Head of Innovation, UK, Ireland, Europe

Job Title: Head of Innovation UK, IRL and Europe

Function: Marketing & Innovation                

Reports to: Marketing Director UK, IRL, Europe. Dotted line into global innovation team

Location: Dublin with travel to Leek (UK)

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Ornua is a leading dairy co-operative which sells premium dairy products globally on behalf of its Member Co-operatives, Ireland’s dairy processors and, in turn, Irish dairy farmers. 

Ornua has revenues of €3.4 billion and is supported by a global team of approximately 2,800 employees. The Group operates as a commercial organisation across 10 business units, including 12 production facilities located in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa. 

The commercial organisation is responsible for the marketing and sales of Ornua’s consumer brands including Kerrygold, Dubliner, Pilgrims Choice, Kerrygold Avantage, Forto, and BEO. Markets are served by production facilities and in-market sales and marketing teams in Africa, Asia, Germany, Ireland, the UK, the rest of Europe, the Middle East and the US. 

It also manages the procurement of Irish and non-Irish dairy products, the sale of dairy ingredients to food manufacturing and foodservice customers globally, and the implementation of de-risking and trading strategies to manage market volatility. These activities are supported by production facilities and in-market teams in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa. 

The Role

We are seeking an exceptional, visionary leader to serve as Head of Front End Innovation, with full strategic accountability for shaping Ornua Foods’ future growth agenda across the UK, Ireland, and priority European markets (including Greece, Netherlands, Spain, and Poland).

This role will define and own the innovation strategy and long-term growth pipeline, translating deep consumer and customer insight into compelling propositions, scalable platforms, and robust business cases that drive sustainable brand and category growth. The role will lead opportunities from early-stage ideation through to launch readiness, ensuring innovation is both forward-looking and grounded in commercial reality.

Key Areas of Responsibilities

Innovation Strategy & Pipeline Leadership

• Set and own the 3-5 year innovation strategy and growth pipeline for Kerrygold, Pilgrims Choice and priority private label customers across the UK, Ireland , and priority European markets, ensuring alignment with brand ambitions, customer strategies, category growth priorities, sustainability commitments, and long-term value creation for Ornua, our consumers and our retail partners.
• Provide strategic foresight and external perspective, tracking consumer, culinary, cultural, and dairy-industry dynamics to anticipate emerging opportunities, identify white space, and strengthen brand and retailer differentiation
• Lead the front-end innovation agenda in partnership with the Central Front End Innovation function and Commercial customer teams, shaping opportunity territories, framing consumer problems and translating retailer strategies into compelling propositions. In addition to governing prioritisation, and ensuring disciplined pipeline progression from concept creation through to investment decision-making.
• Build scalable platforms and propositions across markets and customers , whilst proactively collaborating with the US and Germany to unlock synergies, leverage scale, and ensure regional market needs for brand are balanced with customer specific requirements

Insight-Led Proposition & Opportunity Leadership

• Set the direction for insight-led proposition development, translating complex consumer, shopper, behavioural, and retailer insight into clear opportunity territories and high-value innovation platforms.
• Oversee insight validation and learning agendas in partnership with CMK and external agencies, ensuring concepts are rigorously tested, sized, and refined to support confident investment and scalable growth decisions.

Project Leadership

• Act as senior project owner for innovation initiatives, providing clear strategic direction and cross-functional alignment from brief through to launch readiness, in close partnership with PMO, Central Marketing, R&D, Supply Chain, Regulatory, and commercial teams across the UK, Ireland, and Europe.

• Own innovation governance and delivery discipline, ensuring robust critical paths, stage-gate decision-making, risk management, and cross-functional documentation are in place, while leveraging PMO support for executional management.
• Ensure seamless handover to in-market brand teams at launch, maintaining strategic continuity while enabling local ownership of commercial execution and performance delivery.

Commercial & Financial Ownership

• Own building robust business cases that deliver a clear “triple win” for Ornua, retail partners, and shoppers.
• Ensure pricing, margin, and channel thinking, including shelf-back pricing versus competitive sets, P&L forecasts, margin modelling, and volume assumptions.
• Partner with commercial and category leadership to shape compelling retailer propositions and executable plans across Ireland and priority European markets.

Brand Growth & Portfolio Management

• Lead portfolio-level thinking across renovation, value-added line extensions, and packaging evolution, ensuring products remain relevant, competitive, and sustainable while supporting cost optimisation objectives.
• Strengthen portfolio architecture across markets, reducing duplication, clarifying brand roles, and ensuring innovation supports long-term brand positioning and growth priorities.

Launch Excellence and post launch Learning

• Shape NPD success criteria in collaboration with brand teams, influencing go-to-market strategy, messaging, claims, sensory positioning, and performance metrics.
• Oversee post-launch learning and scale-up decisions, partnering with brand teams to assess performance and determine optimisation, acceleration, or exit actions, while ultimate in-market performance ownership sits with the brand.

Key Skills / Attributes

• Front-End Innovation & Proposition Leadership
  Proven ability to frame consumer problems, define opportunity spaces, and prioritise innovation funnels that deliver scalable, value-creating growth.
• End-to-End FMCG Innovation Governance
  Experience owning innovation outcomes from early opportunity identification through to launch readiness within structured stage-gate environments.
• Commercial & Financial Leadership
  Strong commercial judgement with the ability to challenge assumptions, shape pricing and margin strategies, and build credible, decision-ready business cases.
• Consumer & Shopper Insight Translation

Expert at synthesising diverse insight sources into sharp, differentiated propositions that address real consumer and shopper needs.

• Cross-Functional Leadership
  Track record of influencing senior stakeholders across R&D, supply chain, regulatory, finance, and commercial teams without direct authority.

• Portfolio & Brand Thinking
  Deep understanding of brand-led innovation, portfolio architecture, and the strategic role of renovation and extensions in driving sustainable growth.
• Multi-Market & Channel Awareness
  Ability to balance scale and synergy across European markets while ensuring propositions are locally relevant and deliver against specific customer and channel needs.

• Governance, Risk & Decision Discipline
  Comfortable owning ambiguity, setting decision frameworks, and ensuring rigour across complex, multi-workstream programmes.
• Externally Focused, Commercial Mindset
  Curious, trend-aware, and pragmatic, with a strong connection to food, culinary culture, and innovation that delivers measurable business impact.

Bottom of Form

Ornua Core Competencies

• Customer Focus: Advocates for the customer, balances customer and business needs, and spots opportunities for growth.
• Forward-Looking: Helps others to accept change, implements change, and looks ahead to anticipate change.
• Curious: Open to asking questions and willing to learn and continuously improve.
• Working Together: Encourages co-operation in own team and supports cross-functional working.

Closing Date: COB April 15 2026