Associate Director, North America Digital & Technology

Unilever; Hoboken (NJ); On-site; USD 146,000 - 219,000; Full time

Job summary

Unilever is seeking a senior leader to drive digital and technology initiatives across North America, with rotation across strategic priorities, including AI-enabled capabilities. You will partner with business and technology teams, translate complex needs into practical delivery, and help shape smarter, faster ways of working.

You will lead multi-functional programs, manage governance at the executive level, and drive adoption and value realization across the portfolio, leveraging extensive

Qualifications

• Experience leading delivery across multiple product and business teams at portfolio scale, with Agile practices.
• Experience communicating with executive-level steering committees and decision forums.
• Senior cross-functional leadership with ability to align priorities among stakeholders.
• RAID/logs, dependency maps, and integrated plans for complex programs.
• Proven ability to motivate teams and collaborate without direct authority.
• Experience in FMCG/CPG or large-scale enterprise tech programs.

Responsibilities

• Deliver pricing and promotion transformation programs with long-term benefits.
• Own program strategy, milestones, dependencies, and delivery approach; drive change at scale.
• Align senior business and technology leaders on priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Shape cross-country and global roadmaps to reflect regional needs and ensure market delivery.
• Design governance: steering committees, RAID management, accountability for decisions.
• Manage product interdependencies and resolve cross-product conflicts at leadership level.
• Drive value realization, adoption strategy, and reporting to executives.
• Manage strategic vendor relationships and governance of partner performance.

Skills

Agile & release management

Executive stakeholder management

Cross-functional leadership

AI/ML & data analytics

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree preferred

Job description

Job Purpose

At Unilever, Digital and Technology is helping shape the next chapter of growth for one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies. This is an opportunity to work on the highest-value applications of technology across a North America business with scale, complexity, and global influence. You will use cutting edge technology, data, digital products, and artificial intelligence to transform how we operate, serve customers, and connect with consumers. This role offers exposure to transformational change. You will contribute to priority initiatives that sit on the leadership agenda, including artificial intelligence-enabled capabilities that are attracting significant investment and visibility across the business. As part of a rotational model, you will build breadth across strategic digital priorities, moving across high-impact opportunities where technology can unlock measurable value, accelerate decision-making, and strengthen competitive advantage. North America is a lighthouse market for Unilever globally, giving this role a unique platform to help prove, scale, and shape solutions that can influence the wider enterprise. You will partner across business and technology teams, translate complex needs into practical delivery, and help create smarter, faster, and more connected ways of working — while building the experience, relationships, and commercial understanding needed to grow as a digital leader.

Key Responsibilities

• Customer Development technology transformation – Deliver once-in-a-generation programs to transform pricing and promotion capabilities with significant long term benefits for the business.
• Program strategy, planning, and change management — Own program strategy across a portfolio of workstreams — define multi-year outcomes, integrated milestones, dependencies, and delivery approach; shape the executive change agenda and institutionalize new ways of working at scale.
• Stakeholder leadership — Align senior business and technology leaders on strategic priorities, delivery trade-offs, and measurable outcomes. Translate business needs into clear solution requirements and compelling value narratives that support executive decision-making and adoption.
• Cross-team alignment — Shape alignment between North America priorities and global product/data platform roadmaps; influence global capabilities to reflect North America needs and ensure fit-for-market delivery at scale.
• Governance & decisioning — Design the governance model for the program; chair Steering Committees with executive sponsors, manage RAID at the portfolio level, and hold senior leaders accountable for decisions and outcomes.
• Product interdependency management — Orchestrate enterprise interdependencies across the product portfolio consuming the data foundation; resolve cross-product conflicts at senior leadership level and protect critical delivery paths.
• Benefits & adoption — Set the value realization framework, drive change management and training strategy, and hold business owners accountable for measured adoption and realized benefits reported to executives.
• Vendor & partner management — Own strategic vendor relationships — shape scope, negotiate commercial terms, and govern partner performance against measurable outcomes.

Key Capabilities

• Drive Product & AI Innovation — Set the product and AI agenda for North America; champion scalable solutions, AI and analytics adoption, and lifecycle stewardship that compounds business value over time.
• Lead Delivery & Transformation — Own end-to-end program delivery across a portfolio; drive enterprise change management and ensure execution excellence at scale.
• Ensure Business & Consumer Focus — Connect technology investments to enterprise business outcomes; build executive business cases for strategic initiatives; embed consumer insights, journey understanding, and competitive intelligence into the portfolio agenda.
• Enable Value Realization & Storytelling — Drive value realization at portfolio level; communicate impact to C-suite audiences and shape the narrative across cross-functional stakeholders.
• Lead with Integrity — Influence across cross-functional and senior leadership teams, model collaboration, and enable empowered, accountable delivery.
• Cross-Functional Mastery — Apply deep cross-functional expertise across supply chain, R&D, marketing, or customer operations to shape multi-functional outcomes.

Required Qualifications

• Experience leading delivery across multiple product and business teams at portfolio scale; deep familiarity with Agile and release management at enterprise scale.
• Experience leading executive-level communications, steering committees, and decision forums.
• Senior cross-functional leadership with a track record of driving alignment across competing priorities, ambiguous problem spaces, and senior stakeholder groups.
• Experience building and managing RAID logs, dependency maps, and integrated plans for complex programs.
• High emotional intelligence and strong collaboration skills; able to motivate teams without direct authority.
• Proven record of scaling delivery operations (cadence, reporting, rituals) and embedding repeatable ways of working across a portfolio.
• Bachelor's degree required; master's degree in business, computer science, engineering, or related field preferred.
• Experience in FMCG/CPG/retail and/or enterprise-scale technology programs.
• Demonstrated leadership in AI, data science, digital product management, or design thinking at enterprise scale.
• Proven track record in delivering complex, cross-functional initiatives with measurable Profit & Loss (P&L) or operational impact.
• Senior stakeholder management and influencing skills, including with C-suite audiences.
• Business domain experience in Supply Chain, R&D, Marketing, or Customer/Retail.
• A passion for consumer-first thinking and digital transformation.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in product management, management consulting, or technology transformation/strategy
• Experience leading enterprise-scale transformation programs with executive sponsorship and external partner ecosystems.
• Knowledge of consumer goods commercial cycles including business development, customer strategy and category management
• An understanding of industry-best Revenue Growth Management (RGM) or Net Revenue Management (NRM) processes, levers, and adoption principles
• A working knowledge of profit and loss finances, modeling and forecasting
• Advanced degree (e.g., MBA, Masters in a relevant quantitative, business, or technology field) demonstrate strong analytical and strategic capabilities.
• Specialized skills in AI/ML, data engineering, or commercial analytics (pricing, price pack architecture, promotion effectiveness).

Pay

The pay range for this position is $146,200 to $219,400.

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.

Equality and Inclusion

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. For more information on your federal rights, please see Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal Employment is subject to verification of pre-screening tests, which may include drug screening, background check, credit check and DMV check. 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. Better Business. Better World. Better You. We’ve been pioneers, innovators and future-makers for over 120 years. Learn More