C&C Group plc is a premium drinks company which owns, manufactures, markets and distributes a unique portfolio of beer and cider brands in its home markets and across the globe. You probably know us best from brands like Bulmers, Magners and Tennent’s.

About the Role 

The Innovation & NPD Manager role is a pivotal one in driving the growth of our brands, and this new role will be responsible for managing and developing an NPD funnel for our beer / cider portfolios which grow their volume, NSV and margin, by recruiting new consumers to our brands, or getting existing consumers to buy more often, at a premium price.

You will work alongside your brand management colleagues, and support the Brand Director, to develop an Innovation & NPD strategy for our existing Core & Premium beer/cider brands. You will also work closely with our Consumer Insight & Category teams to make sure that our strategies and plans are aligned to the latest consumer, category & shopper insights, and are consumer tested to ensure the best chance of success.

A skilled project & stakeholder manager, you will manage a set of projects of various sizes, and work in a collaborative cross functional way to take ideas from concept, through development, to execution & launch. You will have the ability to deal with concepts and ideas and be comfortable with ideas that stretch our thinking, as well as convert those ideas into compelling commercial business cases. You will also be interacting with teams in Operations & Supply chain and be as comfortable understanding how an idea can come to life running down a line as with a research concept. 

Key Accountabilities 

• Develop & manage the development of a 3 year NPD pipeline for your specified brand set.
• Manage the NPD project stack for your brands, working with all relevant parts of the business to move them through our Stage Gate process, recommending stop/go decisions.
• Work with the relevant internal teams and external agencies to develop compelling & insightful concepts for consumer testing, and propose which should proceed
• Develop business cases to gain investment, both capex & DBM, to bring profitable new skus to market
• Work with Brand, Channel & Sales teams to develop strong launch plans
• Working alongside Insight & Commercial finance teams, evaluate post launch NPD performance, capturing learnings for future launches
• Develop deep understanding of the consumer trends in your category, and among key competitors so that you can spot opportunities and at quickly to bring ideas to market either first, or as a ‘fast follower’
• Develop relationships with key packaging design agencies, flavour houses, dispense experts and strategic innovation & NPD consultancies to ensure we have the best external support for our needs. 

About you 

• Experience of working in fast paced environments, and with new ideas and concepts
• Strong Project Manager with experience in a multi layered business environment.
• A master at stakeholder management with the ability to influence at all levels and provide clear communications. Excellent presentation skills.
• Flexible, proactive management style with proven ability to drive cross functional working to deliver business objectives
• Excellent understanding of the Business, Markets, Customers, and Competitors.
• Strong marketing skills, probably gained in a brand or channel marketing role
• Ability to think both strategically and operationally.
• Working knowledge of Stage and Gate/project management process.​ 
• Awareness of the end-to-end impact of initiatives and effect on P&L.   
• Capable of working with a high degree of autonomy and ambiguity while remaining responsive to change

About Us 

Operating through the Matthew Clark, Bibendum, Tennent’s and Bulmers Ireland brands, the Group has a market leading range, scale and reach including an intimate understanding of the markets it serves. 

From grass to glass, and everything in between, we grow, brew, manufacture, market, and deliver some of the world’s favourite drinks. C&C Group’s portfolio of owned/exclusive brands include: Bulmers, the leading Irish cider brand; Tennent’s, the leading Scottish beer brand; Magners the premium international cider brand; as well as a range of fast-growing, premium and craft ciders and beers, such as Heverlee, Menabrea, Five Lamps and Orchard Pig. 

We seek to champion and embed sustainability in everything that we do at C&C. While delivering joy to customers, we always shine a light on people and the planet. We have a clear ESG vision delivering to a better world. We respect, support, and develop all our people to be their best, with a focus on results by creating a culture of winning together.

We also recognize that people come with a wealth of experience and talent beyond just the technical requirements of a job. If your experience is close to what you see listed here, please still consider applying. Diversity of experience and skills combined with passion is a key to delivering on our mission. Therefore, we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply. Please let us know if you require accommodations during the interview process.

C&C Group (and inclusive companies) do not accept unsolicited CVs from recruiters or employment agencies in response to any of our roles. For help, please contact our Talent Acquisition Team at careers@candcgroup.com. All applications need to come through the candidate portal https://careers.candcgroupplc.com/vacancies/