Job Description Summary:
Role Purpose
The Senior Director Innovations holds full accountability for the end-to-end innovation and product commercialisation portfolio across the allocated markets.
The role combines three dimensions:
Strategic portfolio leadership across all innovation and renovation initiatives (like overall alignment with category & portfolio strategy, portfolio & SC synergies, EU regulation)
Central coordination and governance ownership for all product commercialisation within the allocated FU.
Direct hands-on leadership of selected high-impact or high-complexity commercialisation projects.
The Senior Director acts as the single point of contact for the Bottler Lead Commercialisation function, ensuring prioritization, resource alignment, risk transparency, and execution discipline across the entire portfolio.
What you will do for us
Portfolio & Governance Leadership
Managing the full innovation portfolio from a commercialisation and project management perspective across the allocated territories
Clear escalation, communication, and prioritization of KO Gate/Slims decisions.
Define priorities, sequencing and resource allocation across projects.
Establish and govern stage-gate discipline and risk escalation routines.
Provide executive transparency to OU LT and Bottler leadership.
Ensure alignment between innovation strategy and supply chain capabilities.
Coordination & Bottler Interface
Act as the central counterpart to the Bottler Lead Commercialisation.
Ensure integrated milestone planning across all projects.
Align cross-functional dependencies and remove systemic bottlenecks.
Provide escalation and decision-making clarity across OU and bottler.
Direct Commercialisation Execution
Personally lead selected high-visibility, complex or strategically critical commercialisation initiatives.
Drive feasibility, trials, validation and launch readiness for these key projects.
Ensure speed-to-market while safeguarding quality, safety and cost standards.
Base Salary: 410000 PLN to 470000
Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.
Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage: 30%
Annual incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.
Qualification & Experience
10+ years in Technical, Supply Chain or Innovation leadership roles.
Proven experience managing complex innovation portfolios.
Led project management teams and ensured effective execution of multiple initiatives.
Strong executive stakeholder management experience.
Demonstrated ability to balance strategic governance with operational delivery.
Experience working directly with bottler leadership teams.
Strong systems thinking and portfolio prioritization capability
Proficiency in data and digital competencies., transforming data into valuable insight
Adaptable and resilient, with a growth and continuous learning mindset; comfortable leading through ambiguity and change.
Proven ability to lead, coach and develop teams and individuals, fostering a culture of collaboration, trust, accountability and high performance.
Education
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Science, Business Administration or a related field is required. An advanced degree is preferred; however, demonstrated leadership impact and relevant experience will be strongly valued.
Travel Requirements
Up to 10–25 % travel, subject to business needs.
What We Offer
The opportunity to shape and lead the technical and supply chain agenda for a complex, high impact system.
Exposure to senior leadership and strategic decision-making.
A diverse, multicultural environment with strong growth and development opportunities.
The chance to drive meaningful impact across safety, sustainability, innovation and performance.
Skills:
Location(s):
ItalyCity/Cities:
MilanTravel Required:
00% - 25%Relocation Provided:
NoJob Posting End Date:
April 20, 2026Our Purpose and Growth Culture:
We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola.
The Coca-Cola Company Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about The Coca-Cola Company and has not been reviewed or approved by The Coca-Cola Company.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are positioned as a standout, combining a 401(k) match with a company-funded cash-balance pension and an employee stock purchase plan match that together materially increase long-term package value.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as broad and feature-rich, including national medical coverage plus specialized add-ons like virtual care, second opinions, oncology navigation, fertility support, and chronic-condition programs.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off benefits are outlined with structured vacation accrual that increases with tenure and a holiday program that includes both set and floating days.
The Coca-Cola Company Insights
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What We Do
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company, offering over 500 brands in more than 200 countries and territories. In addition to the company’s Coca-Cola brands, our portfolio includes some of the world’s most valuable beverage brands, such as AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, innocent smoothies and juices, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater and ZICO coconut water.
