Innovation Project Manager

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.

As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact

Click “Apply” to get started.

The Challenge

pladis is home to iconic brands Godiva, McVitie’s and Ulker. These brands make sweet treats and savoury treats that consumers everywhere recognise and enjoy! As we start on our new pathway, we will continue making the biscuits and confectionery people know and expect from these brands, and we will expand their portfolios too. Together we will build new and exciting products at pladis – new flavours, new concepts and new ways to share happiness

Our strength is not only in our products, it is also in our people and our values. Each business that has united to form pladis are loved for their heritage and values. We will retain the honesty, integrity and trust instilled in our brands by our ground-breaking founders as we embark on the next chapter of our success.

The position entails

This is a great opportunity within our EDM Commercialisation team, where you will have the opportunity to work alongside teams across the world with our Europe and Developing Markets projects.

Your main responsibilities

• Accountable for planning, governance and delivery on time, in full of projects approved through Regional Gate Review forum, own the timelines.
• Deliver the projects through the pladis stage & gate system until final implementation in our factory.
• Track and report on the progress / issues in an accurate and timely manner. Highlight compliance to plan, key issues and risks.
• Risk Mitigation: Identify projects at risk, escalate when appropriate, collating options, impact and a recommendation for alignment or decision, identify, align and implement mitigation measures.
• Identify growth opportunities and work cross functionally to remove obstacles quickly and efficiently.
• Ensure tight control of project scope, action standards and guard rails, with clear approval process through RGR for any change.
• Manage packaging write-offs.

The role covers 4 key areas:

• Process enablement.
• Cross-functional integration.
• Risk mitigation.
• Project portfolio consolidation.

This role is responsible for the delivery, process, governance and reporting of projects:

• World Class execution and compliance of all projects through stage & gate.
• These projects will mostly comprise of type reframe and refresh projects, complex pack changes and may involve capital spend and have inter-linkage with other projects.
• The initiatives, whilst mostly Branded will cover the breadth of projects which come via the RGR for implementation. (E.g. regulatory,  supply chain and procurement). 
• Cross functional working across all regional sites and functions in addition to pladis sites and colleagues in other regions.
• Responsible for ensuring that all key stakeholders, at various levels from operators to to MD across the business are engaged and informed of project status, progress, risks and issues in a timely manner.
• Arbitrate and resolve conflict and interface problems within individual projects. Assure timely adaptive action is taken.

What do you bring?

• Demonstrable experience in Project Management.
• Excellent communication skills - both verbal and written, able to relay detailed information in a simple and concise manner.
• Knowledge of MS Office.
• Excellent attention to detail, organized and logical approach.
• Ability to operate optimally across geographies and engage teams from different cultures.
• EU working permit.

What we offer

Working for pladis means challenging jobs, career opportunities and an inspiring environment that allow you to enhance your personal development. pladis recognizes that the on-going success of the company depends on the continued development and engagement of our employees and pursues a fair and competitive remuneration policy, recognizing individual and team competencies and performance.

A few of our benefits:

• Fixed term employment (12 months) with possibility of a permanent contract
• Development opportunities through our pladis Academy & other training programs
• A competitive salary
• Fulltime employment (37,5 hours per week)
• 34 holidays (based on fulltime)
• Pension in pensionfund ‘Zoetwaren’
• Discounts on health insurance, gym memberships, bikes etc
• Biscuits, chocolate and other snacks from our personnel store;
• The best colleagues in an informal working environment.

Who are we?

Koninklijke Verkade, founded in 1886, with amazing brands like Verkade en Sultana, is part of pladis since 2016. pladis is one of the world's leading snacking companies. We are the proud steward of over 300 years of family baking and confectionery experience. A worldwide community with 16.000 colleagues around the world. Each of us bring our experience in happiness. Each of us is unique, but we find each other as a family of bakers and chocolatiers, hardworking, with pride and purpose. After all these years we believe that biscuits and chocolate bring people together. We are pladis. We bake Happiness. Happiness with every bite.

pladis succeeds because of people like you. People who wake up in the morning excited to get to work. Who believe in themselves and their potential. Who want to grow as part of a global community of like-minded colleagues.

pladis colleagues care deeply about being the best. About winning, staying the course and never giving up. Whichever part of the world we’re in, whatever our role. Whether we’re baking, working in HR, finance, marketing or many other areas – we win as one pladis team.

And while we’re all unique, we share something in common. It’s the code by which we live and work. We call it our ‘Winning Traits & Behaviours’: Purpose Led, Agile, Collaborative, Positive and Resilient. Five aspects of pladis life that define who we are, how we interact and get things done.

If pladis sounds like the place where you can thrive and help write the next chapter in our growth story, then check out opportunities around the world and follow us for the latest information from our teams.

More information can be found at www.pladisglobal.com

Interested?
To apply for this job, please send resume and cover letter to pladis Global via our website. Questions? Please reach out to Sanne Wolters, head of commercialisation [email protected]

Diversity and inclusion is central to everything we do and is reflected across our business. pladis brings together brands and people from around the globe – and this diversity is our great strength. 

We’re an equal opportunities employer and believe in encouraging an inclusive environment where we celebrate diversity of thinking and respect everyone’s distinctive qualities and perspectives. 

• All applications will be treated with confidentiality. Third Party or Recruitment Agencies are not welcomed.       -

pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.

We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List. If you are a recruitment agency and wish to submit candidate to be considered for this vacancy, you must have agreed to, and signed, our terms of business.
We will not accept CVs from any other sources other than those currently on our PSL. We will not pay a fee for any candidate that has not been represented by a provider on our PSL.