Category Manager - Seasoning, Sauces and Marinades; SSM), Dairy and Desserts

Building global, iconic brands people trust and champion

YUM!

Hybrid

Shape the categories that create crave, differentiation and incremental growth across the Yum! system. Seasonings, sauces, marinades, dairy and desserts sit at the intersection of customer love, menu innovation and restaurant economics. This is a highly commercial category role with the opportunity to unlock Yum!’s bold ambition for sauces, strengthen the strategic role of desserts, and build a more competitive and resilient approach to dairy and ingredient sourcing across Europe.

You will combine deep commercial and commodity understanding with supplier innovation and category strategy, working horizontally across brands, markets, Innovation, Marketing, FSQA, Operations, Finance, franchisees and suppliers.

Yum! Europe is part of the One Yum! Supply Chain Centre of Excellence (COE), established to support KFC and Taco Bell with one supply chain, one purpose and one bold goal: unmatched profitability for every restaurant.

The COE works horizontally across brands, markets, functions, franchisees and suppliers to deliver safe, reliable and sustainable supply; improve restaurant economics; accelerate growth; and power brand strategies through world-class category management, strategic supplier partnerships, data, governance and innovation execution.

Role Puporse

Develop and execute the Seasonings, Sauces and Marinades, Dairy & Desserts category strategy for KFC and Taco Bell across UK&I and Europe, combining commercial excellence, commodity insight, supplier capability and innovation to deliver competitive advantage, growth and stronger restaurant economics.

A critical part of the role will be translating Yum!'s growth ambitions for sauces and desserts into a supplier, sourcing and commercial strategy capable of delivering at scale.

Scope:
Seasonings, sauces, marinades, dairy and desserts; category and commodity strategy; strategic sourcing; supplier partnerships; innovation; capacity and resilience; cost optimisation; and commercial governance.

What will you do:

Build and execute a 3–5-year category strategy that connects brand growth plans, consumer trends, menu innovation, commodity economics and supplier capability.

Unlock the bold ambition for sauces, developing the supplier ecosystem, commercial models, capacity and innovation pipeline required to make sauces a stronger driver of customer choice, menu differentiation and profitable growth.

Define the strategic role of desserts, identifying opportunities across product architecture, supplier capability, innovation, value and scale to support greater category growth.

Bring strong commodity and market intelligence across dairy, oils, sugar, spices, seasonings and other key ingredient inputs, translating movements into commercial actions, sourcing strategies and forward-looking risk management.

Build robust should-cost and cost-driver models to understand supplier economics, challenge pricing and identify opportunities beyond traditional tendering.

Lead strategic sourcing, supplier selection, negotiations and commercial agreements, balancing price, total cost, innovation, quality, capacity and resilience.

Develop strategic supplier partnerships that move beyond transactional sourcing towards joint value creation, innovation and competitive advantage.

Use supplier capability, external innovation and market trends to proactively bring new products, formats, ingredients and technologies into the Yum! innovation pipeline.

Identify opportunities to simplify specifications, harmonise demand, aggregate scale and leverage the broader One Yum! system.

Manage commodity exposure, supplier performance, capacity, business…