Head of Health Innovation

At Tesco, we’re committed to helping our customers lead healthier lives. As Head of Health Innovation, you’ll lead the development and delivery of our health-focused food strategy, ensuring we continue to offer delicious, nutritious, and affordable food for everyone. You’ll shape Tesco’s product innovation agenda to drive transformation in health and wellness—balancing taste, value, quality, and sustainability.

This is a critical leadership role in driving Tesco’s ambition to be a leader in healthy and sustainable diets, while keeping innovation at the heart of our offer.

You will be responsible for:

Innovation Strategy & Health Leadership

Lead the Tesco Health & Nutrition innovation agenda across all relevant Own Brand categories, with a focus on HFSS reformulation, clean dec, functional foods, plant-based, and calorie reduction.
Own and deliver a robust, customer-led innovation pipeline aligned to strategic health goals and future-facing trends.
Ensure product development meets evolving regulatory standards and contributes to Tesco’s Healthy Little Differences Plan and net zero ambitions.
Proactively identify emerging customer need states and whitespace opportunities through trend analysis, consumer insight, and cross-category collaboration to shape future innovation.
Explore adjacent and disruptive health territories—such as personalised nutrition, microbiome-supporting products, and mental wellbeing—to futureproof the portfolio and lead in new growth spaces.

Product Development & Delivery

Lead cross-functional squads (Product Development, Technical, Nutrition, R&D, Buying) to deliver health-led innovation at pace and scale.
Embed health, quality, and sustainability criteria into the product lifecycle—from concept to shelf.
Partner with Sustainable diets, Brand, the Consumer Insight team, and external food tech partners to develop next-generation food solutions.

Customer & Commercial Impact

Champion customer health insight, using data to inform decisions and identify opportunity areas (e.g. family nutrition, brain development, clean dec, functional snacking, meal solutions).
Drive growth through customer-trusted, healthier propositions that don’t compromise on taste, price, or convenience.
Monitor market and competitor landscape to ensure Tesco stays at the forefront of health innovation.

Stakeholder & External Engagement

Represent Tesco in cross-industry working groups and external bodies (e.g. IGD, FSA, BRC) from a food innovation perspective.
Collaborate with government, academics, and NGOs to shape the broader food and health ecosystem.
Influence senior leaders internally, securing buy-in and investment in the health and innovation agenda.

Team & Culture Leadership

Inspire, coach, and develop a team of developers, nutritionists, and innovation leads.
Embed an innovation-first mindset across food teams, championing agility, experimentation, and continuous learning.
Model Tesco’s values: no one tries harder for customers, treat people how they want to be treated, and every little help makes a big difference.

You will need:

Essential Experience

Extensive experience in food innovation, product development, or category management, ideally in a major retailer or FMCG brand.
Proven leadership in health-focused food innovation (e.g., HFSS reformulation, plant-based, low/no products).
Deep understanding of UK nutrition policy, labelling laws, and food standards.
Commercial acumen with strong project delivery capability across multiple categories.
Experience influencing at Exec or Director level and leading cross-functional innovation teams.

Preferred Qualifications / Experience

Qualified in Nutrition and Dietetics with registration from a recognised professional body

Background in food science, nutrition, or public health.
Experience working with start-ups, academic institutions or emerging food technologies.
Familiarity with Tesco’s Own Brand model and supplier collaboration processes

#LI - EF1

#LI - Hybrid

What's in it for you:

We’re all about the little helps. That’s why we make sure our Tesco colleague benefits package takes care of you – both in and out of work. Click Here to find out more!

Annual bonus scheme of up to 45% of base salary
Car Cash Allowance
Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays)
Private medical insurance
Retirement savings plan - save between 6% - 10% and Tesco will contribute 1.5 times this amount
26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 years’ service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave

About us:

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is 'Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day'. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet.

We are proud to have an inclusive culture at Tesco where everyone truly feels able to be themselves. At Tesco, we not only celebrate diversity, but recognise the value and opportunity it brings. We're committed to creating a workplace where differences are valued, and make sure that all colleagues are given the same opportunities. We're a big business with diverse working patterns and many business areas which means that we can find something that works for you. Everyone is welcome at Tesco.

We have recently announced that we will be moving towards a more blended working week – combining office and remote working. Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate. Please talk to us to about how this can work for you.

NOTE: Should you be successful in your application, your offer will be subject to and conditional upon you providing your bank account details on your agreed start date.

We're proud to have been accredited Disability Confident Leader and we're committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please visit https://www.tesco-careers.com/accessibility