Head of Innovation - Fresh

As Head of Innovation, you will lead a team that are at the heart of identifying new trends opportunities to launch innovation, where it matters most to our customers. You will have exceptional food standards and will truly understand how to drive this behaviour throughout the Product Development team. Identifying areas of upskilling & development for the team. You will work closely with the Director of Innovation for Fresh and the cross functional category leadership team to develop category specific, strategic product plans that deliver the Food commercial WIF plan.

Your role is to lead, develop and deliver the product and innovation plan for Sainsbury’s & Future Brands within the category areas that you work across. This involves working with the leadership teams across Product Packaging & Innovation & the cross Category functional team to drive the innovation & renovation strategy for commercial growth. Integral to the role, will be to utilise the emerging market trends & customer insights to identify innovation / renovation opportunities for our Own & Future brands, delivering all projects from concept through to launch on time and in budget by working with the supply base and our development chef team. You will champion a customer led innovation culture across the business and lead our focus on driving customer quality measures through product across the cross functional team. You will develop a high performing team of world class product development expertise to support the delivery of our plan.

As a Head of Innovation you’ll:

• Utilise the suite of insights available across consumer, food, ingredient & health trends, to develop an insight led short, medium and long-term category product & innovation plan aligned to customer macro trends and food trends translated for your categories
• Translate the sub-brands plan to embed and develop category specific plans/priorities within your category product plan
• Drive how we effectively innovate in your categories to make the right choice between Own Brand and Future Brands by always being on top of what is new, distinctive, and trending utilising a wide range of available insight.
• Build and maintain positive ‘high-challenge, high-support’ relationships with key category stakeholders (in particular Category & Buying Managers) to ensure appropriate ARCIs are observed but that we are agitating for a bolder approach to listing and supporting challenger brands
• Champion all insights available, e.g. Nectar (Customer), Hunter (Trends), Commercial Metrics, to inform Gate 1 strategy, project objectives, Product Briefs, and in PIRs/Gate 5s,
• Measure, monitor and review sales of core ranges, new products & competitor activity, with recommendations on product improvements / new products to deliver our plan
• Build in Net Zero commitments to the product plan and explore opportunities to create innovative products with purpose to engage consumers on sustainability and environmental issues
• Own & guide the team to set the quality standards & work alongside the Director of Innovation to deliver & drive a market leading food culture amongst the Product Development function.
• Own the product elements of the SMART gated process and end to end design process. Lead & drive a right first time approach to successfully managing (cost effective & on time) projects through the gate process.
• Champion the innovation culture across the business, & create a culture of passion for product within your categories and across wider business functions
• Manage risks and issues within the project with updates and escalation to senior management when required & foster lessons learnt to drive a continuous improvement approach.
• Champion our foodie values and deliver the food plan alongside the category plans, to keep us innovating ahead of the market in key, pre-determined areas.
• Collaborate with the Innovation Planning & Operations Manager to optimise business processes to ensure effective and efficient ways of working including governance and reporting & champion and role model our new processes, systems and ways of working across your team.
• Spend time in the supply base to understand competencies, opportunities and risks and be an ambassador for Sainsbury’s Brand and instigate innovation sessions with key suppliers
• Collaborate with the commercial and technical teams to develop new supplier relationships in areas where we need to accelerate innovation e.g. to support a new mission or to support market growth
• Lead and coach the team to build key capabilities & to create a high performing function through setting objectives, stretching targets, regular link reviews and driving PDPs

Our Innovation team would love to see:

• Have significant experience in a Product Development or innovation role in retail, manufacturing, food service or equivalent
• First rate food knowledge in either of the following industries: Food first retail, FMCG Manufacturing or Hospitality industry
• Degree of equivalent in a food related subject
• An analytical and strategic approach to work, with the ability to think commercially & to influence & lead internal stakeholders to ensure buy-in and alignment across cross- functional teams.
• Ability to operate across areas of broad scope and across a cross functional team
• Successful people management experience, with the ability to role model our valued behaviours & have a positive and growth mindset to create a high performing team
• Motivational leadership attributes to inspire a team to pursue opportunities and to recover from setbacks and challenges
• To help customer to buy our products, engage and influence the different teams responsible for activation to ensure we are activating our products and the right time, with the right level of support (e.g. Marketing, PR, Nectar, Groceries online, Secondary Space).
• The ability to ruthlessly prioritise and plan activity and resource
• Commitment to driving personal development for self

Why Sainsbury’s?

Work-life balance is important to us, so we offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible in line with the needs of their role. We trust them to decide how, where and when they work, combining remote and collaborative working with a flexible approach to hours, giving them plenty of time and space for life outside of work whilst delivering against our business goals.

As well as a great work-life balance, lots of on-the-job training and endless opportunities, click here for more detail on our benefits: https://sainsburys.jobs/working-for-us/benefits/

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