Junior Brand Manager / Brand Manager

Job Description

Location: Hybrid // London · Employment Type: Permanent · Compensation: £35-45k + bonus + equity + 5 days a year and a budget of up to £1,000 a year for training and development ·  Reporting to: Senior Brand Lead · Company: Lean Kitchen Network · Brand: HIDE

Be part of the HIDE movement from the very beginning.

The Mission

For decades, eating well has been complicated, expensive and inconvenient. The supermarket shelves back that story up. Aisle after aisle of ready meals built on cheap fillers, synthetic preservatives and ingredient lists that read like a chemistry exam. People have been failed. And they know it.

We’ve created HIDE to change that. Not at the premium end. Not in a niche health food store. In Tesco, the UK's biggest retailer. We’re in 1,000 stores, at a price that means everyone can afford to eat properly. £5 a meal. £4 with Clubcard. Real food. No compromise.

Every product is built around a genuine, non-negotiable nutritional standard:

  • At least 25g protein.

  • At least 8g fibre.

  • Less than 5g added sugar.

  • Whole food ingredients throughout.

  • No isolates, no bulking agents, and no artificial preservatives.

  • Nothing we wouldn't put our name to. Nothing to HIDE.

The people behind it match the ambition. Dr Rupy Aujla (NHS GP and Sunday Times bestselling author) shaped the food philosophy and sits behind every product as Scientific Ambassador. Steven Bartlett’s Flight Studios have invested and brought their brand-building firepower to the build. Samworth Brothers, one of the UK's most respected food manufacturers, make it happen at scale. We’re also backed by major ambassadors such as Grace Beverly, Tonic Health and Food Review Club.

This is a brand with a real shot at changing the way millions of people eat. Our meals are live in Tesco nationwide. Now it’s time to grow - and this role is pivotal in that.

The Role

HIDE launched this April. We now need someone to help us build everything that comes next across brand management, commercial growth, communications, and the varied and exciting day-to-day work of making a challenger brand punch above its weight.

This is a broad brand role. You will write copy, brief external partners, eat a lot of food, debate flavour - and occasionally do things that aren't in any job description. That's the job. You'll love it or you won't. But there's nothing quite like it.

What You'll Do

Brand & Communications

  • Brand Guardianship: Act as the day-to-day brand guardian, catching anything across our touchpoints that doesn't sound or feel like HIDE.

  • Copywriting: Write and edit copy across brand formats, including product descriptions, email marketing, FAQs, and the website.

  • Partnerships & Talent: Support strategic brand collaboration conversations with exciting brand partners and talent.

  • Asset Management: Keep core brand assets, templates, and guidelines up to date as the product range grows.

NPD & Insight

  • Tastings & Development: Attend NPD sessions and tastings, bringing a strong palate and an even stronger consumer instinct to the table.

  • Market Insight: Support trend and category insight work to know what is emerging, what is relevant, and what is just noise.

  • Product Translation: Help translate complex product truths into compelling, consumer-facing language.

  • Launch Planning: Support strategic product launch planning as the range expands beyond the current Tesco lineup.

Growth & Commercial

Ultimately, this role exists to help HIDE grow. That means understanding and driving the numbers that matter:

  • Rate of sale and unit velocity on the shelf.

  • Brand awareness and new shopper recruitment.

  • Customer penetration in the meals category.

  • Driving people down the aisle who would not otherwise have come.

Note: You do not need a heavy commercial background, but you do need to understand that smart brand work and brilliant NPD only matter if they move these numbers.

AI Process Optimisation

  • Help implement AI tools and workflows across how we operate internally and market externally.

  • Find smarter, faster ways to analyse market trends and manage brand projects using new technology.

  • Help shape the operational processes for a modern, tech-forward food brand.

Partners and Projects

  • Support day-to-day relationships with our PR team and external brand partners.

  • Keep complex, cross-functional projects moving without needing to be chased.

  • Operate at pace within a small, fast-moving team.

 

Who You Are

  • The Right Background: You have 3-5 years of marketing experience, ideally having spent time in a big FMCG brand, so you know how major brands are built, how a brief works, and what good looks like.

  • The Startup Edge: You’ve also spent time within a scrappy startup or high-growth scale-up - somewhere you had to be very hands-on and figure it out as you went along.

  • The Perfect Blend: You possess that rare combination of brand rigour from big food and hunger from a challenger brand.

  • Attention to detail: You have great attention to detail and spot when something doesn’t look right. 

  • You can move at pace: You are comfortable with the fast pace of a start up environment and able to move quickly to execute tasks. 

  • Communication Skills: You write exceptionally well, quickly, and confidently in a voice that isn't your own.

  • Food Obsessed: You genuinely care about food, not just the aesthetics.

  • Organised & Creative: You are highly organised without being bureaucratic, and you possess a strong creative eye - you know what looks right and can explain why.

  • Stakeholder Management: You have the emotional intelligence required to manage external partners, agencies, and a founding team simultaneously.

  • AI-Curious: You are excited (not nervous) about using AI to move faster and smarter across research, analysis, and internal processes.

What This Role Is Not

This is not a role where someone tells you what to do and you simply execute it.

  • There is no set-in-stone playbook and no massive corporate marketing department behind you.

  • Instead, there is a brand with real conviction, a real product, major retail shelf space, and a small team that needs someone to help them move faster and better.

If you need rigid structure, corporate processes, and clear swim lanes, this probably isn't for you. If you want to build something from the ground up and leave your fingerprints on a brand people will actually buy and eat, this is the right fit.

To apply

Send your CV, a cover letter, and a note on why you want to work on HIDE to maja.alice@thelkn.com with the subject line ‘Brand Manager Application’. (Make sure to put your name in the file names)

Real food. Nothing to HIDE.