Innovation Commercialization Manager

About us

Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks company with an outstanding collection of brands, such as Johnnie Walker, Singleton, Mortlach, Don Julio, Smirnoff, Baileys, Captain Morgan and Guinness. Our purpose - Celebrating life, every day, everywhere - has an important role in our company, for our people, our diversity, our brands, in how we perform, and how we create shared value. Bring your passion and use your curiosity as you explore, collaborate, and innovate to build brands consumers love. Together with passionate people from all over the world, you'll test new ideas, learn and grow, and unlock a brighter, more exciting future.

Join us to create a career worth celebrating.

About the Function

The Revenue & Category Growth (R&CG) function is pivotal in translating Diageo's brand plans into crystalizing Category & Trade strategies that prioritize and shape industry leading go to market plans. We are responsible for setting Commercial strategy, managing performance and driving future category growth. We are responsible for actionable insights that translate into triple win (consumer, customer, Diageo) growth opportunities, converting these into world class activation programs and tools for our sales team and our customers to realise these opportunities at the point of purchase/moment of choice.

About the Role

This role leads the end-to-end commercialization of innovation and strategic brands, grounded in deep understanding of category, shopper, customer, and channel dynamics. The role connects insights to commercial opportunities, shapes the 3-year innovation agenda, and drives execution excellence across all channels. It requires a commercially sharp leader who can influence internal and external stakeholders, orchestrate cross-functional teams, and deliver market-leading outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Translate shopper, category, and customer insights into commercial opportunities, shaping the innovation roadmap and embedding these into planning and execution.
• Lead the launch and scale-up of innovation initiatives, developing pricing strategy, pack/format direction, channel activation blueprint, and distribution priorities.
• Drive Diageo's holistic portfolio strategy with role of innovation pipelines, including category trend assessment, competitive landscape understanding, pricing strategy, and market outlook.
• Partner with Sales, Brand Marketing, Category, RGM, and Channel planners to define and execute channel-specific commercialization plans grounded in customer economics and operational realities.
• Lead external and competitive intelligence, converting market signals into meaningful insights for leadership decision-making.
• Shape and influence trade strategy and RTM direction for strategic brands, ensuring fit-for-channel execution.
• Manage senior-level reporting and communication, synthesizing insights into clear narratives for local leadership and global teams.
• Provide strong cross-functional leadership, ensuring alignment, pace, and commercial rigor across all commercialization activities.

• 10+ years in customer/trade marketing, category, shopper insights, commercial or channel-driven roles.
• Strong commercial acumen with deep channel understanding and ability to turn insights into execution.
• Proven capability in management reporting, KPI/Dashboard ownership, and structured data-driven decision making.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and skilled at synthesizing complex information into clear recommendations.
• Strong cross-functional influence and communication skills, including engagement with senior leadership and global teams.
• Fluent English for regional collaboration.