Senior Director, Industry Strategy (Innovation)
About The Position
Zappi is seeking a senior product innovation, consumer insights, and innovation development expert with deep experience in CPG or QSR to enhance its authority, differentiation, and commercial success in the product innovation sector. This role requires the individual to act as a trusted expert, educator, and industry advocate externally, as well as a strategic, cross-functional subject matter expert (SME) and connective layer internally. The position is designed for someone who has a proven track record of helping major brands identify opportunities, develop stronger concepts, mitigate risk, and leverage consumer insights for better product decisions. The ideal candidate will be credible with senior leaders in Insights, Innovation, R&D, Marketing, Brand, Commercial, and Strategy, and capable of integrating methodological rigor with a modern, scalable approach to innovation research. Deep credibility in either CPG or QSR is essential, with experience in both being a plus.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in CPG or QSR innovation, consumer insights, innovation consulting, research strategy, product development, or commercialization.
- Deep expertise in innovation development and consumer research methodologies, including concept testing, validation, optimization, and commercialization workflows.
- Experience working with enterprise innovation organizations and senior stakeholders across Insights, Innovation, R&D, Marketing, Brand, Commercial, or Strategy teams.
- Strong understanding of how CPG or QSR teams make innovation decisions, manage risk, and bring new products to market.
- Ability to translate complex innovation methodologies into clear commercial narratives, sales guidance, executive-level storytelling, and customer-facing POVs.
- Experience supporting strategic sales, enterprise customer conversations, thought leadership, or consultative growth motions.
- Exceptional communication, presentation, and storytelling skills, with comfort representing a company externally as a senior industry expert.
Nice To Haves
- Experience across both CPG and QSR is a plus, not a requirement.
Responsibilities
- Act as a senior subject matter expert on concept testing, innovation development, optimization, pricing, pack testing, validation, and commercialization workflows.
- Understand the operational dynamics of large enterprise innovation organizations, including processes, politics, decision-making, and organizational pressures.
- Stay informed about emerging trends in AI, synthetic respondents, agile innovation, and connected learning systems.
- Serve as a trusted internal advisor across the organization.
- Collaborate closely with Sales, Customer, Product, Product Marketing, Marketing, and Research Science teams on strategic narratives and customer engagements.
- Assist Product Marketing in developing messaging, frameworks, demos, POVs, enablement materials, competitive guidance, and customer-facing materials where expert-level knowledge is required.
- Support enterprise opportunities as a strategic expert and advisor, engaging directly with customers and prospects when senior innovation expertise is needed.
- Enhance Zappi's articulation of innovation systems versus point solutions.
- Manage the competitive intelligence program for product innovation, translating market, competitor, customer, and industry shifts into internal guidance and external-facing content.
- Develop a prominent external voice in the innovation and insights space.
- Create thought leadership content on AI and synthetic research, modern innovation systems, iterative concept development, connected learning, and balancing speed, rigor, and risk.
- Present at conferences, webinars, customer events, and industry forums.
- Engage with analysts, strategic customers, and industry communities.
- Co-create customer education materials and programs with Customer Marketing.
- Translate customer realities into actionable product and go-to-market (GTM) recommendations.
- Partner closely with Product, Research Science, and Commercialization teams.
- Align with Product Marketing, Product, and the VP of New Product Commercialization to pressure test emerging AI and synthetic offerings from both methodological and commercial perspectives.
- Act as a secondary voice outside of Product to ensure product direction aligns with real-world customer workflows and unmet needs.
Benefits
- Three company-paid mental health days of rest per year
- Generous PTO policy - Minimum of 20 days of paid time off per year, plus national holidays
- Private medical healthcare cover
- Group risk, life & disability contributions
- Flexible working arrangements, including remote
- Thoughtfully designed offices to support both individual work and collaboration
- Wellbeing benefits such as free yoga and access to trained therapists / counsellors
- Enhanced parental leave policies
- Free lunch in the office Tuesday-Thursday
- Tax efficient pension contributions via salary sacrifice scheme
- Salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme
- Salary sacrifice nursery scheme
- Tailored personal development through training allowances, coaching, mentorship and career frameworks
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
