CBIA Director MEA

Hello. We’re Haleon. A new world-leading consumer health company. Shaped by all who join us. Together, we’re improving everyday health for billions of people. By growing and innovating our global portfolio of category-leading brands – including Sensodyne, Panadol, Advil, Voltaren, Theraflu, Otrivin, and Centrum – through a unique combination of deep human understanding and trusted science. What’s more, we’re achieving it in a company that we’re in control of. In an environment that we’re co-creating. And a culture that’s uniquely ours. Care to join us. It isn’t a question.

With category leading brands such as Sensodyne, Voltaren and Centrum, built on trusted science and human understanding, and combined with our passion, knowledge and expertise, we’re uniquely placed to do this and to grow a strong, successful business.

This is an exciting time to join us and help shape the future. It’s an opportunity to be part of something special.

About The Role

This role is a catalyst for Haleon MEA’s transformation into a truly insight-led, innovation-powered organization. As Director, you will unify the MEA H4G strategy, insights, and innovation to drive commercial impact, consumer relevance, and future growth. You will reposition the CBIA team from reactive data providers to proactive business partners — enabling evidence-based decision-making, identifying growth opportunities, and shaping the innovation pipeline with precision and purpose.

Role Purpose

To lead and transform Haleon MEA’s insights, strategy, and innovation agenda into a future-fit, consumer-centric growth engine. This role will translate insights and analytics into strategic implications, informing 'where to play' choices and adjusting growth levers to unlock sustainable growth across Power Brands and local stars." It will also integrate Haleon’s Access Strategy and Innovation Agenda, ensuring affordability and accessibility are embedded into innovation and brand strategies. You will be the architect of a unified performance and innovation framework — embedding insight-led decision-making across the business, driving impact from concept to commercial execution, and leading the Headroom for Growth (H4G) process for MEA to unlock commercial potential across categories, markets, and consumer segments.

Key Responsibilities

DATA LED INSIGHTS, FORESIGHT AND ANALYTICS

• Develop and lead a MEA-wide learning agenda across Haleon’s three category pillars: OTC, Oral Health Care (OHC), and Wellness. This includes not only planning new research but also synthesizing existing data, consumer feedback, and market intelligence to identify unmet needs, demand spaces, and growth vectors across categories and markets.
• Monitor emerging trends, behavioral shifts, and cultural patterns to inform strategic foresight and category planning.
• Translate behavioral and cultural insights into actionable strategies that shape brand development, innovation, and communication.
• Lead a proactive approach to closing critical data gaps and ensuring MEA has the right breadth and depth of data sources to deliver deeper consumer analytics & stronger performance understanding to support the accelerated growth ambition
• Build frameworks for consumer journey mapping, decision trees, and occasion-based segmentation tailored to Haleon’s health and wellness mission.
• Consolidate insights and performance data across categories and markets to proactively identify growth opportunities and surface early warnings on business risks, enabling timely course correction and strategic intervention.
• Champion local brand flexibility by advocating for local jewels and BU-led innovations with tailored toolkits and governance support.
  
  
  

INNOVATION LEADERSHIP & EXECUTION

• Own the end-to-end MEA innovation strategy by informing innovation spaces through insights and analytics work, including H4G. Provide a transparent view of performance to support teams in the end-to-end ownership of delivery, ensuring alignment with consumer needs and commercial priorities in line with identified EGPs and H4G priorities.
• Lead the development of decision-support tools and frameworks that translate complex data into actionable business intelligence.
• Champion consumer intimacy programs include ethnographic research and localization of global insights.
  
  
  

PERFORMANCE ENABLEMENT

• Build and scale a performance enablement system across MEA that integrates consumer, market, and commercial data into a unified decision-making framework.
• Harmonize KPIs, dashboards, and review templates across markets to enable consistent tracking and course correction.
• Partner with Finance and Commercial teams to triangulate insights with business performance and growth levers.
• Oversee innovation tracking and investment effectiveness analysis, integrating macroeconomic and consumer sentiment data into strategic planning.
  
  
  

OPERATIONAL LEADERSHIP & CAPABILITY BUILDING

• Own resource planning and budget deployment across CBIA teams to maximize strategic impact and operational efficiency.
• Lead capability building across all Insight, Strategy, and Innovation resources and marketing teams, fostering a high-performance, insight-driven culture.
• Elevate the analytical capability of the collective MEA organization — at both BU and LOC levels — by partnering with the EMEAL Regional Cteam. Leverage the full suite of analytical resources to identify performance drivers, uncover growth opportunities, and embed data-led decision-making across the region.
• Drive a cultural shift from reactive reporting to proactive opportunity identification, ensuring insights are woven into business planning, innovation, and performance management.
• Build rituals and tools that position Insight and Analytics teams as strategic business partners — surfacing trends, unmet needs, and whitespace opportunities across MEA.
  
  
  

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT & INFLUENCE

• Act as advisor to MEA LT, BU leads, LOC General Managers, and global partners — influencing decisions with data-backed narratives and ensuring market realities are reflected in planning.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration across BU and LOC, with a strong emphasis on proactive, constructive engagement with GMs to shape innovation feasibility, prioritization, and execution pace.
• Represent MEA in global forums, contributing to the evolution of Haleon’s global insights and innovation strategy.
  
  
  

Essential

Qualifications and skills

• Minimum 10 years’ experience in Consumer Insights, Strategy, or Innovation leadership roles, preferably in FMCG or Consumer Healthcare
• Proven track record of driving growth through insight-led strategy and innovation
• Experience in multi-country portfolio management and regional leadership
• Strong fluency in behavioral analytics, digital tools, and AI-driven methodologies
• Demonstrated strength in analytical capability — able to leverage complex data sets, advanced analytics, and cross-functional inputs to identify performance drivers and unlock growth opportunities across BU and LOC levels.
• Exceptional communication, influence, and stakeholder management skills
  
  
  

Preferred

• 15+ years in Consumer Insights, Strategy, or Innovation leadership roles, preferably in FMCG or Consumer Healthcare
• FMCG Experience
• MEA Experience
  
  
  

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