Associate Director, Channel Strategy Planning & Operations Cooking Aids & Mini Meals US

JOB PURPOSE

The Category Strategy & Planning (CS&P) organization leads category strategy, channel and customer planning, and category and shopper insights for the U.S. CA&MM (Cooking Aids & Meal Makers business within the Foods Business Unit. This role is a leadership position with responsibility for overseeing Category Strategy & Planning across the Cooking Aids & Mini Meals Portfolio, primarily including Knorr Bouillon, Meal Makers Ready to Heat/ Non Ready to Heat, Soups Gravy and Sauces.

The Category Planning function partners closely with Field Sales, Business Development, Category Strategy, Category Management, Marketing (Demand Creation, Innovation, Shopper,) Finance, Net Revenue Management, Supply Chain, and Trade Marketing to develop a commercial strategy and execution levers via Omni & Pureplay retailer plans through flawless execution that delivers category growth and meets U.S. Cooking Aids & Mini Meals total P&L growth targets..

The Associate Director, Category Strategy & Planning – Cooking Aids & Mini Meals will serve as the voice of the customer and shopper within the cross functional Cooking Aids & Mini Meals leadership team, ensuring channel and customer insights are embedded into short and long term brand and customer commercial plans that align with retailer strategies and deliver profitable growth for both Unilever and its customers.

Find your purpose  will lead innovations, big and small, that will make our business win and grow. You will learn from brilliant business leaders and colleagues in a truly global and diverse culture to ultimately become a better you. If you are driven by commercial acumen, like winning and are passionate about growing categories with customers then this role is just for you.

Lead profitable growth for the U.S. CA&MM business, bringing an entrepreneurial, challenger mindset to ignite competitive performance and accelerate category momentum. Translate data into insight and insight into action by developing and executing robust commercial plans aligned to the Category Growth Strategy and key Category Value Drivers.

• Output to:
  In-Year Performance market share assessment, S&OP pacing risk and opportunity
• Output to:
  Multi-year planning (One Plan), Commercialization input (innovation & PPA)
• Lead delivery of the out-year plan (partnered with Cat Strat, Marketing) into the annual release of the TCT Materials and annual Foods Summit to launch the next year planning cycle with customers. Output: TCT Materials, Foods Summit
• Own channel and customer financial delivery, including development of annual growth targets, trade investment budgets, and forecasts that ladder directly to the CA&MM P&L and deliver both top and bottom line KPIs. Output: OP Annual Planning Process
• Set and deploy channel strategy for the category, ensuring holistic, disciplined customer investment across channels and customers to drive sustainable, profitable growth. Output:
  Channel Strategy, OP Annual Planning Process
• Lead deep dive commercial analytics to research and sculpt an approach to address business opportunities such as distribution gaps, in-market execution, competitive dynamics
• Partner with Net Revenue Management/RGM to deliver optimal pricing/PPA and to optimize promotional effectiveness, delivering stronger ROI and enhancements to in-market execution
• Serve as the voice of the customer, channel, and shopper within IBP (internal) and JBP (external) processes, while also representing category and brand priorities externally with top strategic customers and internally with Business Development and Category Development Sales teams
• Partner closely with field sales and cross functional teams to ensure best in class Perfect Store activation, flawless execution of national cross category and cross customer tentpole programs, and successful innovation launch planning and execution. Processes: M  input to S&OP, Handshake, Perfect Store

Experiences & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA preferred
• At least +10 years’ experience in Customer Development, Account Management, Trade Marketing, Category Strategy, and/or…