AMEA Brand & Innovation Head

Job Purpose :

AMEA, spanning Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, is one of Opella’s most diverse and dynamic regions. With approx. above €1B in sales, the region brings together highly developed and emerging markets, from Japan and Australia to Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa.

We are looking for an AMEA Brand & Innovation Head to shape the future of our local brands and accelerate sustainable, consumer-led growth across the region.

Our Global Brands operate with end-to-end global accountability. This role will therefore be laser-focused on unlocking the full potential of AMEA’s Local Brands, which today represent around 70% of regional sales and 50% of growth. Our portfolio includes local gems such as EVE and Alesion in Japan, Lactacyd in Southeast Asia, Doliprane in Africa, Depura in India and Cenovis in South Korea and Australia.

The opportunity is significant. As AMEA Brand & Innovation Head, you will challenge the status quo of how we build brands and create innovation. You will bring together deep consumer understanding, creativity, data and commercial thinking to build distinctive brands that consumers choose and love.

You will bring the Opella Challenger Mindset to life by staying externally curious, challenging convention, acting with pace and ownership, and focusing our resources behind the opportunities that can make the biggest difference. Ultimately, your mission is simple: build stronger brands, create meaningful innovation and turn consumer insights into sustainable growth.

Key Accountabilities

Brand Portfolio Strategy & Development

• Shape and enable AMEA's strategic portfolio choices, ensuring we focus investment and resources where we can create the greatest consumer and business impact.
• Partner with markets to develop winning strategies for our Local Brands, driving above-market growth and sustainable competitive advantage.
• Challenge conventional thinking and raise the creative ambition of our brands, helping them stand out in a sea of sameness.
• Accelerate a digital, data and consumer-first approach to brand building and activation.
• Put consumer insights, emerging behaviors and customer needs at the heart of brand and portfolio decisions.
• Build strong partnerships with creative, media and other external partners to access the best capabilities and thinking.
• Champion execution excellence, ensuring strong strategies translate into impact in market.

Innovation

• Build a strong pipeline of consumer-inspired innovation, identifying portfolio gaps and emerging growth opportunities across AMEA.
• Challenge teams to move beyond incremental thinking and identify bolder opportunities to create, disrupt or redefine categories.
• Prioritize the regional Local Brand innovation pipeline, concentrating resources behind the opportunities with the greatest potential.
• Enable end-to-end delivery of priority innovation initiatives, bringing together markets and cross-functional teams to move with pace.
• Explore new business models, channels and go-to-market opportunities, including eCommerce and emerging digital commerce ecosystems.
• Connect AMEA opportunities with Global Innovation and Portfolio teams, identifying ideas that have the potential to scale beyond the region.

Performance Analytics

• Consolidate performance insights and monitor performance (Consumption, Brand, Commercial, HCP) against KPIs in key markets, proposing any corrective actions needed to achieve objectives
• Anticipate and manage upsides and risks to ensure targets are achieved, whilst continuously raising awareness of drivers/drainers that we need to take action on
• Drive for higher quality / higher ROI 360 consumer engagement plans, with focus on digital, social & content.

• Provide data to support strategic decision making at regional level, and own the regional Data-Driven Strategic A&P and resource allocation recommendations
• Lead the work to establish a clear understanding of the consumer healthcare environment in key markets, including competitor performance and activities, to help keep external focus and take us to best in class

Team Leadership

• Lead and inspire the Region Brand & Innovation team & Performance Analytics team to deliver high performance.
• Support and engage in effective talent development for all individuals in the team together with GMs and to raise the bar on talent attraction, to build critical capabilities
• Build a culture of high ambition, accountability, curiosity and constructive challenge.
• Empower teams to make decisions, experiment, learn and move with pace.
• Create an environment where people feel confident challenging established thinking and bringing forward bold ideas.
• Develop strong Brand & Innovation talent and strengthen critical marketing and innovation capabilities across AMEA.
• Partner with GMs and leadership teams to strengthen succession, development and talent attraction.
• Role-model enterprise leadership, putting the success of Opella as a whole ahead of functional or market silos.

Enterprise & Cross Functional Leadership

• Build strong partnerships with Brand & Innovation leaders across markets and Zones.
• Work seamlessly across Commercial, Science, cross functional team, Global/Regional teams to translate strategy into results.
• Connect global ambition with local market realities, ensuring we benefit from Opella's scale while remaining relevant to local consumers.
• Influence across geographies, functions and senior stakeholders, often without direct authority.
• Bring an enterprise mindset, connecting opportunities across brands, markets and functions rather than solving challenges in isolation.

Ideal Background

Experience

• 15+ years of progressive marketing and brand leadership experience, ideally within Consumer Healthcare, FMCG or another fast-moving consumer-led industry.
• Strong track record of building and growing brands across complex and diverse markets.
• Demonstrated success in brand strategy, portfolio management, consumer insights, innovation and integrated marketing.
• Significant leadership experience developing high-performing, culturally diverse teams.
• Strong commercial understanding with experience influencing or managing P&L and investment decisions.
• International experience working across multiple countries, cultures and business environments.
• Experience leading or influencing business, marketing or organizational transformation.
• Proven ability to operate successfully in complex matrix organization and influence senior stakeholders across functions and geographies.
  

Qualification

• Business or Marketing degree; an MBA is a plus

Competencies

• Strategic and analytical thinking
• Creativity and problem solving
• Strong data, analytics & consumer insight orientation
• Strong stakeholder management with senior leaders
• Leadership: Enterprise Leadership, executive presence and the ability to inspire others
• Strong communication skill

Languages

• Fluent in spoken and written English

About Opella.

Opella is the self-care challenger with the purest and third-largest portfolio in the Over-The-Counter (OTC) & Vitamins, Minerals & Supplements (VMS) market globally. Our mission is to bring health in people’s hands by making self-care as simple as it should be. For half a billion consumers worldwide – and counting.

At the core of this mission is our 100 loved brands, our 11,000-strong global team, our 13 best-in-class manufacturing sites and 4 specialized science and innovation development centers.

Headquartered in France, Opella is the proud maker of many of the world’s most loved brands, including Allegra, Buscopan, Doliprane, Dulcolax, Enterogermina, Essentiale and Mucosolvan. B Corp certified in multiple markets, we are active players in the journey towards healthier people and planet.

Find out more about our mission at www.opella.com.