whisky portfolio
• Pernod Ricard UK, which markets, sells and distributes our products in the UK market
• Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail, the global and EMEA home of the group’s duty free, air travel and cruises business.
• The Absolut Group, the brand owner of our global white spirits portfolio, whose Gin brand unit and Business Acceleration team sit in London.

We are an organisation of 2,000 employees in the UK, headquartered in London, in a brand-new office designed with sustainability, ‘conviviality’ and collaboration in mind. We also have offices in Scotland and various distilleries and production sites across the UK from Plymouth to London to Speyside.

Your new team

This position sits in our Chivas Brothers business. At Chivas Brothers, our 1,600-strong team across 27 sites is committed to upholding the heritage of Scotch and ensuring its sustainable future, as well as opening it up to new audiences across the globe.

The scope of Operations stretches from Procurement through conversion (distillation and maturation) and manufacturing (or bottling) to all the downstream Supply Chain activities until the final product is delivered.  In addition, Operations play a very active role in Innovation, Talent Development and Operational Risk Management.

Our Blending & Inventory team are responsible for the liquid quality of our large portfolio of blends as well as ensuring we can meet our short and long-term market demand by evaluating our maturing spirit inventory over the short, medium, and long term. 

Your unique contribution

The Head of Inventory and Blending will be responsible for our whisky spirit lifecycle - from new-make distillation through long-term maturation and warehousing. This is a pivotal leadership role in a geographically dispersed, highly regulated, and asset-intensive environment, where the value of the business is directly tied to the quality, traceability, and future utility of spirit in cask.

You will be responsible for setting and executing a long-term strategy for mature spirit stewardship, ensuring availability, compliance, financial modelling and efficient utilisation of our most critical resource. You will also drive the digital transformation of our inventory systems and data structures - replacing legacy tools with future-fit platforms that underpin financial planning, regulatory compliance, and global growth.

You will have four main areas of responsibility:

Strategic Ownership of the Spirit Lifecycle

• To develop and execute a long-range inventory and maturation strategy aligned to brand goals, commercial forecasts, and production capacity, as well as executing clear strategies that deliver quality and efficiencies across inventory of 6.5 million casks, over 900m litres of alcohol across 361 warehouses.
• To collaborate with the blending & inventory team ensure brand qualities are at the core of inventory management and align spirit management with risk mitigation, ageing strategy, new product development and business continuity planning.
• To oversee the planning, governance, and optimisation of spirit inventory from distillation through maturation, ensuring availability for future bottling needs.
• To create and deliver operating models that optimise warehouse capacity, minimise angel share losses, and preserve cask integrity over decades.

Digital Transformation & System Strategy

• To define and drive a multi-year roadmap to modernise spirit inventory systems, transitioning from fragmented or manual processes to integrated, cloud-based solutions.  You will implement scalable platforms that deliver traceability, audit-readiness, and enterprise-wide visibility.

Data Governance & Insight-Driven Decision Making

• To establish enterprise-wide data governance for cask-level tracking, aging curves, loss management, and valuation and develop robust analytical tools and dashboards to support scenario planning, blending strategy, and financial modelling of spirit assets.
• You will also serve as a strategic advisor to the executive team on inventory health, maturity pipeline, and long-term asset utilisation.

Cross-Functional and External Leadership

• To build and lead a high-performing, cross-regional team across planning and inventory control and represent spirit inventory interests at the senior level, influencing key decisions around new product development, expansion, and global logistics, liaising with production teams.

Who you’ll be working with

Internally, you’ll collaborate with colleagues across the wider Operations function as well as with other teams including IT, Finance, and compliance to support implementation projects.

Externally, you will collaborate with customs authorities, industry bodies, third-party warehouses, technology vendors and other industry partners, to build strong relationships and deliver effective networking around cask sales & purchases, new make spirit and mature, empty wood management.

Your blend of talent

This position could be right for you if you:

• Have extensive experience in senior supply chain, inventory, or operations leadership roles in the spirits or broader beverage industry.
• Possess a deep understanding of whisky production, maturation, and spirit valuation.
• Have a proven track record of driving operational transformation, including ERP or cask management system implementation.
• Possess strong financial acumen and analytical capabilities, with the ability to effectively integrate financial insights into strategic planning and have a demonstrated ability to translate data into business insight and strategy.

Our mix of benefits

For your health, we offer private medical insurance, income protection and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme.

Our lifestyle benefits include 25 days’ annual holiday (increasing with length of service up to 27) plus 11 public holidays, your employee pension, share incentive plan, share ownership plan, life assurance and more!

You can access lots of gifts & discounts, including an allowance each year to spend on our brands in our staff shop, our reward & recognition scheme and employee discounts from a range of high street retailers.

We have regular events in our very own office bar, employee-run networks, a culture of flexibility and trust and a variety of tools and resources to help you focus on your wellbeing and mental fitness.

Conviviality: the Pernod Ricard Way

We have our own way of doing things. We call it conviviality! It’s our way of being, and something unique you feel and experience when working for Pernod Ricard.

We’re committed to conviviality, and with this, you’ll be Proud to Belong to our Pernod Ricard family. You’ll be Empowered to Perform, supported to succeed, and acknowledged for the value you bring.

We combine all this with our Commitment to Care: we are unlocking the magic of human connection to transform our industry and make a positive impact on the world though our strong focus on sustainability and responsibility.

We’re committed to diversity and inclusion

People are at the heart of everything we do at Pernod Ricard and are the foundation of our collective spirit as ‘Créateurs de Convivialité’.

We promote diversity and inclusion throughout our business and supply chain. In our teams, we proactively foster a diverse work force and an inclusive culture – an environment where we can truly be ourselves. 

We will assess your application for this role based on your skills, experiences and achievements, not your gender, age, ethnic or educational background or any other such factors. Please feel free to leave these off your CV and application form if you so wish.

Similarly, if you would like to discuss opportunities for flexible working or require accommodations or support to complete our application process, please let us know.

Responsible drinking

As ‘Créateurs de convivialité’, we want to turn social interactions into genuine and friendly experiences of sharing and wellbeing.

In our culture, we want to create diverse teams in which our differences contribute to our success. Therefore, all are welcome at Pernod Ricard, regardless of your religious beliefs or personal choices on the consumption of alcohol.

In our business, we work together with industry members, civil society, governments, local authorities and UN bodies to promote responsible drinking. 

Closing Date for Applications:

08th December 2025

Job Posting End Date:

2025-12-09

Target Hire Date:

2026-02-01

Target End Date: