Manager - Innovation

Job Title
Manager - Innovation

About the Function:
Our Marketing team are creators, helping to build and nurture some of the world’s most loved brands. We craft amazing connections with people around the world to celebrate our brands’ legacies and reimagine them for the world today, and into the future.

Everything we do is underpinned by a deep understanding of our consumers, behaviours, trends, and technologies. Using our genius and creativity, we unlock our brands’ uniqueness, understand their purpose, and put them at the heart of celebrations everywhere. Together, we’re celebrating diversity and challenging stereotypes through our advertising and marketing. Wherever your talents lie, from Design to Consumer Planning, you’ll be celebrated and supported in our inclusive culture.

Diageo India’s Innovation (New Growth Engines) team is on a mission to shape the future of drinking by building disruptive, scalable, and strategic growth engines that unlock new consumer occasions, reimagine brands, and lead category transformation.

This role sits at the intersection of Brand Strategy and Innovation, designed for a next-generation marketer who thrives on identifying bold whitespace opportunities, developing new-to-market propositions, and delivering future-ready innovations rooted in deep consumer, cultural, and commercial insight.

As Manager – New Growth Engines, you will own and drive end-to-end innovation projects from insight to in-market execution, while collaborating closely with brand teams to ensure synergy between core brand equity and innovation ambition. You’ll also play a key role in shaping Diageo’s strategic innovation bets across key portfolios.

Roles and Responsibilities

Shape the Future: Innovation Strategy & Concepting

• Build and own the pipeline of new growth engines, spanning brand renovations, category expansion, and breakthrough propositions.
• Mine cultural, consumer, and category trends to identify future growth vectors and white space opportunities.
• Craft compelling innovation concepts and value propositions grounded in brand equity and scalable commercial models.

Win Through Execution: Project Management & GTM

• Lead cross-functional project teams (Brand, Supply, R&D, Commercial, Finance) to develop and commercialize innovations with pace, discipline, and excellence.
• Co-create go-to-market strategies and launch plans in partnership with brand teams and customer marketing.
• Monitor launch performance, ROI, and consumer feedback, and drive course-corrections for sustained success.

Inspire with Creativity & Commercial Acumen

• Bring creative flair to every touchpoint—from pack design to campaign assets—while ensuring commercial viability and executional feasibility.
• Collaborate with agency partners and internal teams to drive breakthrough ideas that elevate both product and experience.

Lead With Influence & Collaboration

• Partner seamlessly with brand leads, global innovation, and commercial teams to drive alignment and advocacy across stakeholders.
• Build credibility with senior leaders by presenting business cases, insights, and strategic POVs with clarity and conviction.

Qualifications and Experience Required:

Experience & Skills

• MBA in Marketing or equivalent from a Tier I/II institute.
• 6–8 years of experience in brand marketing, innovation, or category strategy within FMCG, lifestyle, or consumer-first industries.
• Proven track record in translating consumer and cultural insight into commercial success, especially in new product development or brand transformation initiatives.
• Experience managing cross-functional projects from ideation through to market launch.

Mindset & Capabilities

• A rare blend of creativity + commercial sharpness + execution excellence.
• Strategic thinker with a bias for action and ability to operate in ambiguity.
• Strong analytical capability and a keen eye for design, storytelling, and consumer experience.
• Collaborative team player who can diverse teams together to drive outcomes.
• High energy, resilient, and open to bold bets and smart risks.

Flexible Working Statement:

Flexibility is key to our success. Talk to us about what flexibility means to you so that you’re supported to manage your wellbeing and balance your priorities from day one.
 

Diversity statement:

Our purpose is to celebrate life, every day, everywhere. And creating an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued and that they can belong, is a crucial part of this. We embrace diversity in the broadest possible sense. This means that you’ll be welcomed and celebrated for who you are just by being you. You’ll be part of and help build and champion an inclusive culture that celebrates people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational backgrounds, experiences, mindsets, and more.

Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. Join us and help transform our business as we take our brands to the next level and build new ones as part of shaping the next generation of celebrations for consumers around the world.

Feel inspired? Then this may be the opportunity for you.

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please ensure that you capture this information when you submit your application.