The Coca-Cola Company
Director, Innovations & Partnerships, aRTD – ASEAN & South Pacific Operating Unit
Location(s):
AustraliaCity/Cities:
North SydneyTravel Required:
00% - 25%Relocation Provided:
YesJob Posting End Date:
February 20, 2026Shift:
Job Description Summary:
Director, Innovations & Partnerships, aRTD – ASEAN & South Pacific Operating Unit
Reports to: Vice President, aRTD – ASEAN & South Pacific Operating Unit
Location: Sydney, Australia
Job Summary
Focus, Scope, & Impact:
Based in Australia, this individual contributor role will accelerate and champion the end-to-end innovation agenda for the aRTD category across the OU with focus on Australia, bringing to life new products, platforms, and solutions that enable sustainable, profitable growth for ASP. Manage the ASP relationship with our co-brand partners and co-lead our long range plans for the aRTD category.
Own and lead category innovation pipeline development:
Co-create and refine multi-year innovation strategies and long-range plans in close partnership with Country Marketing and aRTD Commercial, Global teams, Technical, Supply Chain and R&D, and other key stakeholders.
Drive opportunity identification through consumer, market, competitive, cultural and demand spaces insights, translating these into robust innovation platforms and a healthy pipeline, concepts, and projects.
Effectively collaborate with global and other aRTD teams around the world to scale proven solutions or feed into the pipeline
Orchestrate effective project execution:
Ensure rigorous E2E project management, from concept validation to launch and scale across multiple markets.
Accelerate and scale validated aRTD product solutions to ensure full market readiness, manufacturability, and operational feasibility.
Ensure innovations meet clear consumer jobs to be done while aligning with system capabilities, regulatory requirements, and cost structures.
Embed business, commercial, and capability impact:
Lead business case development with country marketing, commercial, financial viability, facilitate cross-functional reviews, and manage innovation risks and trade-offs.
Ensure innovations deliver clear business impact: i.e. category growth, brand differentiation, value creation, consumer recruitment, or margin enhancement, etc.
Drive culture of performance, agility, and learning:
Drive accountability for category innovation performance—speed to market, quality of launches, conversion of pipeline into measurable outcomes, and business results.
Foster a test-and-learn mindset within teams, encouraging rapid iteration, scalable success, and best practice sharing.
Embed post-launch reviews and continuous improvement, leveraging system feedback to optimize future pipeline quality and speed.
Own the relationship with co-brand partners:
Partner with co-brand owners locally and identify opportunities to synergize in partnership with Franchise and Country Marketing
Work with global to secure evolution of partnerships in line with ASP and Australia needs.
Partner with VP to drive the LRP grounded in strong consumer understanding and insights
Experience & Critical Requirements:
Significant experience 8-12+ years in FMCG innovation, portfolio/project management, and cross-functional leadership, ideally with regional exposure. Experience within the alcohol industry is highly advantageous.
Deep expertise in category strategy, new product development (NPD), and commercialization processes.
Proven skills in partnership with R&D, Technical, Marketing, Packaging, Finance, and Commercial teams.
Strong command of pipeline management tools, workflow discipline, and post-launch analytics.
Growth and transformation mindset, agile, with ability to manage complexity and ambiguity.
Strong business and technical acumen; skilled in building business cases, delivering ROI, budget management, and navigating regulatory environments.
Communication focus:
Acts as a key connector between Country Marketing, Technical, R&D, Franchise, bottling system and supply chain teams, facilitating two-way knowledge transfer.
Socializes innovation opportunities, project progress, and pipeline updates with leadership, functional partners, and launch teams.
Champions best practice exchange; integrates feedback from markets to refine future pipelines.
Builds alignment through innovation gate process, and post-launch reviews.
About Coca‑Cola ASEAN & South Pacific
The Coca‑Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories. Our company’s purpose is to refresh the world and make a difference. The Coca‑Cola ASEAN and South Pacific (ASP) operating unit serves 25 countries across Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Our portfolio of sparkling soft drink brands in ASP includes Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta. We also offer a variety of water, sports, juice, dairy, and tea brands including Dasani, Mount Franklin, Wilkins, AdeS, smartwater, vitaminwater, Powerade, Fuze Tea, Minute Maid and Nutriboost. We’re constantly innovating and transforming our portfolio, from reducing sugar in our drinks to bringing new and exciting products to market. We seek to positively impact people’s lives, communities and the planet through water replenishment, packaging recycling, sustainable sourcing practices and emissions reductions across our value chain. Together with our bottling partners, we help bring economic opportunity to local communities across the region. Learn more at www.coca-colacompany.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The Coca-Cola Company: Refresh the World. Make a Difference
We are here to refresh the world and make a difference. Learn more about The Coca-Cola Company, our brands and our purpose.
Skills:
Our Purpose and Growth Culture:
We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola.
