Global Head of NPD Project Management

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Global Head of NPD Project Management

About us

We believe nature holds the key to our emotional and physical wellness, providing gentle yet effective remedies. At Nelsons, we harness these powerful ingredients and infuse them with centuries' worth of expertise to offer traditional treatments for a modern world. We're an award winning, family-owned business, whose passion for providing natural healthcare choices since 1860 continues to drive us today. Nelsons is one of the UK's leading and Europe's longest established manufacturer of natural healthcare products, having built up an impressive portfolio including the world-famous RESCUE® Remedy, Spatone® and Teetha®

We have boots on the ground in the UK, Europe, and the US as well as a distribution network of over 70 countries globally and we're not stopping there. Our phenomenal, international teams are collaborative, high achieving, and high energy.

What's next? Growth, and lots of it! We're experiencing a significant and exciting period of global expansion and we're looking for talented, ambitious individuals to help drive meaningful impact across the business.

The Role

Innovation is a key pillar in our growth agenda and we have an exciting pipeline of new product launches planned. This role is accountable for leading the end-to-end project management required to deliver the Innovation pipeline and a broader range of EPD and regulatory compliance projects. As the owner and leader of the Stage Gate process, you will also be accountable for ensuring the pipeline is effectively stewarded, including providing visibility of the pipeline status and health through clear KPI dashboards.

What you'll be doing

• Leading the Project Management team to successfully deliver a complex portfolio of projects for global launch, ensuring that all products are launched on time and meet financial and quality targets.
• Scope includes end-to-end project management for the full NPD/Innovation Pipeline and a broader range of EPD and regulatory compliance projects.
• Building and strengthening end-to-end Project Management capability. Managing and coaching a team of 2 direct reports and ensuring that all project management processes and ways-of working are effective, efficient and fit-for-purpose.
• Owning and Leading the Stage Gate Process - ensuring the process itself is optimised to deliver the business needs and leading effective monthly meetings with senior stakeholders to ensure projects progress through the funnel. Partnering with key multi-functional team members to ensure Stage Gate documentation is completed and shared in full ahead of meetings to ensure effective meetings.
• Owning Innovation Portfolio KPI Dashboards, trackers and risk registers. Ensuring any risks are appropriately escalated to leadership and under-pinned by mitigation plans.
• Leading and owning the end-to-end project timelines. Collaborating with key functions including Innovation Marketing, R&D, Supply Chain, Regulatory and Quality to ensure projects move at pace according to these timelines.
• Leading weekly multi-functional NPD meetings to ensure multi-functional alignment on priorities and next steps and collaborating to drive on-time delivery of actions.
• Using strong supply chain, product development and manufacturing knowledge to identify opportunities to optimise the overall project delivery and to identify and facilitate solutions to any identified risks and challenges.
• Ensuring market requirements, regulatory complexities and nuances are built into all plans and timelines.
• Ensuring all Change Controls are raised accurately and managed to completion.

Requirements

We'd love you to have

• Minimum 8 years in a project management leadership role managing and delivering a complex portfolio of NPD projects.
• Experience in FMCG, Food Supplements or a regulated product category. Must have experience delivering physical products (i.e. not just services, software...).
• Experience of leading project management teams and building end-to-end project management capability.
• Experience of leading Stage Gate processes and creating/owning Innovation Portfolio KPI dashboards.
• Experience in managing multi-market/regional/global projects.
• A strong understanding of what it takes to create and launch new products including understanding operations and supply chain and the inter-connectivity of all different functions.
• An agile and flexible mindset and approach - focused on finding solutions to challenges.
• Ability to create clear plans from ambiguity and manage uncertainty.
• A track-record of delivering complex projects through collaborative teamwork.
• Strong communication skills - ability to communicate effectively across levels and functions.
• A proactive approach and excellent attention to detail.
• Good knowledge of MS project and Excel
• Experience of managing projects with both internal and 3rd party supply chains preferred.

Benefits

Annual bonus

25 days holiday per year plus Bank Hols PLUS Christmas shut down - whoop!

Free products and staff discounts to keep you healthy and happy

3pm Friday finishes ALL YEAR ROUND (if you have done your work, obvs!)

Hybrid and flexible working

Paid days off to volunteer for some awesome charities

Cycle to work scheme, free, weekly yoga class, regular socials plus all your standard stuff such as pensions, eye test vouchers and season ticket loans. We can tell you all about what is available to you when you start!