Associate Director, US Condiments Channel Strategy Planning & Operations

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

Job summary

Unilever Hoboken, NJ, is seeking an Associate Director, Category Strategy & Planning for Condiments. This leadership role oversees strategy, planning, and customer insights across Hellmann’s/Best Foods, Maille, and Sir Kensington’s brands.

You’ll drive profitable growth with cross-functional partners in a hybrid work model. You will manage annual planning, pricing, trade investments, and cross-channel activation, leveraging shopper data and market insights to push long-term growth for the

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA preferred.
• 10+ years’ experience in Customer Development, Account Management, Trade Marketing, Category Strategy, and Brand Marketing Operations.
• Retail, eCommerce, and Omnichannel experience required; high CPG retailer acumen.
• Analytical thinking, data-driven decision making, and strategic storytelling abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead profitable growth for the U.S. Condiments business, igniting competitive performance.
• Translate data into insight and action; develop and execute robust commercial plans.
• Own channel and customer financial delivery with growth targets and budgets.
• Set and deploy channel strategy to drive sustainable, profitable growth.
• Lead analytics to address opportunities like distribution gaps and in-market execution.
• Collaborate with Net Revenue Management to optimize pricing and promotions.
• Represent category priorities in IBP and JBP processes.

Skills

Customer Development

Account Management

Trade Marketing

Category Strategy

Brand Marketing Operations

Retail & eCommerce

Omnichannel

Cross-functional Leadership

Analytical Thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree

MBA

Tools

IRI/Nielsen POS data

Numerator panel data

Job description

Job Title: Associate Director, US Condiments CS&P

Location: Hoboken NJ (hybrid)

Terms & Conditions: International assignment is unavailable for this position. Relocation support is available for the role.

The Category Strategy & Planning (CS&P) organization leads category strategy, channel and customer planning, and category and shopper insights for the U.S. Condiments business within the Foods Business Unit. This role is a leadership position with responsibility for overseeing Category Strategy & Planning across the Condiments Portfolio, primarily including Hellmann’s/Best Foods, Maille, and Sir Kensington’s brands. 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 Shopper 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. Condiments total P&L growth targets.. The Associate Director, Category Strategy & Planning – Condiments will serve as the voice of the customer and shopper within the cross functional Condiments 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.

JOB PURPOSE

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. Condiments 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 Strat 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 Annual Planning Materials, Foods Annual Sales Summit
• Own channel and customer financial delivery, including development of annual growth targets, trade investment budgets, and forecasts that ladder directly to the Condiments 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 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:
  • o Senior Stakeholder Management & Strategic influencing
  • o Talent Catalyst for direct reports
  • o Effective mobilizer of cross functional partnerships
  • o Excellent organizational and prioritization skills, comfortable adapting to dynamic environments applying mix of personal analysis and delegation
  • o 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
  • o Ability to envision and plan multi-year, understanding long-term and broad-reaching impact of decisions made today.

End-to-end process thinking

Pay

Pay: The pay range for this position is $146,200 to $219,400. Unilever takes in 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.

Inclusion and Equal Opportunity

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.

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