Assistant Innovation Project Manager

What makes this a great opportunity?

The Assistant Innovation Project Manager role supports the development and delivery of consumer-led innovation opportunities, translating consumer needs and market opportunities into compelling, commercially viable propositions that strengthen the brand portfolio and deliver incremental growth. It also supports and owns defined innovation projects or workstreams under the guidance of the Head of Innovation, Senior Innovation Manager and Innovation Manager connecting cross-functional expertise from opportunity development through launch and post-launch learning.

Role Responsibilities

Innovation pipeline and project delivery

• Support and own defined innovation projects and workstreams, coordinating day-to-day delivery, milestones, dependencies, risks and decision points from concept through launch and post-launch optimisation.

• Support preparation of project briefs, status updates, gate materials and recommendations to support timely, evidence-based decisions.

• Work across near-term launch delivery and longer-term opportunity development, escalating material changes to scope, cost, timing or proposition.

Consumer-led opportunity and proposition development

• Partner with Consumer Insights and Brand teams to translate research, market trends and unmet consumer needs into clear opportunity briefs and testable propositions.

• Support concept development, product and pack proposition refinement, consumer testing and synthesis of learning into recommended next steps.

• Ensure propositions are aligned with brand strategy, portfolio priorities and intended consumer and customer needs.

Cross-functional orchestration

• Support the coordination of cross-functional innovation projects with R&D, Supply Chain, Finance, Insights, Brand, Sales and Shopper experts; establish clear workstream accountabilities, deliverables and dependencies.

• Partner with functional experts who lead their respective disciplines, while maintaining visibility of progress, risks and implications for the overall consumer proposition and commercial objectives.

• Support and facilitate project meetings focused on decisions, learning, risks and next actions; maintain clear records of agreed actions and ownership.

Commercialisation, governance and launch readiness

• Develop and consolidate business-case inputs, including opportunity sizing, volume, pricing, margin and growth potential, in partnership with Finance, Insights and Commercial experts who own their specialist assumptions.

• Coordinate governance requirements and stage-gate submissions, maintaining accurate project information in agreed systems and tools (Planisware).

• Partner with Brand and customer-facing teams on launch handovers and readiness, without replacing functional ownership of go-to-market execution.

Performance and continuous improvement

• Support the definition and tracking of project success measures, including consumer validation, launch readiness and post-launch performance.

• Coordinate post-launch reviews, document insights and recommended improvements, and apply learning to future pipeline decisions.

• Identify practical improvements to templates, routines and ways of working that make innovation delivery simpler and more effective. Contribute to longer-term pipeline development and innovation and go-to-market capability building.

• Support Innovation team operations, including project investment and budget tracking, Buywise purchase order management, expenditure reporting and coordination of administrative processes to enable effective project delivery and financial governance.

Qualifications

Experience and capabilities

• Experience in brand management, marketing, innovation, commercial or project coordination within FMCG or a related consumer-led industry.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities, organise project plans and follow through on actions and deadlines.

• Commercial curiosity and comfort working with basic business cases, consumer research and performance measures.

• Strong collaboration, communication and influencing skills; confidence working with functional specialists.

• Structured problem-solving, attention to detail, learning agility and willingness to constructively challenge assumptions.

• Relevant tertiary qualification in marketing, business or a related discipline desirable, or equivalent practical experience.

Measures of success

• Assigned project milestones, governance deliverables and decisions are prepared on time and to an agreed standard.

• Clear ownership of workstreams, transparent risks and timely escalation of material trade-offs.

• Consumer and commercial evidence is reflected in project recommendations.

• Effective collaboration with Brand and functional experts; smooth handovers to launch owners.

• Post-launch learning is captured and translated into practical actions.