Current jobs related to Head of Product - Hengoed - IG Design Group

**Job Title: Head of Product - Celebrate**

**Location: Penallta, South Wales**

**Scope of the Role**:
We have an exciting opportunity for a Head of Product to join our team in South Wales. As Head of Product, the role will be responsible for the implementation of the product manufacturing and sourcing strategy across the Celebrate category (wrap, gift bags, cards, crackers, and accessories). Reporting into the UK Head of Product & Sourcing and aligned with the Commercial, Creative and Compliance leadership team, this role will lead the development of a consumer-led, market leading product proposition that fulfils the long-term sales and margin growth strategy.

The Head of Product will provide leadership for a team of talented product and category experts, creating opportunities to attract and retain customers profitably and sustainably.

An experienced leader of people, used to dealing with senior stakeholders across multiple business functions and able to take a passionate and energetic approach to clearly identify innovative product opportunities.

**Key Duties and Responsibilities**:

- Work in collaboration with the UK Head of Product & Sourcing to develop, implement and deliver the product strategy.
- Be the lead collaborator for all Celebrate product categories across all business functions and oversee the entire product development process.
- Build and maintain a resilient, transparent supply chain across the UK, Europe and Far East that delivers all commercial opportunities for our branded and own label portfolio.
- Identify new suppliers for existing products and to unlock new opportunities to extend our current category offering and drive business growth.
- Collaborate with the Head of Product & Buying (Create and Home and Office categories) to ensure consistent ways of working and to build strategic partnerships with identified suppliers to drive economies of scale.
- Work cross functionally with the creative, sourcing and manufacturing teams to create innovative, margin enhancing product and packaging solutions, delivering a tiered structure in our categories.
- Ensure products are developed based on an ‘outside in’ approach, including consumer insight, market intelligence and user testing.
- Attend global forums and build relationships with group stakeholders to utilise our global scale to take learnings, driving newness and profitability into our categories.
- Further develop our portfolio of brands and licensed products to offer margin enhancing products that are competitive.
- Identify inspiring ways to market and promote our brands to raise awareness and build customer loyalty.
- Build external strategic partners to add value to the product development process, such as suppliers, associated bodies, and universities.
- Lead strategic initiatives as briefed by the leadership/senior management team.
- Future-focused and expected to horizon scan to ensure long term commercial success.
- Lead the long-term sustainability product strategy to identify how to adapt our product categories to drive positive change and business growth.
- Build relationships across our customer base and support the Commercial team with the required tools to ensure our customers recognise the added value offered by us that makes us a supplier of choice.
- Ensure the Celebrate Product team have a ‘one team’ approach, delivering products to market on time and in full, to our quality expectations, and ensure they have the necessary skills to carry out their roles effectively through development.
- Act as a Sustainability Ambassador, ensuring our people, product and planet targets are delivered and reported publicly on an annual basis.
- Create and embed a positive culture within the business, which promotes our core values (people, pace, passion, and purpose).
- Work alongside other leaders to encourage cross functional work to maximise the success of DGUK.

**Key Skills and Attributes**:

- Experience in a Senior Buyer / Senior Product or Category Management position incorporating Far East sourcing is essential, ideally within a similar customer sector.
- Experience in joint business planning with suppliers, price negotiation and contractual agreements is essential.
- Flair for creativity and innovation.
- Excellent analytical and IT skills are essential.
- Great team player with strong leadership skills.
- Strong presentation skills and the ability to communicate clearly.
- Demonstrate ability to manage and influence stakeholders at all levels of the business.
- Capacity to embrace and create change.
- Ability to travel across UK sites and occasional international travel if required.

**Our People**

Our culture and heritage are extremely important to us and Design Group UK has developed into a business that employs over 600 in the UK and 1,000 in the Far East. We believe the success of our business depends on the success of our people and we strive to create a working environment where our employees feel valu