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