About the role
Welcome to Haleon. We’re a purpose-driven, world-class consumer company putting everyday health in the hands of millions. In just three years since our launch, we’ve grown, evolved and are now entering an exciting new chapter – one filled with bold ambitions and enormous opportunity.
Our trusted portfolio of brands – including Sensodyne®, Panadol®, Advil®, Voltaren®, Theraflu®, Otrivin®, and Centrum® – lead in resilient and growing categories. What sets us apart is our unique blend of deep human understanding and trusted science.
Now it’s time to fully realise the full potential of our business and our people. We do this through our Win as One strategy. It puts our purpose – to deliver better everyday health with humanity – at the heart of everything we do. It unites us, inspires us, and challenges us to be better every day, driven by our agile, performance-focused culture.
About the role
The Head of Innovation & Strategic Partnerships is a senior leadership role within Digital & Technology (D&T), accountable for driving enterprise‑level innovation and building value‑led strategic partnerships that accelerate Haleon’s business strategy.
Reporting into the Head of Strategy, Architecture & Capability, the role sits at the intersection of strategy, architecture and execution, ensuring that innovation and external partnerships are intentionally aligned to enterprise priorities, architecture roadmaps and measurable business outcomes.
The role moves D&T away from fragmented experimentation and transactional supplier engagement towards a disciplined innovation model, underpinned by a small number of strategic partners, co‑investment, shared accountability and clear value realisation — in line with the evolving Strategy, Architecture & Capability operating model.
Role purpose
To accelerate Haleon’s strategy by identifying, shaping and scaling high‑value innovation opportunities, and by establishing strategic technology partnerships that provide access to market insight, emerging capabilities, specialist delivery capacity and co‑investment — all aligned to enterprise architecture and business outcomes.
Key accountabilities
The Head of Innovation & Strategic Partnerships is accountable for:
Enterprise innovation strategy aligned to D&T and business priorities
Definition and operation of a disciplined innovation model
Establishment and governance of a small portfolio of strategic partners
Alignment of innovation and partnerships to architecture roadmaps
Value realisation, benefits tracking and outcome‑based engagement
Executive‑level advisory to D&T and business leadership on innovation and partnership choices
Key responsibilities
1. Enterprise Innovation Strategy & Operating Model
Define and maintain a clear enterprise innovation strategy, aligned to Haleon’s business strategy and D&T roadmap.
Shift innovation from ad‑hoc experimentation to a disciplined, repeatable model that moves ideas from discovery → pilot → scale.
Ensure innovation activity is focused on strategic value pools such as growth, productivity, resilience, compliance and AI‑enabled transformation.
Establish governance that balances exploration with control, reducing duplication and innovation drift.
2. Strategic Partnership Strategy & Portfolio
Define and e xecute Haleon’s strategic partnership strategy for technology and digital innovation.
Rationalise the third‑party landscape towards a small number of strategic partners that form the backbone of Haleon’s core capability.
Move partner relationships from transactional, consumption‑led models to value‑led partnerships with joint accountability for outcomes.
3. Partner Selection, Relationship Management & Governance
Lead identification, evaluation and selection of strategic partners aligned to:
Enterprise architecture direction
Priority value pools and initiatives
Capability gaps and acceleration needs
Establish clear partnership governance, including:
Executive sponsorship
Joint roadmaps and investment plans
Defined success metrics and value tracking
Ensure partnerships are reviewed, evolved or exited based on performance and relevance.
4. Co‑Investment & Value Realisation
Shape co‑investment models with strategic partners to reduce risk and accelerate delivery of priority initiatives.
Ensure innovation and partnership investments have:
Clear hypotheses and use cases
Explicit success measures
Agreed routes to scale
Track benefits realisation and ensure outcomes are visible to senior leadership.
5. Alignment with Strategy, Architecture & Domain Roadmaps
Work closely with:
Domain Architects
Platform Owners
Portfolio & Delivery leadership
Ensure innovation efforts and partner engagements are:
Architecturally coherent
Aligned to the Haleon D&T strategy and target state
Focused on simplification and reuse, not fragmentation
Prevent innovation from creating long‑term architectural debt.
6. Executive Advisory & Thought Leadership
Act as a trusted advisor to senior D&T and business leaders on:
Emerging technology trends
Strategic partnership opportunities
Build vs. buy vs. partner decisions
Provide clear perspectives on trade‑offs, risks and opportunities to inform executive decision‑making.
7. Emerging Technology & Market Insight
Maintain a forward‑looking view of emerging technologies, delivery models and partner ecosystems.
Bring external insight and thought leadership into Haleon to inform:
Strategy reviews
Architecture evolution
Investment prioritisation
Ensure lessons from pilots and experiments are captured and applied at scale.
8. Innovation Culture & Ways of Working
Help build a culture where innovation is:
Intentional
Business‑led
Measurable
Enable teams to engage with partners effectively while retaining enterprise standards and controls.
Promote learning, reuse and community across innovation initiatives.
What good looks like
Innovation activity is focused on strategic priorities, not side experiments
A small number of strategic partners deliver disproportionate value
Co‑investment reduces risk and accelerates outcomes
Innovation initiatives scale into core platforms and capabilities
Leadership has clear visibility of value delivered from partnerships
The enterprise architecture remains coherent despite rapid innovation
Qualifications & experience
Essential
Significant experience in innovation, strategy, partnerships or consulting roles
Proven track record working with strategic technology partners
Strong commercial acumen and ability to structure value‑led engagements
Experience operating at executive level, influencing senior stakeholders
Ability to connect technology innovation to measurable business outcomes
Preferred
Experience in Digital, Technology or transformation leadership roles
Familiarity with EA‑led operating models and portfolio governance
Experience working with global technology partners and ecosystems
Exposure to AI, data and platform innovation initiative
Skills & Capabilities
Strategic thinking and commercial judgement
Strong stakeholder and executive influencing skills
Ability to operate across ambiguity and emerging domains
Structured approach to innovation and value realisation
Strong communication and storytelling capability for senior audiences
Job Posting End Date
2026-06-17
Equal Opportunities
Haleon are committed to mobilising our purpose in a way that represents the diverse consumers and communities who rely on our brands every day. It guides us in creating an inclusive culture, where different backgrounds and views are valued and respected – all in support of understanding and best serving the needs of our consumers and unleashing the full potential of our people. It’s important to us that Haleon is a place where all our employees feel they truly belong.
During the application process, we may ask you to share some personal information, which is entirely voluntary. This information ensures we meet certain regulatory and reporting obligations and supports the development, refinement, and execution of our inclusion and belonging programmes that are open to all Haleon employees.
The personal information you provide will be kept confidential, used only for legitimate business purposes, and will never be used in making any employment decisions, including hiring decisions.
Adjustment or Accommodations Request
If you require a reasonable adjustment or accommodation or other assistance to apply for a job at Haleon at any stage of the application process, please let your recruiter know by providing them with a description of specific adjustments you are requesting. We’ll provide all reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process and treat all information you provide us in confidence.
Note to candidates
The Haleon recruitment team will contact you using a Haleon email account (@haleon.com). If you are not sure whether the email you received is from Haleon, please get in touch.
Aplyr's read
Haleon is a leader in consumer healthcare, offering diverse roles across global markets for those passionate about everyday health solutions.
What's promising
- •Strong focus on consumer health products with a global reach.
- •Wide range of roles indicates diverse career opportunities.
- •Commitment to innovation in health and wellness solutions.
What to watch
- •Highly competitive industry with pressure on market share.
- •Potential challenges in maintaining product differentiation.
- •Regulatory hurdles in different markets could impact operations.
Why Haleon
- •Specializes in everyday health products, unlike many pharma-focused peers.
- •Global presence with localized roles like Türkiye Shopper Marketing Lead.
- •Diverse hiring across functions from R&D to digital commerce.
Aplyr’s read is generated by AI from public sources. Was it useful?
About Haleon
Haleon is a global consumer healthcare company focused on delivering everyday health products and solutions.
