Food Innovation Lead

Overview

We are looking for a Food Innovation Lead to join our Food Ventures Business Unit, a newly created E2E platform designed to accelerate PepsiCo’s expansion into the Meals category.

Food Ventures plays a critical role in delivering culinary-led, consumer-first solutions, translating global strategies into scalable concepts that win in the market.

Reporting to the Market Food Ventures Lead for Spain, this role will be instrumental in driving the culinary innovation agenda at market level, ensuring strong alignment between global priorities and local consumer, customer and cultural needs.

This position can be based in Barcelona or Madrid and will play a key role in bringing innovation to life within the AFH (Away From Home) space and beyond, partnering across cross-functional teams and external ecosystems to ensure operational readiness, cultural relevance and commercial impact.

We are looking for a strategic and entrepreneurial profile, with a passion for food, strong understanding of culinary trends, and proven ability to translate ideas into scalable, market-ready solutions

Responsibilities

Drive Market Innovation Pipeline Execution

• Define and lead the market culinary innovation strategy, ensuring strong alignment with global priorities while addressing local consumer, customer and cultural needs.
• Own and manage the end-to-end innovation pipeline for the market, delivering speed to market, agility and executional excellence.
• Tailor, pilot and validate concepts in-market, ensuring consumer relevance and cultural fit before scaling.
• Partner with food entrepreneurs, chefs and local creators to co-create and execute scalable, repeatable culinary solutions rooted in local food culture.
• Collaborate with local teams, agencies and external partners to deliver high-impact activations, events and promotional initiatives.
• Work closely with New Business Director and Key Account Managers to support customer retention, growth and new business acquisition through differentiated culinary propositions.

Shape the Future Innovation Pipeline

• Identify and track emerging trends, ingredients, competitive dynamics and culinary movements, translating insights into opportunities for both local and global platforms.
• Act as a thought leader and strategic partner to cross-functional teams including R&D, Marketing, Commercial and Supply Chain.
• Bring external inspiration, food-tech innovation and culinary expertise into the pipeline to continuously elevate propositions.
• Ensure innovation ideas are translated into commercially viable, scalable solutions across channels (Retail, AFH, DTC).
• Contribute to building a high-impact local culinary ecosystem, fostering strong partnerships with suppliers, startups, and culinary institutions.
• Partner closely with the Market Food Ventures Lead and Global Innovation teams to successfully land and scale relevant concepts in market.
• Share insights, learnings and best practices to influence global strategy, innovation pipelines and portfolio decisions.
• Represent the Anchor Market in global forums, shaping upstream innovation and strengthening market voice.

External Engagement & Brand Elevation

• Actively participate in industry events, food innovation forums and culinary platforms to elevate PepsiCo’s presence, build networks and fuel the future business pipeline.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in culinary innovation, product development, food marketing or related fields within FMCG or food industry.
• Strong understanding of local food culture, consumer behavior and market trends.
• Proven ability to translate culinary inspiration into scalable, commercially successful solutions.
• Experience operating in cross-functional, matrix organizations, with strong stakeholder management skills.
• Entrepreneurial mindset, with passion for food, innovation and brand building.
• Excellent communication, collaboration and influencing skills, with the ability to engage across levels and functions.