Manager, Global Innovation: North American Whiskey

Pernod Ricard•New York, NY

25d

About The Position

Where Conviviality is at work. North American Distillers (NADL) is where we manufacture our award-winning American Whiskeys such as Jefferson’s, Rabbit Hole, TX Whiskey, Skrewball, and Smooth Ambler. NADL is part of Pernod Ricard, a global premium spirits and wine company. We’re the team behind leading brands such as ABSOLUT® Vodka, Jameson® Irish Whiskey, Malibu®, Kahlúa® Liqueur, and The Glenlivet® Scotch whiskey, as well as many more superior wines and exquisite champagnes! Working at NADL is all about igniting conviviality in all that we do. Derived from the French word, convivialité…it means human connection, authenticity, friendly, and jovial. Conviviality is energy and spirit with a splash of je ne sais quoi and is a core philosophy around how we live and work at Pernod Ricard. Guided by our 4 core values: (1) grounded in the real; (2) fiercely authentic; (3) passion for challenge; and (4) connected beyond borders; we are team players, dream makers, trailblazers, movers and (cocktail) shakers. We have a passion for living life to the fullest, making new friends every day, and realizing our potential as people and as a business! The salary range for this role, based in New York, is $107,360.00 to $134,200.00 . The range may vary if the role outside of this location. Base salaries are determined during our interview process, by assessing a candidate’s experience, skills against internal peers and against the scope and responsibilities of the position. Introduction: Working at Pernod Ricard is all about igniting conviviality in all that we do. Derived from the French word, convivialité…it means human connection, authenticity, friendly, and jovial. Conviviality is energy and spirit with a splash of je ne sais quoi and is a core philosophy around how we live and work at Pernod Ricard. We have a passion for living life to the fullest, making new friends every day, and realizing our potential as people and as a business! It’s a fun and challenging environment with plenty of opportunity to make a mark. It’s also an exciting time to be a key part of the Group’s Global Transformation to be the catalyst of Group Innovation at scale, with rigorous, simple and efficient impact The person needs to be a senior, experienced innovation expert, who thrives with complex projects, has strong project management and influencing skills, who knows how to truly collaborate for superior results and who is passionate about innovation. The person should also have strong leadership and team management skills, managing a diverse team spread across different locations. They need to have that #Gamechanger spirit that will make them go the extra mile to impact the business. Job Aim: To deliver this vision this role will: Bring to life the North American whiskey team’s vision with both a local focus on the needs of lead markets and global partnership to co-create innovation with Brand Units. Develop a robust three-year pipeline working across a matrixed organization to influence and drive growth. Lead pipeline development for North American whiskey brands (Skrewball, Jefferson’s, TX Whiskey, Rabbit Hole, and Smooth Ambler) : End to End Project management to gain alignment on innovation platforms, pipeline, agenda for the region, sign-off on innovation initiatives. Apply Consumer Centricity , as a best practice and key ingredient in the Pernod Ricard brand building model, across the business by putting consumers, shopper and customer at the heart of all decision making. Create and Manage an Innovation Roadmap & KPIs according to the business needs/strategy of the market and in line with the local and global brand priorities. Foster collaboration and drive for action, working with local brand teams and Global Brand Units as well as key cross functional partners. Proactively contribute to the global Pernod Ricard Innovation community to build and share learnings across the organization. Work with a diverse team of Innovation Experts : Handling insights, ideation, development, through to go to market strategies. This will require strong management and leadership.

Requirements

Proven Innovation Experience: A minimum of 5+ years relevant experience, such as supporting innovation teams in the consumer products, food & beverage, or spirits industries in North America or globally within a large established organization; other relevant experience such as BelAlc Brand Management, within an innovation agency, within a design team, Project Management experience or technical spirits experience in R+D a plus.
Demonstrated ability to develop strategic innovation platforms/framework.
Ability to deliver strong incremental innovation pipeline opportunities, Creative and analytical talent to optimize ideas grounded in consumer/market insights.
Drive collaboration to move projects forward in a complex, matrix organizational structure.
Financial experience to work the P&L and manage costs while staying true to the “must have” innovation deliverables.
Proven ability to influence and drive action working with cross-functional teams (internal and external to Pernod Ricard).
Languages: English (must have excellent/fluent business proficiency in written and verbal communication); Spanish or French a plus.
Project Management Skills: Strong project management skills – ability to drive overall project management, understand critical path and manage to deadlines in a complex environment.
Technical skills: PowerPoint, Excel, Word, MS Teams.

Responsibilities

Bring both the Global Innovation and North American whiskey team’s vision to life & deliver leading edge innovation capabilities
Be a leader on the consumer-centric Innovation team delivering incremental sustainable growth across the portfolio.
Help execute the new ways of working with Global Brand Units and local markets.
Ensure that methodologies / approaches / framework developed are value add and facilitate local and global market needs.
Drive consumer centricity across the business : This team member is building innovation for one of the biggest Pernod Ricard brands, thus consumer/market evidence will be needed to bring along partners.
Leverage analytics, insights and testing throughout the stage-gate process, establish clear criteria to advise go to market go/no go decision.
Incorporate a holistic approach to include the consumer, sales, Retailer and Distributor feedback to identify and enhance innovation efforts
Drive consumer centricity from ideation to execution.
Lead pipeline development for North American whiskey brands (Skrewball, Jefferson’s, TX Whiskey, Rabbit Hole, and Smooth Ambler) in conjunction with Local Brand Marketing Teams and Global Innovation
End to End Project management to gain alignment on innovation platforms, pipeline, agenda for the regions, sign-off on innovation initiatives.
Lead brand strategy, ideation process, design brief, and consumer insights to identify white space opportunities for innovation.
Work to move projects through the system: deliver on P&L responsibilities while balancing critical aspects of the innovation that aren’t negotiable
Partner with Sales and Commercial to maximize chances of commercial success.
Partner with local marketing teams to support launch plans and drive successful execution.
Create and manage an Innovation roadmap & KPIs according to the business needs/strategy of the brand and markets
Lead the team to help identify and build innovation opportunities on a global scale.
Build out strategic innovation platforms that cut across the portfolio and drive big ideas for the Brand(s) to deliver incremental, sustainable innovation.
Create a mid/long-term roadmap grounded in consumer insights, that leverage demand, and create a true sustainable advantage versus competition.
Mine the innovation pipeline for quick wins that are relevant to the market that fit opportunities for year one launch while also building out the long-term pipeline.
Share the innovation roadmap with strategic partners in innovation forums to drive excitement, collaboration and buy-in.
Establish KPIs to measure innovation development progress and post launch success.
Foster strong collaboration and interaction with cross functional partners, local and global brands.
Challenge / inspire business opportunities and identify pain-points in the local markets to identify opportunities for global synergies.
Support best practice share outs with cross-functional teams.
Push and support excellence in delivery (Post-Evaluation Analysis, reporting etc…).