Director of Wine Innovation

~ Diageo is a British multinational alcoholic beverages company headquartered in London, England. It is the world's largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer & wine. ~ 

With great success comes great responsibility.

We believe that financial success is only achievable in the long term if the way we achieve that success - the way we do business - is sustainable. This includes how we treat our people; the culture we promote internally; how we live our values in all our business relationships; how we use the natural resources that we rely on; and the effects we have on the communities in which we operate.

To ensure the sustainability and responsibility of our business, we continuously assess the impact that our products have on society, the environment and our economy.  

Position Overview 

The Director of Wine Innovation will own the wine innovation agenda for DC&E including expanding our lifestyle wine portfolio in a sustainable way through innovation as well as launching our new wine-based cocktails category.

A key part of this role is to develop a robust pipeline of lifestyle brands that meet the needs of the simplifier consumers and trade through breakthrough concepts and packaging and launch plans.

The Director of Wine Innovation will also lead format and dispense innovation that delivers against the wine strategy. Also the Director of Wine Innovation will ensure the creative excellence, disciplined project leadership working with the Napa-based Innovation and Commercialization team and the CT/NY-based Innovation and Liquid teams.

In addition, approximately 30% of this role will entail managing the performance and marketing of new and existing lifestyle wine trademarks. The Director of Wine Innovation is a high visibility role and requires the leadership of projects designed to deliver against the overall Wine Category Strategy. 

Responsibilities  

Decision Making: 

• Expected to drive decisions on product pipeline, pack design and liquid/wine with the Wines Leadership team.
• Key decision maker within the innovation cross-functional team. 

Management Responsibility: 

To lead the innovation cross-functional team with the WLT and the Innovation teams in CT/NY. 

Complexity of Role: 

• Operates within North American market but operates multiple simultaneous projects and requires:
• Ability to influence a team and key stakeholders is vital to success, strong project management skills;
• In-depth knowledge of consumers and consumer behaviors;
• Ability to lead idea generation and concept development processes;
• Experience working with and managing 3rd party agencies; and 
• Good commercial understanding. 

Note: Key relationships are with the Wines Leadership Team, NA Innovation Team, Wine Brand Teams, Finance, Supply, Regulatory, Legal, and External Affairs. 

Key Outputs/Deliverables: 

• Develop pipeline of lifestyle wine innovation to grow our lifestyle portfolio from 500K to 1.5M in 5 years. 
• Ensure that opportunities are grounded in superior consumer insights and commercial viability. 
• Create resource plan for Innovation pipeline - to include resource needs from Diageo NA, Marketing Agencies, Research, Packaging, Agencies. 
• Develop Wine Innovation Best Practices that enable speed to market, compelling ideas and best in class launch. 
• Deliver clear go-to-market plans and lead the cross functional commercialization team to bring concepts successfully to market. 
• Stakeholder management of innovation ideas with Wines Leadership Team and DNA Marketing and Innovation stakeholders. 
• Manage key projects from ideation to delivery - Gate 0 and beyond. 

Qualifications  

Experience:  

• 8+ years of experience including senior level of consumer marketing and new product development. 
• Proven success as a project or team leader. 
• MBA Preferred. 

To Apply 

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