Strategic Innovation Manager - Breakthrough

Overview

• Lead the development of breakthrough innovation and future growth opportunities across Thailand’s Savoury portfolio, with a focus on expanding beyond the current Potato Chips (PC) and Extruded Products (EP) business.
• Develop the strategic portfolio plan and Horizon 2 & 3 innovation roadmap, identifying new growth spaces, consumer needs and whitespace opportunities beyond the existing portfolio.
• Establish new platforms in Nutritious & Functional and Meals, leveraging breakthrough thinking, new business models and differentiated propositions to unlock incremental category growth.
• Lead strategic exploration and development of reframed and breakthrough innovations, translating emerging consumer, market and technology trends into compelling concepts and scalable business opportunities.
• Build breakthrough opportunities from early-stage exploration through incubation and commercialization, partnering with cross-functional, regional and external stakeholders to validate consumer desirability, feasibility and commercial potential.
• Drive sustainable Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 growth, with accountability for agreed innovation targets and KPIs including Innovation NR contribution, market share, penetration and speed-to-market.

Responsibilities

• Develop the innovation and portfolio strategy for new platforms in Nutritious & Functional, Meals and Away From Home, defining where to play and how to win, including new growth platforms and business models beyond the existing portfolio.
• Identify and prioritize breakthrough growth opportunities, challenging conventional thinking and leveraging emerging consumer needs, trends, technologies and whitespace opportunities to create new sources of growth.
• Unlock the Street Food opportunity by identifying consumer needs, occasions, formats and potential business models within the channel, developing breakthrough propositions and partnerships to establish Street Food as a new growth platform beyond the existing portfolio.
• Optimize investment allocation across core and transformational opportunities, evaluating the potential of reframed and breakthrough innovations and recommending where to focus resources across protein, meal solutions and Away From Home.
• Lead breakthrough innovation from exploration through incubation, shaping consumer propositions, concepts and business cases and validating desirability, feasibility and commercial potential.
• Build and advance the breakthrough innovation pipeline, partnering with Market, China Innovation, R&D, Design Thinking, Insights, Digital, E-Commerce and Commercialization teams + Network to develop and advance priority big-bet initiatives.
• Deliver agreed BU Innovation NR and H2/H3 growth targets, leveraging consumer and market analytics to guide prioritization, decision-making and portfolio recommendations.
• Build external innovation ecosystems, developing relationships with local agencies, incubators, accelerators and other external away from home partners to uncover unmet consumer needs, technologies and new business opportunities.
• Translate breakthrough opportunities into compelling strategic narratives and recommendations for senior leadership, creating alignment and enabling informed investment and commercialization decisions.

Qualifications

• At least 8 years of experience in Brand Management and Innovation.
• Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Business or Commerce
• Well-rounded marketer with experience in Marketing/Brand, Innovation and
• Business Development in multinational FMCG companies;
• Innovation/Marketing with Experience in Sales, Foodservice and/or Away From Home would be an advantage.
• Strong business analysis, presentation, communication, consumer insight, project management and influencing skills.
• High learning agility, result-driven, self-motivated, open-minded, adaptable and collaborative