Head of Spirits Culture & Advocacy

Job Title: Head of Spirits Culture & Advocacy

Location: Dublin

About us

At Diageo, we do sales differently. We are the leading beverage alcohol company in every region of the world, boasting internationally recognised brands such as Smirnoff, Ketel One, Gordons, Tanqueray, Don Julio, Casamigos, Baileys and Johnnie Walker. And this is your opportunity to create new ways to share and celebrate our truly iconic products.

Wherever you are, you will need to be able to forge lasting relationships, bring commitment and energy to improve our performance, and a genuine entrepreneurial spirit in tune with our company’s proud legacy.

At Diageo, character is everything. So, if you share our sense of adventure, you will have the chance to learn a huge range of skills and disciplines and build an exceptional career with us.

About the Function:

Our Sales team love building relationships, connecting with customers to sell our much-loved brands in new and vibrant markets where they can thrive. They help sell our iconic brands across 180 countries every year.

We’re operating across different markets, channels, and areas of expertise. Using your curiosity and passion, you’ll make the most of consumer insight and digital platforms, reaching new customers, markets, and celebrations to help us achieve our growth potential. We’ll support your learning and growth as you develop your career with us and work with people across our business to realise your fullest potential.

Purpose of the Role

The Head of Spirits Culture & Advocacy will lead Diageo Ireland’s transformation of On-trade influence and bartender engagement. It’s about building community, shaping culture, and

ensuring our world-leading portfolio is not just poured, but loved.

You’ll act as the cultural heart of our On-trade strategy, designing unforgettable moments, nurturing Ireland’s top talent, and making Diageo the bartender’s first choice partner in every key city.

Experience / skills required

• High level spirits knowledge
• Proven brand development and activation experience
• At least 5 years experience within the On Trade with relevant Alc/Non Alc brands.
• Can build powerful relationships and work collaboratively within a team.

Core Responsibilities

National Advocacy & Culture Strategy

• Design and execute an annual engagement roadmap across training, bartender community building, cultural experiences, and brand education.
• Tailor local strategies for Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Belfast and beyond, rooted in trade trends and cultural relevance.

Bartender Training & Development

• Deliver layered training programmes, from fundamentals to advanced mixology across Diageo’s luxury and core portfolios.
• Build long-term relationships with Ireland’s top bars and most influential bartenders.

World Class Programme Leadership

• Own Diageo World Class end-to-end in Ireland, from recruitment to global stage preparation.
• Use World Class as a platform for storytelling, talent elevation, and trade loyalty.

Local Advocacy Events & Activations

• Lead a vibrant calendar of small-format events in key cities: from menu labs and bartender socials to creative workshops and field trips.
• Bring new energy, new voices, and new ideas into how we engage the bar community.

Festival & Experience led Culture

• Deliver brand-led education and experience at key festivals and cultural moments (e.g., Electric Picnic, Forbidden fruit etc)
• Partner with Customer Marketing and brand teams to co-create world class activations.

Digital Influence & Community Building

• Develop a digital-first content strategy for bartender engagement and brand education.
• Use advocacy-led content to strengthen Diageo’s presence and relevance across social and potential CRM platforms.

Team Leadership

• Manage and inspire a small team of Brand Ambassadors and potential support roles.
• Be the voice of bartender culture within the wider spirits and on-trade teams.

Operational & Administrative Leadership

• Budget Ownership
• Performance & Reporting
• Set clear KPIs
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Act as the connector between Advocacy, Sales, Customer Marketing, ensuring integrated execution and visibility.
• Event & Project Operations

Celebrating our inclusive and diverse culture is core to Diageo’s purpose of “celebrating life every day everywhere”.

This purpose is, in itself, inclusive in nature, as it values everybody irrespective of background, disability, religion, gender identity, sexuality or ethnicity.

We know that for our business to thrive and for Diageo to realize its ambition, we depend on having diverse talent with a range of backgrounds, skills and capabilities in each of the 180 countries in which we operate and to reflect our broad consumer base. We view diversity as one of the key enablers that helps our business to grow and our values, purpose and standards set the conditions for us to respect the unique contribution each person brings.

Flexibility is key to our success. From part-time and compressed hours to different locations, our people work flexibly in ways to suit them. Talk to us about what flexibility means to you so that you’re supported from day one.

We recognise and value performance, offering our people a highly competitive Rewards and Benefits package including:

Our purpose is to celebrate life, every day, everywhere. And creating an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued and that they can belong, is a crucial part of this.

We embrace diversity in the broadest possible sense. This means that you’ll be welcomed and celebrated for who you are just by being you. You’ll be part of and help build and champion an inclusive culture that celebrates people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational backgrounds, experiences, mindsets, and more.

Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. Join us and help transform our business as we take our brands to the next level and build new ones as part of shaping the next generation of celebrations for consumers around the world.