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

Unilever; United States; Remote; USD 146,000 - 219,000; Full time

Job summary

Unilever in the United States is seeking an Associate Director, Category Strategy & Planning for Cooking Aids & Mini Meals to lead category growth, partner with sales, marketing and finance, and translate shopper insights into actionable plans.

You will own channel strategies, drive annual and multi-year plans, set growth targets, and oversee P&L delivery for Knorr Bouillon, Ready to Heat lines, soups, gravies and sauces, influencing retailers and internal teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA preferred.
• 10+ years in Customer Development, Trade Marketing, or Category Strategy in consumer goods.
• Strong analytical and storytelling skills to influence leadership.
• Retail/eCommerce and omnichannel customer experience required.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead profitable growth for the U.S. CA/MM business with an entrepreneurial mindset.
• Translate data into actionable commercial plans aligned to growth strategy.
• Oversee multi-year planning and annual planning cycles with key customers.
• Own channel and customer financial delivery and budgets.
• Collaborate with Field Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Trade Marketing.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Data-driven decision making

Storytelling

Cross-functional collaboration

Omnichannel experience

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA (preferred)

Tools

IRI/Nielsen POS data

Numerator panel data

Job description

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 at Unilever. You 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.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES AND DELIVERABLES

• Lead profitable growth for the U.S. CA&MM business, bringing an entrepreneurial, challenger mindset to ignite competitive performance and accelerate category momentum. Output to: In-Year Performance market share assessment, S&OP pacing risk and opportunity
• 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: 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: MBR input to S&OP, Handshake, Perfect Store

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED

Experiences & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA preferred
• At least +10 years’ experience in Customer Development, Account Management, Trade Marketing, Category Strategy, and/or Brand Marketing Operations within Consumer Goods industry. Food experience preferred.
• Results-driven and ownership mindset to achieve set goals and KPIs, highly entrepreneurial
• Proven ability to demonstrate analytical thinking, data-driven decision making, and ability to influence through strategic story-telling
• Retail, eCommerce, and Omnichannel customer experience required, high level of CPG Food business industry and retailer acumen
• Excellent oral/written and presentation skills; ability to tailor communication style across a multitude of disciplines’ leadership levels, executive presence
• Energized by collaborating with cross-functional partners on new and creative ways to solve business problems; solution-focused mindset
• Encourages ownership to resolve issues where they are happening. Holds others and organization accountable for delivery.
• High comfort level using IRI/Nielsen (POS data), Numerator (panel data)

Excellent Team & Organization Leadership Skills

• Senior Stakeholder Management & Strategic influencing
• Talent Catalyst for direct reports
• Effective mobilizer of cross functional partnerships
• Excellent organizational and prioritization skills, comfortable adapting to dynamic environments applying mix of personal analysis and delegation
• Passion for High Performance to over-deliver against assigned targets while managing ambiguity- addressing market volatility with an agile mindset to find creative solutions to achieve results
• Ability to envision and plan multi-year, understanding long-term and broad-reaching impact of decisions made today. End-to-end process thinking

Pay

The pay range for this position is $146,200 to $219,400. Unilever takes into consideration a wide range of factors that are utilized in making compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, qualifications and education, and other business and organizational needs.

Bonus

This position is bonus eligible.

Long-Term Incentive (LTI)

This position is LTI eligible.

Benefits

Unilever employees are eligible to participate in our benefits plan. Should the employee choose to participate, they can choose from a range of benefits to include, but is not limited to, health insurance (including prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage), retirement savings benefits, life insurance and disability benefits, parental leave, sick leave, paid vacation and holidays, as well as access to numerous voluntary benefits. Any coverages for health insurance and retirement benefits will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans and associated governing plan documents.

At Unilever, inclusion is at the heart of everything we do. We welcome applicants from all walks of life and are committed to creating an environment where everyone can thrive/succeed. All applicants will receive fair and respectful consideration, and we actively support the growth and development of every employee.

Unilever is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Persons with Disabilities.

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If you are an individual with a disability in need of assistance at any time during our recruitment process, please contact us at [e-mail]. Please note: This email is reserved for individuals with disabilities in need of assistance and is not a means of inquiry about positions or application statuses. The Protected Veterans or Individuals with Disabilities AAP narratives are available for inspection by any employee or applicant for employment Monday through Friday during normal business hours at establishment.