Join the Fortnum & Mason Team!

Why Work For Us:

• Competitive salary
• A generous store and restaurant discount of up to 40%
• 25 days holidays (excluded bank holidays) and an extra day off for your birthday
• A fantastic subsidised staff restaurant which uses Fortnum’s ingredients
• A range of opportunities to develop and grow personally and professionally
• Excellent pension scheme

About The Role:

The Head of NPD, Food, is responsible for driving and managing product innovation initiatives aligned to our company strategy. And through fostering a culture of creativity, ensuring that the retail business stays at the forefront of innovation, by identifying new category/cross category product opportunities, delivering sustainable and profitable growth.

The role will work closely with key interfaces (as below) and in particular, alongside Marketing to ensure a clear product and product communications plan (18-36 month time frame), allowing all dependent functions to plan accordingly.

Reports to:   Director of Buying – Food, Wine and Spirits

Key interfaces: Buying, Marketing, Design, Food Technical & Sustainability, Merchandising

What You'll Do:

Strategic Vision and Planning 

• Develop and execute a forward-thinking innovation strategy, seamlessly aligning it with our overarching business goals and customer/channel strategy, embedding food innovation at the heart of our business.
• Identify emerging market trends, evolving customer behaviours, and untapped opportunities to shape our competitive edge.
• Create and maintain a dynamic innovation roadmap to steer the future direction of food initiatives, ensuring alignment with business priorities.

Product Development Management 

• Lead the innovation journey from concept generation through to implementation, fostering collaboration across the Innovation Forum, Directors, and Buyers.
• Design clear frameworks and criteria for brainstorming, evaluating, and prioritizing food innovation ideas and cross category initiatives.
• Drive the effective delivery of innovation projects by securing appropriate resources and building compelling business cases when required.

Culture of Innovation 

• Instil a culture of curiosity, bold experimentation, and continuous improvement within the buying team.
• Promote knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration, breaking silos to spark collective creativity.
• Empower teams to champion new ideas by providing insights into their rationale and potential impact.
• Nurture relationships with external stakeholders, including networks, chefs, startups, artisans, suppliers, and industry leaders, to bring fresh perspectives and expertise.

Customer-Centric Approach 

• Keeping the customer at the centre through prioritising innovation that enhances their experience, fulfils their evolving needs and is aligned to their missions.
• Utilise market research and customer insight to guide our innovation strategy and product development.
• Deliver innovation that creates measurable value and long-lasting customer relationships.
• Deliver a quality strategy, in collaboration with food technical.

 Measurement and Impact

• Define key performance metrics to evaluate the success of innovation initiatives and ensure alignment with organisational goals.
• Champion innovation projects that deliver tangible, measurable value for both the business and its customers.

What We Are Looking For:

• Ability to work collaboratively with others.
• Ability to inspire others, helping them to embrace new ideas. 
• The ability to communicate effectively at all levels of an organisation.
• Demonstrate a passion for delivering high quality, innovative products and ranges, with Customer at the heart.
• Experience with sourcing and driving innovation within a company and bringing new latest product trends to the market.
• Demonstrable experience in working in fast-paced environment and development
• Background in food, design and managing product life cycles is desirable
• Understanding of marketing/product positioning and the translation of customer insights into compelling propositions.
• Strong presentation skills.
• Qualifications
• 5+ years of experience in product and buying management
• Some food technical aptitude and background, with the ability to understand, explain and coach internal and external customers
• Ability to manage a team, multiple product lines and operate as a team player
• Retail experience

We are committed to developing your career and nurturing your talent, regardless of age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation. We respect and embrace each other's differences, to create a truly inclusive environment. In the last year alone, our people have been recognised and celebrated, winning awards for their outstanding contributions to Retail, Technology, Global Hospitality & Tourism, Visual Merchandising & Display, Customer Service and Local Community Awards.