Chief Product Officer — Food And Beverage Platform

The mandate

The platform has accumulated products through brand expansion, market adaptation and innovation cycles that rarely removed what came before. Similar recipes now exist with small ingredient differences, pack sizes overlap without a clear consumer role, and local variants require separate sourcing, artwork and regulatory maintenance. Complexity has become difficult to see because it is distributed across research, brand, supply and market budgets. The organisation continues to launch, but technical and commercial capacity is increasingly spent maintaining a long tail whose consumer value is uncertain.

The Chief Product Officer will lead the physical-product portfolio—not the enterprise software estate. The remit joins product strategy, culinary and sensory development, formulation, packaging design, nutrition, claims coordination, renovation and innovation portfolio governance. Brand leaders own positioning and demand creation; research specialists retain scientific authority; quality and regulatory functions maintain independent approval; supply leaders own industrial execution. The CPO must make those perspectives converge on products that consumers want and the organisation can support responsibly.

This urgent new appointment is not a cost-led deletion exercise. A local recipe may carry cultural relevance or regulatory necessity, and a small pack may create essential affordability or trial. Conversely, internal affection and historic sales do not justify indefinite maintenance. The CPO will make the consumer, technical, economic and operational case visible before a product is invested in, changed or withdrawn.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in Dubai, the CPO will influence approximately 1,325 employees and material partners across the United Arab Emirates and a wider international region. The leadership ecosystem includes category product directors, chefs and formulators, sensory science, packaging, nutrition, product insights, project leaders and external development partners. Important capabilities sit in regional research centres and factories outside the direct reporting line.

The portfolio spans categories with different shelf lives, preparation methods, consumption occasions and regulatory requirements. Ingredient substitutions may affect taste, allergens, nutrition, processing behaviour and claims. Pack changes influence portion, barrier performance, transport, shelf presentation and consumer instructions. Product decisions must therefore be evaluated as complete systems rather than isolated bill-of-material savings.

Market evidence is uneven. Established products have sales and complaint histories but may lack recent sensory or occasion understanding. New concepts can generate enthusiastic research responses that do not predict repeat purchase. The CPO will strengthen how qualitative insight, controlled testing, in-market behaviour and technical evidence are combined, with limitations stated before scale decisions.

First-year agenda

The first one hundred days will establish a portfolio map at recipe, format and market level. The CPO will identify which variants are genuinely distinct to consumers or regulation, where different codes conceal identical propositions, and which products absorb disproportionate technical, sourcing or factory effort. This map will include net contribution, repeat where available, complaints, claims, ingredient risk, change commitments and exit constraints.

The executive will then agree product architecture principles by category. Core recipes and components may be shared where sensory, safety and cultural evidence support it; local differentiation will have a named purpose and owner. Pack formats should have explicit roles such as trial, affordability, family use, food service or premium gifting. Exceptions will be reviewed on a defined date rather than becoming permanent by default.

Existing products will move through a renovation and retirement sequence. Changes may address nutrition, ingredient availability, cost, environmental footprint or processing stability. Consumer testing and technical validation must match the consequence of the change. Where products are withdrawn, customer communication, inventory, packaging materials, regulatory records and supplier commitments need a controlled close-out.

Innovation governance will be rebuilt around learning milestones. Concepts will specify the consumer occasion, distinct benefit, target economics, technical unknowns and route to repeat. Scale funding will follow evidence rather than senior enthusiasm or launch-calendar pressure. The CPO will stop projects whose premise no longer holds and protect promising work that needs a legitimate technical learning period.

By the end of the first year, the portfolio should contain fewer unsupported variants, clearer product families and a focused pipeline with explicit consumer and technical hypotheses. Selected renovations should have reached market with verified sensory acceptance and operational readiness. The board should be able to see capacity released, risk reduced and investment redirected, not only a count of stock-keeping units removed.

Leadership responsibilities

The CPO will chair the product council where new, renovated and retiring products are decided. Papers must integrate consumer evidence, recipe and pack choices, claims, supply feasibility, full economics and decision risk. No function may present its component as the whole case. Dissent from sensory, quality, regulatory or market specialists must be recorded and resolved by the appropriate authority.

The executive will create a stronger product profession. Formulators, chefs, pack engineers and product managers need clear career paths, shared methods and opportunities to learn across categories and markets. External partners may provide specialist expertise or speed, but the platform must retain informed ownership of recipes, specifications, evidence and intellectual property.

The CPO will also represent product choices to the executive committee and board. They must explain why an apparently small change requires time, why a cherished launch should stop, or why a local variant merits investment despite low scale. Precision and consumer empathy are both required.

Measures of success

The executive committee will assess repeat and consumer acceptance, renovation performance, innovation survival after launch, complaint movement, first-pass industrialisation, specification stability and time to a clear stop-or-scale decision. Portfolio measures will include active recipe and format complexity, technical maintenance effort, obsolete materials and capacity redirected to priorities.

Financial outcomes will include contribution improvement, ingredient and packaging savings that survive implementation, reduced write-offs and more productive research investment. Nutrition, claims and environmental changes will be measured against verified baselines. The CPO will not receive credit for complexity removed if consumer preference, availability or regulatory compliance deteriorates as a consequence.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring 22–28 years of product, research, innovation or category leadership in food, beverages or a closely related consumer field. They must have held accountability across multiple markets and taken products from consumer problem through formulation, packaging, industrialisation and post-launch learning. A purely marketing or laboratory background without integrated portfolio decisions will be insufficient.

The board seeks evidence of simplifying a physical-product architecture while preserving legitimate local value. Candidates should be able to discuss a recipe or pack they standardised, one they protected, and the consumer and technical evidence behind both. Experience with nutrition renovation, allergens, shelf life, sensory methods and external development partners is highly relevant.

The successful leader will be curious about culture and rigorous about evidence. They must earn trust from brand executives, scientists, factories and market teams, and be willing to reverse a preferred answer when testing disproves it. Experience working across international regulatory environments and diverse food traditions is essential.

Compensation and appointment terms

The expected base range is AED 1,600,000–2,200,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation tied to product and enterprise outcomes. Final positioning will reflect relevant category scope, international experience and present remuneration. Necessary relocation and treatment of forfeited awards will be considered individually at the final stage.

Confidentiality

The client remains unnamed because the search touches unreleased recipes, renovations and portfolio exits. Shortlisted candidates will receive controlled access to category and organisation detail after identity, conflict and confidentiality checks. Applications must not include proprietary formulations, sensory data, supplier terms or unannounced product plans from another employer.