Description
You’re not the person who will settle for just any role. Neither are we. Because we’re out to create Better Care for a Better World, and that takes a certain kind of person and teams who care about making a difference. Here, you’ll bring your professional expertise, talent, and drive to building and managing our portfolio of iconic, ground-breaking brands. In this role, you’ll help us deliver better care for billions of people around the world.
It starts with YOU.
We are looking for a Front End Innovation Marketing professional who will spearhead the ideation and development of groundbreaking products and solutions for our Consumer business within IFP over 3-5 years. This role is critical in ensuring the company stays ahead of the curve in innovation, by spearheading early-stage development and nurturing new ideas that will drive future growth and differentiation. It involves leading cross-functional teams to identify market opportunities, generate innovative concepts, and drive the early-stage development process.
Key Responsibilities include:
Innovation Strategy Development
1. Define and shape the front-end innovation strategy aligned with the company’s overall business goals and market needs.
2. Lead the identification of white spaces, market gaps, and new opportunities for innovation through trend analysis, consumer insights, and competitive intelligence.
3. Ensure innovation concepts support the long-term vision and sustainability goals of the company.
Idea Generation & Concept Development
4. Lead brainstorming and ideation sessions with cross-functional teams to generate a robust pipeline of new ideas.
5. Utilize creative thinking tools, methods (such as design thinking), and innovation frameworks to foster out-of-the-box ideas.
6. Evaluate and prioritize ideas based on feasibility, market potential, alignment with strategic goals, and innovation KPIs.
Consumer, Customer & Market Insights
7. Utilize consumer insights to guide product development. Engage with focus groups, surveys, and other feedback mechanisms to ensure products meet consumer expectations. Oversee consumer research, market trends analysis, and data analytics to uncover unmet needs, behaviors, and emerging trends.
8. Translate insights into innovative concepts that solve real consumer problems or enhance customer experiences.
9. Stay informed about advancements in technology, materials, and sustainability that could influence the innovation pipeline.
Prototyping & Concept Testing
10. Collaborate with R&D, design, and engineering teams to rapidly prototype and test new product or service concepts.
11. Validate early-stage concepts through consumer testing, feedback loops, and market assessments.
12. Iterate on concepts based on feedback, refining ideas to ensure they meet consumer expectations and market requirements.
Business Case Development:
13. Develop compelling business cases for new product concepts, including market potential, cost analysis, and ROI projections. Present these cases to senior leadership for approval.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
14. Work closely with marketing, R&D, product development, and design teams to bring innovative concepts from idea to prototype stage. - Facilitate collaboration between different departments, ensuring that innovation efforts are supported by the necessary technical, financial, and human resources. - Build a culture of innovation across the organization by promoting creative thinking and collaboration.
Innovation Pipeline Management
15. Maintain and manage a dynamic pipeline of innovation projects, ensuring a balanced mix of short-term and long-term initiatives.
16. Track progress of ideas from the initial concept stage through to hand-off to product development teams for commercialization.
17. Set and track key innovation performance indicators (KPIs) such as time-to-market, concept success rate, and contribution to overall business growth.
Technology Scouting & Partnerships
18. Identify and explore new technologies, materials, or external partnerships that can fuel innovation and give the company a competitive edge.
19. Build relationships with external partners, including startups, research institutions, and technology providers, to support open innovation efforts.
20. Evaluate and recommend opportunities for technology integration or acquisitions that could enhance innovation capabilities.
Risk Management & Feasibility Assessments
21. Conduct feasibility assessments for innovation concepts, evaluating technical, financial, and operational risks.
22. Develop risk mitigation strategies to ensure that the most promising innovations move forward without jeopardizing company resources or timelines.
23. Ensure the innovation pipeline is balanced, taking into account both incremental improvements and disruptive, high-risk ideas.
Reporting & Communication
24. Regularly communicate the progress of front-end innovation projects to senior leadership and key stakeholders.
25. Prepare reports and presentations that highlight the innovation roadmap, concept successes, and learning from failed or pivoted projects.
26. Promote the impact and value of front-end innovation efforts across the company.
Innovation Culture :
27. Foster a culture of creativity, experimentation, and continuous improvement within the team. Encourage innovative thinking and the exploration of new ideas.
The ideal candidate is a visionary with strong leadership skills and a deep understanding of market trends and consumer needs.
About Us
Huggies®. Kleenex®. Cottonelle®. Scott®. Kotex®. Poise®. Depend®. Kimberly-Clark Professional®. You already know our legendary brands—and so does the rest of the world. In fact, millions of people use Kimberly-Clark products every day. We know these amazing Kimberly-Clark products wouldn’t exist without talented professionals, like you.
At Kimberly-Clark, you’ll be part of the best team committed to driving innovation, growth and impact. We’re founded on more than 150 years of market leadership, and we’re always looking for new and better ways to perform – so there’s your open door of opportunity. It’s all here for you at Kimberly-Clark.
About You
You perform at the highest level possible, and you appreciate a performance culture fuelled by authentic caring. You want to be part of a company actively dedicated to sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development.
You’re driven to perform at the highest level with a passion for brand building and innovation. As a person, you’re a self-driven and highly motivated, creative thinker inspired by doing things differently, someone who is always taking initiative to make things better.
To succeed in this role the ideal candidate is a visionary with strong leadership skills and a deep understanding of market trends and consumer needs.
You will also need the following qualifications:
28. Proven experience in innovation management, product development, or related fields with the ability to develop and execute FEI strategies and manage FEI portfolio within consumer goods industry.
29. Proven experience of building up pipeline of innovation based on consumer market insight
30. Expertise in design thinking, ideation techniques, and innovation frameworks.
31. Strong understanding of consumer insights, market trends, and competitive analysis.
32. Excellent influencing, communication, and collaboration skills.
33. Experience with rapid prototyping, concept testing, and iterative design.
34. Ability to manage ambiguity and foster creativity within structured processes.
35. Knowledge of relevant technologies, materials, and emerging trends
36. Strong innovation skills, excellent communication and leadership skills
Total Benefits
We offer competitive pay and benefits to employees and reward excellence and performance. Our belief in promoting a healthy work-life balance drives us to support our employees’ total well-being, offering comprehensive benefits not limited to gym memberships, private medical insurance, dental cover, employee assistance programme, cycle to work scheme, critical illness cover, travel insurance and a market leading defined contribution pension scheme.
Certain benefits, such as flexible work schedules and parental leave, can be tailored to meet specific individual needs, giving our employees the flexibility to manage their commitments inside and outside of work. We are proud to be rated as a top 100 workplace for working mothers for two years in a row.
To Be Considered
Click the Apply button and complete the online application process. A member of our recruiting team will review your application and follow up if you seem like a great fit for this role.
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And finally, the fine print….
Primary Location
United Kingdom- Flexible Location - South East England
Additional Locations
Worker Type
Employee
Worker Sub-Type
Regular
Time Type
Full time