INNOVATION SPECIALIST

Company overview 

Asahi Europe & International is part of Asahi Group Holdings, a global beer, spirits, soft drinks and food group with leading positions in European and Asia-Pacific markets, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan.  As of November 2020, Asahi Europe & International Group runs 19 production facilities in 8 countries across Europe, and is the custodian of some of the best beer brands in the world, including Asahi Super Dry, Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Grolsch and Kozel. Within the Asahi Group, the remit of Asahi Europe and International is also to develop and manage all export markets globally, outside of Japan and Oceania. Covering 90 markets and with over 10,000 passionate colleagues on board, the business is well positioned to inspire people around the world to drink better.  

Functional overview 

#Digital aims to be the best strategic technology partner and enabler for AEI business to meet its strategic goals.  A regionally integrated function in which every employee plays a part. Organizationally, #Digital is structured to enable digital innovation and is capable of agile value delivery on pre-defined, technology platforms. We are organised around business functions and empowered to achieve goals. We will harness capabilities with suitable technologies, together with a unified data model to enable and meet expected business outcomes. Our AEI behaviours and #Digital Principles will shape the way we collaborate across business functions, fusing and working together on joint goals, strategy and execution. The function is the forefront of new technologies, deliberately reducing the constraints of the ‘old’ and enabling the ‘new’, in order to contribute directly to the increasing expansion of our premium brands at scale. 

Main purpose of the job  

Digital Innovation is an evolving space at AEI. Digital Innovation encapsulates projects considered as Test& Learns and Pilots that drive disruptive ideas across the organization. These are projects that will run on Agile methodology and for a duration of typically 8-10 weeks. Based on the learnings of these initiatives a decision would be made to incorporate this as a portfolio project to scale or introduce a new test & learn. 

The role calls for experimenting cutting edge technologies while at the same time build strong partnership with the Markets and Functions Units involving: 

• Being accountable for bringing ‘outside in’ for the Market/Function in shape of startup’s and real POV cases 

• Build a strong partnership with Market/Function and build a strong pipeline of ideas / automations to pursue 

• Being accountable for scoping, aligning, adopting and leveraging technology for respective learn & pilots 

• Strong Project Management and Technical Understanding to quickly execute these initiatives 

 Accountabilities and deliverables  

1. Innovation

• Disrupts internally and externally to find the right use cases to run the “proof of concepts” using emerging capabilities or technologies.
• Collaborate with Startup's & Vendor partners to build a strong network to keep organization momentum with upcoming technology developments.
• Run with assessment and detail sessions with business stakeholders and multi-partners organizations to scope the “proof of concept”. 
• Nurtures a pipeline of innovations for her/his respective area
• Scouts emerging GenAI and agentic AI capabilities (vendors, startups, models, frameworks) and translates them into prioritised use cases for AEI
• Prototypes agentic AI solutions through rapid design-thinking sprints with business stakeholders

2. Process Discovery

• Co-facilitates process discoveries in her/his respective area (with eco-system partners)
• Owns and implies qualitative standards as per the innovation framework “test and learn” agile methodology, focused on proving the concept per the agreed success criteria’s with a high-level business case
• Owns the stakeholder management with process owners and leadership on site – is the face of innovation capabilities

3. Digital Iiplementations/innovation Initiatives

• Owns the program/project end-to-end, qualitatively and quantitatively with no deviation to agreed budget and no scope creep
• Assures smooth project lifecycle following the 4 in the box model (business, transformation, IS, partner)
• Reports timely and accurately and with focus on issues
• Assures adherence to respective “test and learn” methodologies and standards

4. Capability Building

• Actively contributes to the identification of new start up’s and digital partners 
• Collaboration with business and transformation teams to ideate & identify business challenges 
• Assures knowledge transfers across the organization
• Create digital library of “proof of concepts” and demos
• Owns the Microsoft Copilot community of practice and end-user onboarding programme across AEI

5. Culture Building

• Promotes a digital culture across the enterprise by inspiring and role modelling (walk the talk)
• Assist change and communication management related to digital innovation, present in various internal forums “success stories”

Qualification criteria  

• Master degree or equivalent in business or technology  

• 2-3 years of professional experience 

• Highly structured with relevant process analysis-, and re-engineering expertise  

• Experience with digital technologies (RPA, GenAI / LLMs, agentic AI, Microsoft Copilot) 

• Hands-on experience prototyping GenAI and agentic AI solutions and applying design thinking to identify high-value use cases 

• Experience in running process assessments 

• Have positive energy and ability to energize others  

• Excellent communication, presentation, training and interpersonal skills. 

We are committed to nurturing a workplace where we celebrate and respect difference, and support everyone to be true to who they are! At Asahi Europe and International we believe you can SHINE AS YOU ARE - no matter your age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, or beliefs. We want to support you to be courageous in your individuality and to know that whoever you are and whatever your circumstances, you can belong with us without having to conform.