Brand Manager - wide portfolio of food challenger brands

Are you driven to transform the food industry and make healthier food more accessible? Is your mission to build better challenger brands and support diverse founders to achieve their full potential?

Then Mission Ventures has an exciting role for you. 

Who are Mission Ventures? 

Mission Ventures are the UK's leading food and drink challenger brand builders. We invest, mentor and partner to build better food and drink brands. 

We support a wide range of entrepreneurs, working alongside some of the UK's largest brands, investors and retail partners such as Warburtons, Big Society Capital and Impact on Urban Health. 

After building a solid foundation of success, we are now looking for a Brand Manager to join us as we gear-up for the next stage of our journey. We're looking for someone who is a strong and strategic FMCG marketer and who is ready to take the leap into the exciting world of challenger brands. Rather than join one food and drink start up, this is a unique opportunity to join a business where you will work with founders of many food and drink businesses and ensure they are poised for accelerated growth. 

Who are we looking for? 

You are someone who has a genuine interest in the food and drink industry, who is driven and ready to roll up their sleeves to learn. You will have: 

• 3-5 years of FMCG experience -this will be focused in brand management/marketing (this can be a mix of corporate and start-up experience). 
• Excellent project management skills - the ability to multitask and work across many projects at the same time.
• Strong relationship management skills - you will be expected to maintain positive working relationships with many different types of founders.
• Strong data analysis skills - you will be expected to drill down into industry data and quickly pull out the most relevant insights for each brand.  
• Confidence and strong communication skills - You will be advising and influencing brand founders on how to set the entire future strategy of their business which will require you to communicate clearly, concisely, and with confidence.
• Experience working with creative agencies - the ability to provide agencies with a robust and clear brief and provide constructive feedback on work delivered. 
• Experience working with UK Retailers - this isn’t a requirement but will be considered an asset. 

We believe that the best teams are built on diversity, and our people are our greatest asset. As a result, we welcome and strongly encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds. 

What will you be doing? 

You will be working with a set of brand founders to guide them through the process of industry research, proposition development, consumer insight, brand definition, design development, marketing and sales tactical planning. This is a role that will push your knowledge and skills to the limit as you adapt solutions to each of the business's needs. 

Don’t worry, you are not doing this alone! 

You will report to the Brand Strategy Director, who has been growing and launching food and drink brands at corporate FMCGs for many years. You will also tap into the rest of the team’s knowledge and expertise, including the 3 Co-Founders of the business who have each founded and exited a successful food business.

What can we offer? 

We are entrepreneurs at heart, and our working environment reflects this. We are a small, nimble and dynamic company and we work on projects that we are proud to deliver. We believe it is possible to be a great company and maintain a healthy work/life balance, while continuously learning and growing our knowledge. We aim to have fun and use our expertise to make an impact. We can offer you:

• £35K-£45K salary, depending on experience.  
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays.
• Opportunity for share options after 12 months.
• Varied and exciting exposure to a diverse range of projects helping to change the food and drink industry. 
• The ability to learn from our team of experienced entrepreneurs. We believe that you should gain value from your time with Mission Ventures and we will prioritise your learning.
• Flexible working - work isn't always 9-5, and life isn't always 5-9. You know how you perform best, and we’re supportive of allowing our team the ability to work the way they achieve the best results.  
• Access to a fun and social community of entrepreneurs. 
• Opportunities for growth within the business as we expand and grow our team.  

Where are we located? 

We’re based at The Food Exchange, a hub for the food and drink entrepreneurs in London (it is located nearest to Nine Elms Station). Due to the nature of this role and the amount of hands-on learning required, near the beginning we would request that you come into the office 1-2 times per week, and attend meetings with founders in-person when required. There will also be some out of town travel for consumer panels required. 

Role commencement – ASAP 

Application deadline - March 4th, 2022