Fortnum & Mason
Innovation Manager
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About the Role
Our Head Office department is in the heart of Piccadilly and occupies the 5th & 6th floor of our beautiful flagship store. This central London location offers so much to explore including restaurants, bars, cultural sites, shopping and more, and only a short walk from the Green Park Tube Station and plenty of bus stops.
Fortnum & Mason has established a strong foundation in digital transformation, modern technology platforms and data-driven decision making. This role is critical in identifying, shaping and accelerating the next generation of innovation opportunities that support Fortnum's strategic objectives, enhance customer and colleague experiences, and drive operational excellence.
The Innovation Manager
The Innovation Manager will lead the identification, evaluation and incubation of innovative ideas, emerging technologies and new ways of working across the business. Working closely with stakeholders across all functions, the role will translate business challenges and opportunities into structured innovation initiatives, ensuring ideas are assessed, tested and progressed through to measurable outcomes.
The role will champion a culture of innovation, continuous improvement and experimentation, helping Fortnum & Mason stay ahead of industry trends while ensuring innovation activity is aligned to strategic priorities and delivers tangible value.
Responsibilities
Strategic Innovation & Opportunity Management
- Own and maintain Fortnum & Mason's innovation pipeline, ensuring opportunities are captured, assessed, prioritised and progressed in line with business objectives.
- Partner with Executive stakeholders and leadership teams to identify strategic challenges and opportunities where innovation can create value.
- Research emerging technologies, AI developments, market trends and industry best practices, translating insight into practical opportunities and recommendations for Fortnum & Mason.
Innovation Delivery & Validation
- Lead innovation discovery, proof of concept and pilot activities, defining success measures and evaluating outcomes before wider investment decisions are made.
- Develop business cases and value propositions for innovation initiatives, ensuring alignment to strategic priorities and measurable benefits.
- Produce high-level design concepts and solution options for review and challenge through the Design Forum, ensuring proposals are clearly aligned to business objectives, technical feasibility and delivery value
- Work with Digital Transformation, Technology, Data and Business teams to transition successful innovations into formal delivery programmes where appropriate.
Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technology
- Identify, evaluate and champion opportunities to leverage AI, automation and emerging technologies to improve customer experience, colleague productivity and business performance.
- Review and maximise the use of existing technology platforms, capabilities and feature sets before always recommending new tools or investment.
- Assess the value, risks and organisational readiness of AI initiatives, ensuring alignment to Fortnum & Mason's AI governance principles, data policies and ethical standards.
- Promote the adoption of AI-enabled solutions across the business, helping teams understand potential applications, benefits and associated risks.
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Culture, Governance & Engagement
- Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to generate ideas, challenge existing ways of working and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
- Facilitate hackathons, innovation challenges and ideation sessions to generate, test and prioritise new ideas from across the business.
- Establish governance, reporting and performance measures for innovation initiatives, ensuring transparency of progress, investment and outcomes.
- Build and maintain relationships with external partners, suppliers, start-ups and industry networks to bring new thinking and opportunities into the organisation.
- Act as an ambassador for innovation across Fortnum & Mason, promoting innovative thinking, experimentation and organisational learning.
Experience and Qualifications
Essential
- Experience leading innovation, transformation, continuous improvement or technology-enabled business change initiatives.
- Experience identifying, evaluating and developing innovative opportunities from concept through to pilot, proof of value or implementation.
- Demonstrable experience working with senior stakeholders to define business problems, shape opportunities and influence investment decisions.
- Experience researching and assessing emerging technologies, market trends and industry best practices, translating insight into practical business opportunities.
- Experience developing business cases, value propositions and benefits realisation measures.
- Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams across business, technology, data and third-party partners
- Strong understanding of Artificial Intelligence, automation and digital technologies, including their potential application to improve customer experience, colleague productivity and operational efficiency.
- Comfortable working in ambiguous environments, balancing experimentation with commercial value and business outcomes.
- Experience managing multiple initiatives simultaneously and prioritising competing demands.
- Experience presenting recommendations, opportunities and outcomes to executive-level stakeholders.
Desirable:
- Experience within Retail, Hospitality, Luxury Retail or Consumer-facing businesses.
- Experience leading innovation labs, proof-of-concept programmes, hackathons or structured innovation initiatives.
- Experience supporting AI, data or automation programmes.
- Experience working with start-ups, technology vendors, accelerators or innovation partners.
- Experience in change management, business adoption and benefit realisation.
- Experience managing technology or innovation investment portfolios.
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Competencies, Behaviours and Skills
Essential
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to engage and challenge stakeholders at all levels.
- Naturally curious, with a passion for innovation, emerging technologies and continuous improvement.
- Commercially minded, with the ability to balance creativity and experimentation against measurable business value.
- Strategic thinker, able to connect business objectives with innovative solutions.
- Strong facilitation and workshop leadership skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presenting recommendations to senior stakeholders.
- Analytical and evidence-based decision maker, able to assess opportunities, risks and benefits.
- Comfortable working in ambiguity, demonstrating resilience and adaptability in a changing environment.
- Collaborative and relationship-focused, with the ability to work effectively across multiple functions and teams.
- Demonstrates a strong understanding of AI, automation and emerging technologies, with the ability to identify practical applications and support responsible adoption in line with Fortnum & Mason's governance and ethical principles.
Desirable
- Demonstrates thought leadership in AI, emerging technologies and innovation practices.
- Experience applying Design Thinking, Lean Startup or other innovation methodologies
- Strong external network within technology, innovation or retail communities.
- Entrepreneurial mindset with experience of building or scaling new products, services or business concepts.
- Ability to coach and develop innovation capabilities in others.
- Passion for retail, hospitality, luxury brands or customer experience innovation
- Experience facilitating innovation challenges, hackathons or ideation programmes.
- Comfortable acting as a recognised internal champion for innovation and technology adoption.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
We are committed to developing your career and nurturing your talent, regardless of age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation. We respect and embrace each other's differences, to create a truly inclusive environment.
In the last year alone, our people have been recognised and celebrated, winning awards for their outstanding contributions to Retail, Technology, Global Hospitality & Tourism, Visual Merchandising & Display, Customer Service and Local Community Awards
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