Innovation Project Manager

Key Accountabilities & Activities Generic Accountabilities Strategy Execution • Implement departmental plans and ensure alignment with defined business objectives. • Translate functional goals into team-level operational plans and coordinate their execution. • Monitor and track execution progress and report on performance against targets.

Budget and Financial Monitoring • Support and manage budget preparation and implement cost control within the team. • Track expenditures and report variances in line with approved budgets. Common Accountabilities • Manage day-to-day operations and ensure delivery of targets in line with plans.

• Identify and implement process improvements to enhance operational efficiency. • Ensure compliance with policies, procedures, and operational standards. People Management • Manage and supervise team members, setting clear objectives and expectations. • Monitor and track team performance, providing regular feedback to ensure delivery.

• Support and coordinate employee development and training initiatives. Coordination • Coordinate team activities to ensure smooth execution of operational plans. • Coordinate with internal stakeholders to resolve operational issues and support delivery.

Job-Specific Accountabilities Innovation Pipeline Management • Manage the execution of innovation pipeline activities, including project prioritization, milestone tracking, and cross-functional delivery coordination. • Implement innovation project plans aligned with approved business priorities, brand strategy, consumer opportunities, and market needs.

• Monitor innovation pipeline progress and track risks, delays, dependencies, and delivery gaps impacting project outcomes. • Deliver pipeline updates, project status reports, and recommendations to support decision-making and portfolio visibility.

Concept Development & Consumer Opportunity Support • Manage concept development activities by translating consumer insights, market trends, and brand opportunities into innovation project briefs. • Coordinate with Consumer Insights & Research, Branding, and Commercial teams to ensure innovation concepts address clear consumer needs and business opportunities.

• Monitor concept testing inputs, consumer feedback, and market validation results to support refinement of innovation ideas. • Deliver project inputs that support development of differentiated, relevant, and commercially viable innovation concepts.

Cross-Functional Project Coordination • Coordinate with R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Commercial, Finance, Regulatory, and Marketing teams to support effective delivery of innovation projects. • Implement project governance routines, meeting cadences, and action tracking to ensure project stakeholders remain aligned on timelines, decisions, and deliverables.

• Monitor project dependencies across functions and track issues affecting development, feasibility, costing, launch readiness, or supply availability. • Deliver coordinated solutions that support project progress and timely decision-making.

Product Development & Commercialization Readiness • Manage project activities supporting product development, packaging development, feasibility assessment, and launch preparation. • Coordinate with R&D and Operations to support formulation, product trials, validation activities, and production readiness requirements.

• Monitor commercialization milestones including product specifications, regulatory inputs, packaging readiness, supply planning, and launch requirements. • Deliver project support that enables smooth transition from innovation development to market execution.

Business Case & Financial Tracking Support • Support preparation and review of innovation business cases, including market opportunity, volume assumptions, financial inputs, investment requirements, and expected returns. • Coordinate with Finance and Commercial teams to support validation of project assumptions and financial feasibility.

• Monitor project cost inputs, business case updates, and financial risks that may impact innovation delivery or commercial viability. • Track project performance inputs required for innovation portfolio reviews and decision gates.

Innovation Performance Monitoring • Monitor innovation project KPIs including project timelines, milestone completion, launch readiness, consumer validation, cost assumptions, and post-launch performance inputs. • Track performance of launched innovation initiatives and support collection of lessons learned for future project improvement.

• Deliver performance reports and insights that support innovation reviews, portfolio decisions, and continuous improvement. Agency, Vendor & Partner Coordination • Coordinate with external agencies, packaging partners, research partners, design vendors, and innovation service providers to support project delivery.

• Monitor vendor deliverables, timelines, quality of outputs, and alignment with project requirements. • Review project materials, concepts, prototypes, and external outputs to support consistency with innovation objectives and brand standards. • Track vendor-supported activities and support issue resolution where required.