Full job descriptionHead of Food Marketing
Putney Office, Putney, Greater London, SW152TG
Full time


Posted Today
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Salary up to: Competitive
About the role:
At Nando’s, we operate our business through the lens of Shared Value, making a difference to the lives of our people (Nandocas), our customers, our suppliers and the communities we serve. We strive to balance commercial excellence with a much-loved brand and a market-leading culture. The Customer team plays a pivotal role in creating meaningful experiences, products and communications that drive customer growth and brand love.
The Head of Food Marketing is a critical role. It leads and manages the cross-functional creation of our EPD and NPD plans and sees them through to delivery. A leadership role which marshals the business from insight & diagnosis, through strategy & plan, to launch, review and beyond - ensuring that we have a menu packed with food we feel proud to serve, which delights customers, creates brand love and drives commercial results. It’s a competitive market, so this job is about keeping us in the top spot as the number one restaurant on the high street.
This is a senior role that has a wide-reaching area of influence amongst many teams: Customer, Food, Commercial, Operations and the UK&I Leadership Team, as well as a close working relationship with senior stakeholders, including our owner. After all, we’re a restaurant brand and this role is all about the food on our menu - it’s a central part of who we are. This role will be responsible for designing, building and executing the food plan and proposition for the UK&I market. They’re not doing this alone, they directly lead a small but mighty team and thought lead the entire organisation.
In terms of the focus of the role, the successful candidate will have three key skills: strong people & stakeholder skills; excellent programme/project management skills and the ability to think innovatively. Since they lead people, they must also be an excellent, people-first line manager, who will develop their people selflessly. These skills need to be wrapped up in an active passion for food.
Overall ambition & key responsibilities:
The Head of Food Marketing is at the forefront of innovation and product strategy for Nando’s. The role elevates our food proposition whilst helping to define the path for our business in the product space in a way that ’only Nando’s can’.
Food Marketing Strategy & Vision
Define the role of food in support of the wider 5 year business strategy
Create and manage a rolling 2-year menu pipeline that meets our business objectives, combining brand buzz, customer love, profitability, sales volume, operational ease, sustainability and Nandoca excitement
Translate brand positioning into compelling food concepts and strategy
Monitor food trends (health, sustainability, flavour innovation, convenience, premiumisation)
Validate concepts through consumer testing and feedback loops
We are a highly collaborative business, and this role is at the nexus of much of what makes us who we are - so stakeholder management and ensuring successful cross-functional working is central to the success of the role and business
Work as part of the cross-functional Pricing Working Group to define and implement menu-wide pricing strategies
The candidate must have a proven track record of being able to distinguish trends from fads, driving innovation and delivering growth across NPD and EPD
Product Development Leadership
Work with Insight managers to commission research and use insight to inform our food strategy and pipeline
Build short, mid, and long-term roadmaps
Orchestrate the programme of work, and lead the team to manage various projects
Initiate product development briefs that represent the voice of the customer and are in line with our menu strategy and business goals
Ensure feasibility, scalability and market differentiation throughout the development process from concept to customer
Deploy trials intelligently and ensure that all NPD/EPD and category plans deliver brilliant product launches
Champion food collab opportunities in key category areas that help us drive volume growth, brand buzz and relevance
Represent Brand and Customer throughout the stage gate process, ensuring all innovations strengthen brand equity and positioning
Support go-to-market strategy and drive launch readiness across stakeholders and internal teams
Menu, Communications & Activation
Deliver our most important marketing asset: the menu. Our ambition is to help customers make great food choices at Nando’s through best-in-class multichannel menus (print and digital.)
Build, own and govern in-restaurant customer communication, ensuring the right messages in the right place and the right time to deliver our food proposition effectively
Use behavioural economics insight to delight customers and maximise sales opportunities across the menus by actively managing menu architecture and product rotation
Work cross-functionally with e-commerce team to define the merchandising product plan across the year
Develop robust product naming strategy and practices, ensuring a customer-led approach in line with brand and product tone of voice
Ensure IP protection and legal safeguarding for food propositions and assets
Food Policy
Subject matter expert within the Customer Team on all food policies and legal requirements both current and emerging
Partner with Head of Technical Sourcing to ensure we are compliant on all customer-facing communication and advertising channels including how we represent our products to customers across all touchpoints
Ensure the Food Brand Team build and use expertise taking a leading role and supporting the rest of the team, specifically Campaigns & Content and PR in Food Policy (eg. HFSS)
Team
Heartfelt people-first leadership who creates the conditions for every member of the Food Marketing team to fulfil their full potential
Actively role model leadership behaviours and the Nando’s values
Drive our foodie culture through passion, connectedness and curiosity
Spread an innovative attitude and stretch thought processes across the team
Strengthen our innovation processes, making us more efficient and effective (explore the potential to automate) creating more time for the work that will make us distinctive (insight, research, ideation, creativity)
Our candidate should be looking for:
An opportunity to help grow a high-profile, meaningful brand in an ambitious fast-paced, growing business
A culture with strong purpose & values, intent on driving positive cultural and societal change
An environment which is supportive, relaxed, informal and highly collaborative - with a hefty dollop of ambiguity, plate spinning and challenge
The candidate should possess/be:
10+ years in Brand/Food/Product Strategy...