Category Marketing Manager (m/f/d), Beverages

Ingredion Incorporated; Hamburg; On-site; EUR 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Total rewards

Wellness benefits

Flexible work arrangements

Career growth

Recognition program

Referral bonus

Job summary

Ingredion Incorporated is seeking a Category Marketing Manager to lead the regional category portfolio and translate global strategy into an execution plan across Go-to-Market teams. The role drives insights, customer engagement, and sales enablement to grow the category in the region.

You will partner with Sales and Technical Service, develop campaigns, and manage regional launches with compelling value propositions backed by consumer insights.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Food Science/Technology, or related field.
• Proven marketing experience in FMCG/food & beverage with B2B ingredients exposure.
• Strong expertise in strategic marketing, including product launches and value proposition development.

Responsibilities

• Lead the regional category growth and develop the global category plan.
• Engage with customers to build market knowledge and support solution development.
• Partner with Sales and technical service to drive opportunity pipeline and demand generation.
• Develop and adapt sales enablement tools and regional product portfolio knowledge.

Skills

Strategic marketing

Go-to-market

Storytelling

International experience

English fluency

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business/Marketing

Postgraduate marketing qualification

Tools

Salesforce (CRM)

Job description

Company Background

Join Ingredion, where innovation impacts lives worldwide! Without even realizing it, you’ve experienced our work in your favorite chocolate, your pet’s food, the paper you write on, and your everyday snacks. As a global powerhouse across more than 60 industries, we harness the potential of natural ingredients to transform lives. Whether you’re just starting your career or bringing years of experience, there's a place for you here to make a real difference. Be part of our team that values a wide range of perspectives and is committed to shaping a better world with every product we create.

Workplace type: Hybrid Manchester or Hamburg. Remote from UK or Germany

The Category Marketing Manager leads the category portfolio in the region across product lines ensuring value propositions are clearly articulated and supported with compelling insights to support consultative selling across the Go-to-Market teams. Provides sales enablement resources required to effectively market the portfolio of category products, engage in customer meetings to promote solutions and facilitate the conversion of sales opportunities. The role acts as an integrating role between sales and technical service, providing the category inputs to the commercial plans and sales enablement assets needed to effectively sell the portfolio of category products. This role also contributes to the development of the global category plan, including identification of customer problems to solve and innovation priorities for the focus category. The Category Marketing Manager translates the global strategy into an execution plan to deliver the category growth ambition and drive its implementation in the region.

What You Will Do

Global Category Plan

• Category Strategy: Represent your region and join a cross-functional team to develop the global category strategy (5+ year horizon). Bring specific regional market trends, insights and unmet needs to shape the development of this global category plan. Contribute to the development of the regional technical roadmap for your category.
• Category Business Reporting: Ensure results are reported consistently across the business. Guide the development of the budget & strategic plan for your category. Conduct on a regular basis an analysis of the profitability of the category and identify actions to improve it.

Customers & Growth

• Customer Engagements & Opportunity Conversion: Participate in customer meetings to build market knowledge, inform solution development and help convert sales opportunities leveraging key insights. Support sales prospecting process through the development of target customer lists; track progress on engaging with "must win" customers.
• Market Intelligence: Market & competitor intelligence for the category. Identify share of wallet and headroom for growth by customer. Leverage inputs to shape strategy & plans.
• Act as the Marketing lead for major category customers and shape account plans.

Regional Category Growth

• Lead a cross-functional team to drive the implementation of the category annual growth plan.
• Pipeline Development: Partner with Sales and technical service to drive opportunity pipeline growth for the category.
• Prospecting: Support sales prospecting process through the development of target customer lists; tracks progress.
• Demand generation: Partner with the digital demand team to develop campaigns for the category.
• Sales enablement: Work with the go-to-market enablement team to develop or adapt sales enablement tools to region-specific needs. Train regional team on product portfolio and category trends/insights.

Innovation

• Generate an ongoing, consolidated view of regional priority customer problems to solve.
• Accountable for regional business case development for innovation projects.
• Coordinate execution of new product launches within the category development structure. Develop strong value propositions for the launches backed by powerful concepts and consumer insights.

What You Will Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Food Science/Technology, or related field; postgraduate marketing qualification is a plus.
• Proven marketing experience, preferably in FMCG/food & beverage, with B2B ingredients exposure.
• Strong expertise in strategic marketing, including product launches, value proposition development, and go-to-market execution.
• Solid business acumen with ability to perform financial/category analysis and translate strategy into sales-driven tactics.
• Excellent storytelling and communication skills to build compelling, insight-led presentations and sales tools.
• Experience in international environments; fluent in English (written and spoken); SFDC and ingredient knowledge desirable.

Who You Are

• Share knowledge and expertise to support country, regional, and broader business objectives.
• Bring strong project management capabilities and keep initiatives moving forward.
• Communicate ideas clearly through confident and engaging presentations.
• Flexible, responsive, and comfortable taking initiative independently.
• Collaborate effectively with others while owning your work and outcomes.
• Have strong interpersonal skills and communicate clearly with diverse stakeholders.

Why Join Ingredion?

Discover why Ingredion is the ideal place to advance your career with our exceptional rewards and benefits package designed to help you thrive. Create the future with us and enjoy:

Benefits

• Total Rewards Package – Competitive salary and performance-based pay recognizing your contributions to our success
• Comprehensive Benefits & Wellness Support – Health, long-term savings, and resources for your physical, mental, and emotional well-being
• Flexible Work Arrangements – We value flexibility to support you both professionally and personally
• Career Growth – Learning, training, and development opportunities.
• Employee Recognition Program – A culture of real-time appreciation, with personalized recognition rewards globally
• Employee Referral Program – Refer top talent and earn a bonus if they’re hired

Ingredion uses AI-enabled tools to support parts of the recruitment process, including resume screening and interview scheduling. These tools help match candidate skills to job requirements and streamline communication. All AI-assisted decisions are reviewed by our Talent Acquisition team to ensure fairness and compliance with applicable laws. By applying, you acknowledge that AI may be used to support your application journey.

Relocation Available: No