Global Head of Food

Global Innovation – Head of Food

At Costa Coffee, we are what we craft. We’re reimagining coffee experiences in over 50 countries and counting, as a key part of the Coca-Cola System. Whether you get your coffee in a store, from a machine, at home, or on the go – we’ve got you covered.

Costa is rapidly expanding across markets, with food playing a key role in our growth. As the UK market leader with strong brand presence, we’re focused on increasing our food share and expanding globally in partnership with Coca-Cola. This role is crucial in driving a balanced global food strategy, ensuring consistency while adapting to local market needs.

Our teams make a difference. Whether that’s working on new tech for the perfect pour, helping our teams grow, creating award-winning campaigns, crunching the numbers, or developing the latest exciting menu item; together, we stir up success.

We may be a global brand, but we haven’t forgotten our roots. That’s where the Costa Foundation and our fantastic community agenda come in. Whatever your role, you can help us change lives in coffee growing communities and help your local community too.

We also want to help you grow in your career through amazing experiences, our apprenticeship scheme, and development programmes. At Costa, you can go beyond the day-to-day.
And as a Head of Food, there’s never been a better time to join.

So, why Costa?

We didn’t become a global coffee brand by sitting back. When you work here, you join a community that values passion, progression and integrity, with some pretty brilliant perks to sweeten the deal:
• Own a piece of Costa’s success by becoming a share owner in Coca-Cola with our Share Investment Plan (SIP).
• An annual discretionary bonus scheme, based on business results and individual contribution.
• A smart pension that saves you money on tax and national insurance, and matches your contributions up to 10%.
• The Costa Financial Support Fund, supporting team members who find themselves in unexpected financial pressure.
• 50% discount in all Costa-owned stores, and 25% off in other participating stores.
• Private medical cover thanks to our Private Healthcare scheme.
• And that’s not all. Explore even more of our perks here: https://bit.ly/costaperks

We’re passionate about being a great place to work, where you can bring your unique self into our mix. We firmly support diversity, equity and inclusion, and continue to work with our teams to shape the future of our culture and values: Disciplined to Deliver, Passion for Progress, Win with Warmth, Courage to Challenge and Trusted Team Players.

What you’ll do

Being a Head of Food is about so much more than bringing our coffee to the world. It’s your chance to stir up real success - which means you’ll be:
• Lead and inspire the global and regional innovation teams and broader stakeholder group; Key contributor to the Marketing Leadership Team and Costa Exec to progress food agenda.
• Define ‘a mid-term vision for our food strategy at a global level aligned with total Costa business strategies.
• Product development – Working in partnership with product development, drive delivery to gate 3 handover of competitively advantaged product solutions using R&D know how. Test and define how to scale product solutions.
• Pipeline development – work with stakeholders and team to develop long-list of ideas and prioritise into winning concepts that support a short and mid term balanced portfolio of opportunities.
• Manage food departmental budget.

Who you are

It’s your unique ingredients we’re interested in:
• An expert brimming with knowledge and a history of experience in a similar role.
• A visionary who can see three steps ahead to put bold plans in place
• A communicator with the passion to share ideas - and make them happen

Where you’ll work:

Right now, our Support Centre teams work flexibly, blending home working with in-person time whenever it matters most – whether that’s a team moment, a creative session, or simply coming together to share ideas.
We’re excited to be moving into a new home for our brand in St Albans in January 2027 – an inspiring space from which our Support Centre teams will work three days a week to connect and collaborate in-person to bring our bold ambition to life.

For any reasonable adjustments and general queries, please get in touch with sarah.johnstone-cooke@costacoffee.com