Global Innovation Finance Director, Diageo
Alcoholic beverage company
Be an early applicant
Alcoholic beverage company
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
1001+ employees
Company mission
To be one of the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world.
Role
Who you are
- Minimum 15 years professional experience, with strong foundation in finance (preferably across several sub-functions), demonstrated ability to lead and develop large teams, and increasing history of increasing responsibilities preferably in a regional (multi-market) environment
- Experience in managing Innovation Finance projects / performance / processes is preferable
- Ability to influence senior partners across functions
- Strategic leader, with excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
- Strong project management capabilities
- Finance experience in consumer goods, beverage alcohol preferred
- Operate effectively with ambiguity
What the job involves
- The Global Innovation Finance Director is the finance business partner to Chief Innovation Officer, accountable for an annual innovation pipeline of >$500m and the leader of the Global Innovation Finance team
- The role partners with the innovation function to ensure that the innovation pipeline is robust, sustainable, and aligned with Diageo’s needs both globally and regionally while balancing consumer need spaces, commercial bandwidth, project economics and supply capability
- The role must build relationships across group to understand strategic imperatives, including with regional FDs to understand specific P&L needs, and supply to ensure capacity/capability exists to deliver pipeline ambition
- It also leads the development of a team of sixteen finance professionals across the globe who partner with their respective regional innovation teams
- This role reports to the Group Head of Performance Management, partners directly with the Chief Innovation Officer and sits on the Global Innovation Leadership Team
- Ability to support prioritization and consolidate collective needs of regions into ideal innovation pipeline (magnitude and quality) and then work across functions to secure resources to enable pipeline delivery
- Provide thought leadership and influence shape of innovation pipeline delivery
- High degree of exposure to senior executive leadership across functions and geographies
- Champion the new (2024) Innovation go-to-market process to ensure it runs as an efficient, highly effective, and compliant process
- Plan and manage the annual Innovation / R&D budgets to ensure necessary allocation of resources and compliant spend/accounting
- Balance focus between short-term and long-term, short-term financial governance of in-flight projects and longer-term planning and influencing broader Innovation Agenda
- Managing a large, diverse team leading disparate geographies across several time zones
- Future planning, partner with Innovation Leadership team to build/maintain and influence the 5-year rolling plan for innovation (spanning current financial year, next financial year, rolling 24–36-month pipeline)
- Thought leadership to create and align the priority metrics to drive innovation performance eg incrementality, growth contribution
- Connecting role to ensure Innovation plans are meeting partner needs across the regional Executive Team (incl. markets GMs and FDs), Supply, Global Innovation, Marketing/Brand Finance
- Prepare 5-year strategic plan inputs and Innovation contributions to annual strategy conferences and other executive-level interactions
- Provide thought partnership and performance management interventions on opportunities and gaps in near-in performance to Global Innovation goals
- Oversee financial governance of all innovation projects in their decision support efforts
- Consolidate latest expectations of Innovation pipeline to ensure adequate shape/magnitude
- Lead annual operating plan for Innovation
- Partner with Finance and commercial leads to ensure Innovation launches are well coordinated and are set up for success
- Plan and secure right annual Innovation funding for project R&D
- Coordinate regular spend outlooks and course correct as necessary
- Propose project budget re-allocations where under or overspends are identified in partnership with Innovation Leadership Team
- Review monthly performance insights to SILT
- Prepare innovation commentary to IR to craft narrative on innovation’s impact on group performance
- Lead annual reporting to provide investors insight into Diageo’s innovation sustainability efforts
- Lead team of sixteen finance professionals across the globe
- Build relationships with team to understand development needs and assign stretch projects and sponsor their future career steps in partnership with local Finance teams
- Ensure team is sharing standard methodologies across regions and actively collaborating tin service of broader innovation finance agenda
- Build strong culture of ownership and provide regional teams space to tailor global needs to regional realities
Application process
- End Date: January 2, 2025
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Multinational beverage company Diageo was the result of a merger between Guinness and Grand Metropolitan, a leisure and property conglomerate, in 1997. Spearheaded by then-Guiness executives Anthony Greener and Philip Yea, the merger sent stocks skyrocketing and by December of the same year, Diageo was listed on the London Stock Exchange.
As the owner of many of the global leaders in alcoholic beverages (think Ciroc, Smirnoff, and Tanqueray), Diageo has made a number of savvy acquisitions and sell-offs, expanding its portfolio beyond Europe and into the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia.
Over the past decade, however, it has had to face the rise of craft and independent brewing, with companies like Brewdog becoming new competitors. Rather than acquiring these craft beer companies, Diageo has focused on branding Guinness in a way that fits the craft mould. This involved initiatives like The Brewers Project.
During the early 2020s, Diageo also weathered an alcohol sales decline and has bounced back with a renewed focus on cold brew coffee liqueurs and Guinness blends, as well as further acquisitions that have included that of actor Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation Gin.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
Company
Employee endorsements
Diversity is a priority
"There are several communities within Diageo focused on different employee groups. The whole company celebrates Pride, and you never get any strange..."
Funding (1 round)
Aug 2023
$7.8m
GRANT
Total funding: $7.8m
Company HQ
Park Royal, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Debra Crew
(CEO)Currently a Board Member at Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. Previously Board Member at Mondelēz International, Newell Brands and previously a Board Member at Diageo before becoming its CEO.
Share this job
View 12 more jobs at Diageo