Function: Marketing

Job Title: Head of Creative & Innovations

Department: Creative & Innovations

Location: East Africa

Reports to: Chief Marketing Officer

Direct Reports: Creative Manager, Packaging Design Officer

Job Purpose:

The Head of Creative & Innovations is a pivotal strategic leadership role tasked with shaping the future of the company's brand presence and market offerings. This position is responsible for driving a competitive advantage by fostering a culture of groundbreaking creativity and disciplined innovation. The role leads the end-to-end process of conceptualizing, developing, and executing powerful ideas that resonate deeply with consumers, ensuring that the company's brands and products consistently capture attention, build loyalty, and win in the increasingly dynamic East African marketplace.

Key Stakeholders:

Internal: CEO, Heads of Department, Category Team, Research & Development Team, Supply Chain, Sales, and Quality Assurance.

External: Marketing & Creative Agencies, Shareholders, Packaging Suppliers, and Regulatory Bodies.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Brand Stewardship & Creative Direction

- As the ultimate guardian of the company's brand identity, this role ensures coherence, relevance, and impact across every consumer touchpoint. This includes overseeing all advertising campaigns, digital assets, social media content, and packaging design to ensure strict alignment with the brand's core values, personality, and visual identity systems.

- The Head of Creative & Innovations will set the overarching creative direction for all projects and product launches, acting as a strategic partner to the Chief Marketing Officer to translate business objectives into compelling creative briefs. They will champion a high standard of creative excellence, ensuring all outputs-from a television commercial to a product label-reflect the brand's tone, meet regulatory requirements, and resonate with target audiences in a culturally relevant way.

2. Brand Architecture & Visual Identity Systems

- A key foundational responsibility is the development and meticulous management of the company's brand architecture frameworks. This involves defining the relationships between the master brand, sub-brands, and product variants to create a clear and logical portfolio structure that is easy for consumers to navigate.

- The role will establish, enforce, and periodically refresh comprehensive visual identity systems, including typography, color palettes, imagery standards, and design templates. By ensuring unwavering consistency across all ATL, BTL, digital, retail, and packaging touchpoints, the Head of Creative & Innovations will build a powerful and recognizable brand equity. They will also lead any major brand refresh or rebranding initiatives, applying structured brand equity models to protect and enhance the company's most valuable assets.

3. Innovation, Product & Packaging Development

- This function is the engine of future growth, responsible for identifying and capitalizing on new market opportunities. The Head of Creative & Innovations will oversee continuous consumer and market research to uncover deep insights, identify gaps, and guide strategic R&D initiatives.

- They will lead the conceptualization and execution of innovative, market-relevant, and consumer-driven packaging designs that are engineered to enhance shelf visibility, communicate product benefits, and elevate the overall customer experience. The role champions user-centric and sustainable design principles, ensuring that functionality, aesthetics, and environmental responsibility are balanced in every new product and packaging format.

- This includes overseeing the development of prototypes and proof-of-concepts, managing rigorous testing and refinement processes before commercialization, and seamlessly integrating creativity into cross-functional workflows with Marketing, R&D, Supply Chain, and Sales.

4. Product Innovation & R&D Integration

- Beyond packaging, this role is integral to the product innovation lifecycle. The Head of Creative & Innovations will lead concept-to-commercialization processes, facilitating ideation sessions, guiding prototyping, and validating concepts with consumers. They will develop robust pilot testing frameworks to de-risk new ideas before mass production.

- A critical aspect of this is working in close partnership with the R&D team to ensure that new product formulations and their packaging are perfectly compatible, considering factors like material interaction, shelf-life stability, and manufacturing efficiency. The role is responsible for managing the innovation pipeline, shepherding projects through a structured stage-gate process to ensure that only the most viable and promising ideas reach the market.

5. Quality Management

- Maintaining impeccable quality standards is paramount to protecting the brand's reputation. The Head of Creative & Innovations will establish and rigorously enforce quality benchmarks for all creative, branding, and packaging outputs.

- This involves implementing a structured artwork approval and control process to prevent errors, ensure regulatory compliance, and avoid costly reprints.

- They will work collaboratively with the Quality Assurance and Production teams to conduct essential packaging validation tests, such as drop tests, leak tests, material compatibility checks, and shelf-life stability assessments. Furthermore, the role oversees all aspects of print quality control, including color accuracy, barcode verification, and batch coding compliance, ensuring that the final physical product perfectly matches the creative vision and technical specifications.

6. Financial Management

- The Head of Creative & Innovations acts as a strategic financial steward for the department. They are responsible for developing and overseeing detailed budgets for all creative and innovation projects, ensuring resources are allocated effectively to maximize impact. This involves conducting thorough cost-benefit analyses and financial forecasting to evaluate the viability of new initiatives. The role monitors and analyzes financial performance metrics, such as return on investment (ROI) for creative campaigns and innovation launches, to demonstrate value and inform future strategy.

- When required, they will lead negotiations with external vendors and suppliers, including creative agencies and packaging material providers, to secure competitive pricing and favorable terms. A key part of this responsibility is to assess and mitigate financial risks, integrating financial considerations into the creative process to develop solutions that are both impactful and cost-effective.

7. Sustainability & ESG Integration

- In line with corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, this position is a champion for sustainable practices. The Head of Creative & Innovations will proactively integrate sustainable design principles into all aspects of product and packaging development. This includes promoting the selection of environmentally responsible materials, initiating waste reduction initiatives within the design process, and exploring circular economy models.

- They will ensure that all packaging solutions are compliant with local and international environmental regulations, contributing directly to the company's broader sustainability commitments and enhancing its reputation as a responsible corporate citizen.

8. Risk and Compliance

This leadership role requires a vigilant approach to identifying and mitigating potential risks associated with creative and innovation activities. This includes assessing legal, financial, reputational, and operational risks, from potential copyright infringement to supply chain disruptions for new materials.

- The Head of Creative & Innovations will ensure strict compliance with all relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards governing advertising, product labeling, and data privacy. A critical duty is to safeguard the company's intellectual property rights associated with all creative assets and innovations. They will implement robust measures to protect sensitive information and uphold the highest ethical standards in all creative endeavors, ensuring the company's work is not only brilliant but also responsible and legally sound.

Person Specification:

- The ideal candidate will be a visionary leader with a blend of creative passion and commercial pragmatism. They will possess a degree in a relevant field such as Design, Marketing, Business Administration, or Innovation Management, with a master's degree being a significant advantage.

- The role demands a minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in creative leadership and innovation management within a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) environment or a top-tier creative agency.

- The successful candidate must have a proven and demonstrable track record of fostering creativity within teams and successfully launching innovative projects and integrated campaigns that have delivered tangible business results.

- They should possess deep expertise in brand development, packaging design processes, and the end-to-end product innovation lifecycle. This role requires a strategic thinker who can influence at the highest levels of the organization while inspiring their team to produce their best work.