Food Industry | Public Interest Strategy Lead

What you will do

The questions are practical.

• Where does influence really sit?
• Which people or institutions could shift an issue?
• What can people inside the industry see that others cannot?
• What would an investor, policymaker, regulator, NGO or journalist need to understand in order to act?
• Where are individual companies constrained by incentives or structures they cannot easily change alone?
• When is a private conversation more useful than a public intervention?

You will help answer those questions and turn the answers into action.

That might mean:

• shaping a briefing for investors on a risk insiders believe is being underestimated
• developing a relationship with a food-policy organisation around an emerging issue
• bringing commercial perspective into a policy debate
• convening a small group of influential people
• building a coalition
• helping coordinate a wider intervention

Sometimes the right route will be public. Often it will happen behind the scenes.

You will have significant freedom to work out what could make a difference and how to make it happen.

You will also help build the relationships, methods and approach that allow Inside Track to do this repeatedly as its work across food develops.

Who this could suit

We are particularly interested in people who have spent several years, or a meaningful part of their career, inside a major food manufacturer, retailer, producer or FMCG business.

You might have worked in:

• sustainability or responsible sourcing
• procurement, supply chain or buying
• product development or category
• strategy or transformation
• public or corporate affairs
• nutrition or health
• marketing and communications
• legal or finance

Your exact function matters less than the perspective you have developed.

You do not need to have spent your career in sustainability or social impact.

The strongest person may have built a successful mainstream career in food and become increasingly interested in the larger questions surrounding the industry.

You might still be in the sector and wondering whether there is a way to use what you have learned more widely.

Or you might have started your career in a major food business and subsequently moved into sustainability, policy, civil society or another purpose-led setting.

You do not need to have become disillusioned with the food industry.

The strongest person may be proud of the sector, respect the people working within it and understand the extraordinary practical and commercial challenge of producing affordable food reliably at scale, while also recognising that some of the biggest questions facing food cannot be solved by individual businesses acting alone.

There is no single view of what the future of food should look like, and this role is not about arriving with one.

We would also consider exceptional people from consulting, law, investment, food policy or civil society who have spent substantial time working with major food companies and would be credible with senior people working within them.

This is not a general food-systems role. Personal interest in food, sustainability or ethical consumption without meaningful understanding of the mainstream industry will not be enough.

What you will bring

We are looking for someone with:

• credible first-hand understanding of major food businesses and the wider food system
• strong commercial judgement
• curiosity about food’s impact on health, society, the economy and the environment
• excellent relationship-building skills across different professional cultures
• the ability to listen carefully and make sense of competing perspectives
• good judgement about power, incentives, influence, timing and sensitivity
• the ability to spot connections and points of leverage others may miss
• confidence developing ideas and turning them into practical action
• clear and persuasive written and verbal communication
• the ability to move between strategic thinking and detailed follow-through
• comfort operating without a complete playbook
• warmth, curiosity, resilience, high conviction and low ego
• a genuine desire to use your experience constructively on questions that matter

Why Inside Track

Food is fundamental to human life.

It shapes our health, landscapes, livelihoods, economy and environment. The resilience of the system matters to every household in the country, and many of the choices being made today will have consequences for decades.

This is an opportunity to think seriously about some of the most consequential questions facing the industry alongside people who understand different parts of the system unusually well.

Many of the people you will work with will have reached positions of real influence and still be asking a bigger question:

How can I use what I know, the position I have reached and the relationships I have built to contribute beyond the boundaries of my own organisation?

You will help bring those perspectives together.

There are relatively few jobs where years spent understanding how major food companies actually operate can be used this independently.

The opportunity is not to step away from the food industry.

It is to take what you have learned from it and operate at a different level.

Instead of asking only what one company can do, you can ask what might change the conditions facing an entire industry.

Instead of working within one organisation’s mandate, you can explore where different forms of influence might combine to make progress possible.

And instead of leaving hard-earned commercial experience behind in order to find more purposeful work, you can make that experience central to it.

Inside Track is still young, but it is not starting from scratch. Its food work is already putting insider perspective in front of investors, policymakers, civil-society organisations and the media.

There is no complete playbook, which means the person joining will have genuine scope to shape what comes next.

For the right person, it is a rare opportunity to combine serious industry experience, intellectual curiosity, extraordinary people and the chance to help shape the future of something every one of us depends on.

Key details

• Salary: £38,000 to £50,000 FTE, depending on relevant experience and pro-rated for part-time working
• Indicative salary points: £38,000 for up to three years of relevant experience; £42,000 from four; and £50,000 from six
• Working pattern: 3 to 5 days per week
• Location: UK-based, with remote working and some London / in-person meetings