Associate Manager, Sales Strategy & Planning (Pet Team)

The J.M. Smucker Company; Orrville (OH); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

The J. M. Smucker Co. in Orrville, Ohio, seeks an Associate Manager, Sales Strategy & Planning for the Pet Team to translate business strategies into actionable customer plans, own planning work, and drive timely decisions with cross-functional partners.

This hybrid role collaborates with Sales, Brand Marketing, Category Analytics, Revenue Growth Management, Finance, and Supply Chain to deliver planning excellence, performance insights, and growth initiatives for assigned customers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree is required.
• 2 years of experience in Sales Planning, Commercial Planning, Category Management, Sales Analytics, Finance, Marketing, Customer Strategy, or related functions.
• Experience with business performance reporting, analytics, and/or customer planning support.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint; strong MS Office skills.
• Experience managing multiple priorities, timelines, and stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, communication, and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Support the customer plan and own assigned pieces of work, including data, inputs, updates, planning trackers, and follow-through for assigned customers or portfolios.
• Support annual planning, Joint Business Planning (JBP), quarterly business reviews, customer planning cycles, and strategic initiatives.
• Translate business priorities into clear customer planning deliverables and connect them to broader priorities.
• Track planning milestones, decisions, actions, and follow-ups to support timely execution.
• Develop scorecards, recaps, gap-to-plan analyses, and supporting reports to inform Sales decisions.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Excel

PowerPoint

Microsoft Office Suite

Microsoft Copilot

Job description

Your Opportunity as the Associate Manager, Sales Strategy & Planning (Pet Team)

The Associate Manager, Sales Strategy & Planning supports customer planning, performance management, and cross-functional coordination for assigned customers or customer portfolios. This role partners closely with Sales and cross-functional teams to translate business strategies into actionable customer plans, own assigned pieces of the planning work, provide accurate fact-based analysis, and drive follow-through on inputs, updates, and decisions. All Sales Strategy & Planning roles have customer ownership. At the Associate Manager level, the work is generally differentiated by lower customer complexity, lower ambiguity, and more defined planning needs, while still requiring strong ownership, analytical rigor, and cross-functional follow-through.

Location

JM Smucker Corporate Offices in Orrville, Ohio

Work Arrangements

Hybrid - onsite during core weeks as determined by the Company (estimated up to 9 days a month); adjusted as the need requires. Intermittent business travel may be required.

In this role you will

Customer Planning & Execution

Support the customer plan and own assigned pieces of the work, including data, inputs, updates, planning trackers, and follow-through for assigned customers or customer portfolios. Support annual planning, Joint Business Planning (JBP), quarterly business reviews, customer planning cycles, innovation planning, and strategic initiatives. Translate business priorities into clear customer planning deliverables and understand how assigned work connects to the customer plan and broader business priorities. Track key customer planning milestones, decisions, actions, and follow-ups to support timely execution.

Business Performance & Insights

Provide accurate analysis, reporting, and tracking to build the fact base for planning and decision-making. Develop scorecards, business recaps, gap-to-plan analyses, opportunity assessments, and supporting reports. Pull together the facts, updates, and analysis needed to support Sales decisions; identify key takeaways and raise issues, risks, and opportunities. Help Sales and cross-functional partners understand the “so what” behind customer performance and planning inputs.

Cross-Functional Coordination

Partner with Sales, Brand Marketing, Category Analytics, Revenue Growth Management, Finance, Supply Chain, and other stakeholders. Gather, organize, validate, and connect planning inputs from cross-functional partners in support of customer priorities and business objectives. Support alignment meetings and ensure decisions, owners, and next steps are clearly documented. Coordinate inputs, follow up on actions, keep work moving, and elevate open issues or inconsistencies to the appropriate decision owner.

Planning Excellence

Execute established planning processes, tools, templates, and operating rhythms. Maintain planning calendars, assumptions, trackers, and reporting resources with accuracy and timeliness. Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives that simplify work and improve planning quality. Build capability in commercial planning, customer economics, forecasting inputs, and cross-functional ways of working.

Contributing to Organizational Growth & Culture

Respect all individuals, support efforts for diversity and inclusion, and recognize value in embracing divergent styles. Demonstrate a continuous improvement mindset and willingness to challenge the status quo when needed to advance thinking and outcomes. Model ownership, accountability, collaboration, and a customer-first mindset with enterprise perspective.

What we are looking for

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree.
• 2 years of experience in Sales Planning, Commercial Planning, Category Management, Sales Analytics, Finance, Marketing, Customer Strategy, or related business functions.
• Experience working with business performance reporting, analytics, and/or customer planning support.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite; including but not limited to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
• Experience managing multiple priorities, timelines, and stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, communication, and collaboration skills.

Additional skills and experience that we think would make someone successful in this role

• Consumer Packaged Goods experience.
• Experience supporting customer planning, annual planning, JBP preparation, business reviews, or performance management.
• Experience using data and insights to support business recommendations.
• Exposure to business intelligence, retailer, syndicated, or internal reporting tools.
• Experience using AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot.
• Growth mindset, curiosity, and passion for delivering business results.

The Right Place for You

We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs. Stay connected with us on LinkedIn®

We’re an equal opportunity employer.

All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.

We’re a community of passionate, talented professionals dedicated to creating food people and pets love—while supporting the communities in which we work and live.

We value what makes each person unique, champion growth and development, and foster collaboration that fuels productivity and drives our shared success.

Learn more about our Thrive Together purpose At Smucker, we're passionate about creating a workplace where you truly belong. With a culture rooted in our Basic Beliefs and a competitive Total Rewards program, we aim to support every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.

Learn more about working at Smucker

Learn more about our hiring process

The J. M. Smucker Co. (the “Company”) is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

No person will be discriminated against in hiring or in any other aspect of their employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, transgender status, marital status, familial status, disability, genetic information, protected veteran/military status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.