Menu and Innovation Manager Nordics for Subway

Do you love food, understand what makes customers choose one product over another, and enjoy building clear ways of working from the ground up? Nordic Bites Group, the master franchisee for Subway brand in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, is creating a new Menu and Innovation Manager, Nordics role to shape Subway’s Nordic menu, product development and innovation process for the future. This is a newly created role with real opportunity to build. You will not step into a fully established process; you will help design and lead the Nordic NPD way of working from idea intake and evaluation to testing, pilots, launch readiness and post-launch learnings. Working closely with CMO, Operations, Procurement, Marketing, Country teams, suppliers and Subway brand stakeholders, you will build a menu that is exciting for customers, commercially strong, compliant and practical for restaurants to execute.   What you will do ·       Build and lead the Nordic NPD process, creating clear ways of working for how ideas are gathered, assessed, tested, approved, launched and reviewed. ·       Shape the Nordic food, menu and product strategy, ensuring our menu is relevant for customers, strong for the business and realistic for restaurants to execute. ·       Lead menu development across core menu items, limited-time offers, regional adaptations, menu optimisation and delisting decisions. ·       Bring new products and improvements to life, from idea development and testing to pilots, launch readiness and post-launch learnings. ·       Use sales data, consumer insight, country feedback and operational input to make clear recommendations and confident menu decisions. ·       Keep product information accurate and reliable, including recipes, specifications, allergens, nutrition, ingredients, claims and product master data. ·       Work closely with suppliers, procurement and operations to improve profitability, reduce waste and make restaurant execution smoother. ·       Support successful launches by creating clear training input, launch materials and ways of working for teams across the Nordics.   What we are looking for We are looking for someone who combines genuine food curiosity with commercial thinking, strong execution skills and the ability to build structure in a new area. You may have worked with NPD, menu development, category, food innovation or product launches before, and you understand what a good process needs: clear ownership, decision points, timelines, testing, documentation and cross-functional alignment. You enjoy turning customer needs, market trends and business priorities into products and menu decisions that make sense in practice. ·       5–8 years of experience in food, menu, category, product development, innovation, QSR, restaurant chains or a similar consumer-facing business. ·       You have experience in QSR, restaurant chains, food service, retail food, category management, product development or food innovation. ·       You have built, improved or worked within NPD, EPD, innovation, product launch or stage-gate processes. ·       You understand how menus, products and categories drive customer choice, commercial performance and brand relevance. ·       You are comfortable using data, consumer insight and market feedback to support decisions. ·       You understand the importance of food safety, allergens, nutrition, claims, product specifications or product data management. ·       You are a strong project manager who can lead work across functions, countries and external partners. ·       You are practical and hands-on, with the ability to move from ideas and concepts to launches that restaurants can execute well. ·       You communicate clearly in English; Nordic language skills are a plus.   What kind of person succeeds here? You will enjoy this role if you like combining creativity with structure and if you are motivated by building something that does not yet fully exist. You are interested in food trends and customer behaviour, but you also enjoy creating the practical foundations that make innovation work: process, timelines, decision points, product information, compliance, supplier collaboration and restaurant execution. You can create clarity when there are many views in the room, and you are comfortable making recommendations that balance taste, business impact and operational simplicity.   Our context Nordic Bites Group became the master franchisee for Subway in the Nordics in May 2025. We are now building a stronger Nordic organisation and clearer ways of working across markets. This role is part of that build: we want to create a more structured, transparent and scalable Nordic NPD process that helps us move from ideas to launches with better focus, stronger decisions and clearer ownership. This is not a maintenance role. It is a chance to build the Nordic menu and innovation model, create the NPD process, develop products customers want, and make launches commercially strong and easy for restaurants to execute. If you want a role where food, business, structure-building and hands-on execution meet, we would like to hear from you.   Location: Preferably Helsinki or Seinäjoki in Finland. Stockholm or Copenhagen may also be possible. The role works across the Nordic markets and includes occasional travel.