Job Title: Head of Innovation Design Lab

Salary: £70-110k basic + bonus + benefits

Location: UK Wide

Reference: J79149

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This position has now been filled, but has been left on our website as we have other similar vacancies to this on an ongoing basis that might interest you. More importantly, we have vacancies that are not advertised due to their confidential nature therefore it would certainly be in your interest to email your CV, as a word document, depending on which sector you are in, to :-

Head of Packaging recruitment – Greg Nelson – greg@harrison-scott.co.uk

Head of Print recruitment–Neil Pearson – neil@harrison-scott.co.uk

Head Paper recruitment – Gary Young – gary@harrison-scott.co.uk

Board level, account management and all levels of sales vacancies –

George Thompson – george@harrison-scott.co.uk

Our divisional heads will then email your CV internally to the consultant who specialises in your exact sector, for example a category of packaging is cartons, a category of print is print management, in fact we have over 30 specialist categories. Our specialist consultant will contact you if we have a live vacancy that matches, or contact you in the near future as soon a good match to skill set and experience becomes available.

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Our client is currently going through a landmark period on its timeline. Expanding their product offering, they are looking for a leader with vision and drive to head up their new innovation design lab. This is an unmissable opportunity to build a new innovation capability from the ground up that will drive the future of food packaging for our client and its partners, and be recognised as a driver of change.

In this role you will be responsible for setting up all aspects of the new Innovation Design Lab.  You will be a recognised industry leader in packaging innovation and skilled at leveraging design thinking and innovation approaches to develop future packaging opportunities and solutions that are consumer relevant and built on market and category insights and enabled by science and technologies.  You will be commercially savvy and skilled communicator to ensure the Lab is central to the growth of the company and its partners and position our client as an innovation catalyst.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 

  • Accountable for creating a pipeline of Design Lab innovation projects that support the company and partners long term innovation goals.
  • Managing projects from scoping to delivery, engaging key customers and internal stakeholders to setup activities for success. 
  • Be a champion for insight led innovation by partnering with our Market Intelligence Consumer Insights team to identify customer and consumer opportunities.
  • Partner with R&D, Innovation, and technology experts across the company to enable industry leading and holistic future packaging solutions.
  • Connect technology venturing and scouting activities to brief innovation challenges and inspire solutions.
  • Partner with sales teams to commercialise the Future Packaging Lab and position the company as an innovation catalyst.
  • Subject matter expert in design thinking and sprints.  Including agile innovation methods to enable rapid framing of challenges, insight identification and sense make, solution development/prototyping and consumer testing – Provide support directly to business segments for their innovation projects.
  • Develop internal capability for small-volume prototyping (test and learn across different technologies).
  • Build and manage an external design agency network to support all design, prototyping and consumer research activities.
  • Translate and scale Future Pack Lab projects into business opportunities.

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS AND QUALIFICATIONS 

15+ years’ experience of working in the packaging industry / FMCG R&D as an innovation leader

  • Expert Innovation and portfolio management.
  • Extensive experience in design strategy / design management / design thinking activities.
  • Inspirational people leader with experience of developing new capabilities and team start-up.
  • Customer focus and drive for results to ensure the commercial viability of the Lab enterprise.
  • Exceptional communication skills to inspire stakeholders on the future of packaging.
  • Senior stakeholder management.
  • Ability to work across functions and businesses, driving teams without direct authority.
  • Entrepreneurial spirit to make things happen
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Contact: Greg Nelson

Telephone: 0141 647 6688

Categories: Management, Packaging, All Locations, Production/Technical


***

This position has now been filled, but has been left on our website as we have other similar vacancies to this on an ongoing basis that might interest you. More importantly, we have vacancies that are not advertised due to their confidential nature therefore it would certainly be in your interest to email your CV, as a word document, depending on which sector you are in, to :-

Head of Packaging recruitment – Greg Nelson – greg@harrison-scott.co.uk

Head of Print recruitment–Neil Pearson – neil@harrison-scott.co.uk

Head Paper recruitment – Gary Young – gary@harrison-scott.co.uk

Board level, account management and all levels of sales vacancies –

George Thompson – george@harrison-scott.co.uk

Our divisional heads will then email your CV internally to the consultant who specialises in your exact sector, for example a category of packaging is cartons, a category of print is print management, in fact we have over 30 specialist categories. Our specialist consultant will contact you if we have a live vacancy that matches, or contact you in the near future as soon a good match to skill set and experience becomes available.

***

Our client is currently going through a landmark period on its timeline. Expanding their product offering, they are looking for a leader with vision and drive to head up their new innovation design lab. This is an unmissable opportunity to build a new innovation capability from the ground up that will drive the future of food packaging for our client and its partners, and be recognised as a driver of change.

In this role you will be responsible for setting up all aspects of the new Innovation Design Lab.  You will be a recognised industry leader in packaging innovation and skilled at leveraging design thinking and innovation approaches to develop future packaging opportunities and solutions that are consumer relevant and built on market and category insights and enabled by science and technologies.  You will be commercially savvy and skilled communicator to ensure the Lab is central to the growth of the company and its partners and position our client as an innovation catalyst.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 

  • Accountable for creating a pipeline of Design Lab innovation projects that support the company and partners long term innovation goals.
  • Managing projects from scoping to delivery, engaging key customers and internal stakeholders to setup activities for success. 
  • Be a champion for insight led innovation by partnering with our Market Intelligence Consumer Insights team to identify customer and consumer opportunities.
  • Partner with R&D, Innovation, and technology experts across the company to enable industry leading and holistic future packaging solutions.
  • Connect technology venturing and scouting activities to brief innovation challenges and inspire solutions.
  • Partner with sales teams to commercialise the Future Packaging Lab and position the company as an innovation catalyst.
  • Subject matter expert in design thinking and sprints.  Including agile innovation methods to enable rapid framing of challenges, insight identification and sense make, solution development/prototyping and consumer testing – Provide support directly to business segments for their innovation projects.
  • Develop internal capability for small-volume prototyping (test and learn across different technologies).
  • Build and manage an external design agency network to support all design, prototyping and consumer research activities.
  • Translate and scale Future Pack Lab projects into business opportunities.

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS AND QUALIFICATIONS 

15+ years’ experience of working in the packaging industry / FMCG R&D as an innovation leader

  • Expert Innovation and portfolio management.
  • Extensive experience in design strategy / design management / design thinking activities.
  • Inspirational people leader with experience of developing new capabilities and team start-up.
  • Customer focus and drive for results to ensure the commercial viability of the Lab enterprise.
  • Exceptional communication skills to inspire stakeholders on the future of packaging.
  • Senior stakeholder management.
  • Ability to work across functions and businesses, driving teams without direct authority.
  • Entrepreneurial spirit to make things happen
Share this job:

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