KFC UK & Ireland
Kwench Beverage Innovation Lead
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WELCOME TO KFC, HOME OF THE REAL ONES.
We sell the world’s best chicken. Seriously. And we’ve done it since 1939, when the idea of crispy, original recipe chicken took Kentucky by storm. Now, we’re proud to serve 1000+ communities across the UK and Ireland, bringing the grit, pride and iconic reputation that we started with, all those years ago.
Across the Restaurant Support Centre (RSC), we come to work to be ourselves, and to make something of ourselves. We want to see our potential go that little bit further, as part of one of the world’s most iconic brands.
What’s the gig? Well, you support our restaurants — and we’ll support you every step of the way. Simple. Our doors are open — and they can take you anywhere.
All we ask is that you be you. Because that makes us, us. Sound good? Great. Let’s find out about that job.
THE TEAM
Our KFC Marketing team is a 50-strong crew of bold thinkers, culture shapers, creative doers and BELIEVERS - from Brand and Digital to Strategy, Food Quality, Innovation, Corporate Comms & Community. We’re here to keep KFC at the heart of culture across the UK & Ireland, blending our iconic roots with fresh, fearless ideas that connect with real people. We don’t just make ads - we build obsession, fandom, drive growth, and stay one step ahead of what’s next.
ABOUT THE ROLE
The Kwench By KFC Beverage Innovation Lead will create the drinks that make Kwench By KFC famous. This role is 100% dedicated to Kwench - KFC UK & Ireland's beverage business - and owns the innovation pipeline end-to-end: from cultural insight and concept, through formulation and product development, to launch-ready drinks that our restaurant teams can execute brilliantly at scale.
Kwench By KFC is one of KFC's boldest growth bets: building beverages into a second business - a destination, not an add-on - that wins new occasions and takes share from the QSR drinks category. The innovation you create is the beating heart of that ambition. Working within the Kwench By KFC venture squad alongside the Kwench By KFC Venture Lead, you'll turn trends into products, products into buzz, and buzz into sales.
Where we are - and what that means for you
We'll be straight with you: Kwench By KFC is scaling fast and customers love it, but our innovation engine is early-stage. We don't yet have a deep beverage development capability in-house - that's exactly why this role exists. You'll be building the beverage menu vision, pipeline, the supplier relationships and the ways of working largely from scratch, with the backing of an iconic brand and a leadership team that has named beverages a strategic growth engine.
The bar is high. We're not looking for line extensions and safe seasonal syrups. We want bold drinks innovation that gets people talking, filming and queuing - refreshers, functional and low-sugar innovation, premium seasonal drops - drinks with the cultural energy of a streetwear launch and the operational discipline of a QSR at scale.
The profile we're looking for: This is a rare hybrid. You're a genuine beverage specialist - a technical product developer who has actually formulated, developed and launched drinks - but you're also a brand thinker with real conceptual creative ability. You're tuned into culture: you know what's blowing up on social before it peaks, and you scan trends from other categories - fashion, beauty, music - to inspire drinks nobody saw coming.
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And you're a pragmatist. You know a brilliant drink that can't be made consistently in 1,000+ restaurants isn't a brilliant drink. You'll work hand-in-glove with suppliers, supply chain and operations to make your ideas practical, repeatable and profitable. If you want to invent in a lab and hand it over the wall, this isn't the role. If you want to own it from idea to first sip in a customer's hand - keep reading.
WHAT WILL YOU SPEND YOUR TIME DOING?
Beverage Innovation & Product Development
- Own the Kwench innovation pipeline: build and manage a rolling 12-24 month roadmap of new drinks, seasonal drops and platform extensions.
- Lead technical product development end-to-end - concepting, formulation, sensory optimisation, nutritional and HFSS compliance, costing and specification.
- Develop across the full Kwench architecture: core refreshers, functional and low-sugar options, premium and seasonal innovation.
- Run structured testing and learning loops - sensory panels, in-restaurant trials, rapid iteration - so we scale winners fast and kill weak ideas faster.
Culture, Trends & Concept Creation
- Be the team's eyes and ears on culture: track what's trending on social, in specialty coffee, bubble tea, functional drinks and beyond - and translate it into Kwench-able ideas.
- Scan adjacent categories - fashion, beauty, music, gaming - for codes, formats and drops that can inspire disruptive drinks innovation.
- Shape drink concepts with genuine brand thinking: names, stories, serves and visual moments designed to be shared, not just consumed.
- Partner with the Kwench Venture Lead and brand teams to build launches that create buzz and drive customers to KFC specifically for Kwench.
Operationalisation & Scale
- Work with suppliers and supply chain to source ingredients, develop specifications and secure capacity - building the partner ecosystem Kwench needs.
- Partner with restaurant operations to design builds, equipment needs and procedures that are simple, fast and consistently executable across the estate.
- Balance creativity with commercial reality: engineer drinks that hit margin targets, minimise complexity and hold quality at volume.
- Own product quality post-launch - monitoring execution, gathering feedback and continuously improving the range.
Squad Collaboration
- Work as a core member of the cross-functional Kwench squad - marketing, operations, supply chain, finance and tech - contributing well beyond your technical lane.
- Bring insight, energy and a point of view to squad decisions; challenge constructively and commit fast.
- Build innovation ways of working that make the whole squad faster and braver, not just your own pipeline.
WHAT WE’D LOVE FROM YOU:
EXPERIENCE
Must have:
- Proven beverage product development expertise - this is critical. You have hands-on experience formulating and developing drinks (e.g. cold beverages, refreshers, coffee, tea, functional or soft drinks) and have taken products from concept to commercial launch.
- A portfolio of launched drinks innovation you can point to, with evidence of commercial impact and, ideally, cultural buzz.
- Strong conceptual and brand-thinking ability - you develop products as ideas and stories, not just recipes.
- Demonstrable cultural fluency: you can show how social trends and adjacent categories have inspired your innovation.
- Experience working with suppliers, supply chain and operations to operationalise products at scale - ideally in QSR, coffee, food-to-go or FMCG environments.
- Highly collaborative working style, with experience thriving in cross-functional squads or matrix teams.
- Working knowledge of UK food and drink regulation, including nutrition and HFSS considerations.
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Desirable to have:
- Experience in high-frequency beverage environments - coffee chains, bubble tea, juice or functional drinks brands - where drinks are the destination.
- Experience creating social-first or limited-drop product launches that generated organic buzz.
- Food science, nutrition or related technical qualification.
- Experience innovating within a franchise estate, where execution simplicity is non-negotiable.
ABOUT YOU
You're a beverage specialist with a creative soul. You can talk brix levels and flavour systems in the morning and pitch a drink concept with a name, a story and a TikTok moment in the afternoon.
You're plugged into culture. You know what Gen Z (oh and Gen Alpha) is drinking, wearing and sharing - and you're already thinking about how a beauty drop or a fashion collab could inspire your next drink.
You're a maker, not just a thinker. You love the craft of product development - the iterations, the tastings, the tenth version that finally nails it.
You're pragmatic and operationally smart. You take pride in ideas that work in the real world - drinks a 17-year-old team member can make perfectly in 60 seconds during a Saturday rush.
You're a brilliant collaborator. You bring people with you - suppliers, operators, marketers - and you treat challenge as fuel, not friction.
You probably don't tick every single box. That's fine. What matters most is that you live and breathe drinks, you're excited by the scale of what Kwench can become, and you're ready to build the innovation engine that powers it.
KEEPING IT REAL
We don’t hire staff - we hire people. People with real lives and aspirations, building real careers. Each of us has something special to add to the mix we call work, and we’ll always encourage you to add your perspective.
At KFC, everyone’s welcome - whatever your background, and whatever future you’re creating. We’ll look out for you because you’re one of us, not because you work for us. We’ll invest in your potential, because it’s what we’ve always done. But most of all, we’ll give you the freedom to be you, wherever (and whoever) you happen to be.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU:
We offer benefits
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