Senior Manager, Growth Unit

Treehouse Island, Inc.; Oak Brook (IL); On-site; USD 123,000 - 184,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

401(k) with 5% employer match

Paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

DevelopU online courses

Inclusive working environment

Job summary

TreeHouse Foods in Oak Brook, IL is seeking a Senior Manager, Growth Unit to lead category performance, deliver financial commitments, and translate Growth Unit strategy into clear annual plans and executable growth initiatives.

The Senior Manager will act as a category P&L owner and partner with Commercial, Finance, RDI, Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement, and Food Safety & Quality to drive net sales, margin, service, and productivity while building talent and disciplined operating rhythms

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, Food Science, or related field.
• MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in business management, category management, or related roles.

Responsibilities

• Own category business performance, set strategy and growth plan, translate to initiatives.
• Lead cross‑functional category tables to drive execution and accountability.
• Develop talent, implement operating rhythms for disciplined delivery.

Skills

Leadership

Financial acumen

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, Food Science or related field

MBA or advanced degree preferred

Tools

Microsoft Office

ERP systems

Job description

Senior Manager, Growth Unit

Employee Type: Full time Location: IL Oak Brook Job Type: General Management

About Us:

TreeHouse Foods is a leading manufacturer of private label packaged foods and beverages, operating a network of over 20 production facilities and several corporate offices across the United States and Canada. At TreeHouse Foods, our commitment to excellence extends beyond our products and revolves around our people. We are investing in talent and creating a performance‑based culture where employees can do their best work and develop their careers, directly impacting our mission to make high quality, affordable food for our customers, communities, and families. We hope you will consider joining the team and being part of our future. Named one of America’s Best Large Employers by Forbes Magazine, we are proud to live by a strong set of values and strive to “Engage and Delight – One Customer at a Time.” Guided by our values—Own It, Commit to Excellence, Be Agile, Speak Up, and Better Together. We are a diverse team driven by integrity, accountability, and a commitment to exceptional results. We embrace change, prioritize continuous learning, and foster collaboration, transparency, and healthy debate. Together, we set each other up for success to achieve enterprise‑wide goals.

What You Gain:

• Competitive compensation and benefits program with no waiting period – you’re eligible from your first day!
• 401(k) program with 5% employer match and 100% vesting as soon as you enroll.
• Comprehensive paid time off opportunities, including immediate access to four weeks of vacation, five sick days, parental leave and 11 company holidays (including two floating holidays).
• Leaders who are invested in supporting your accelerated career growth, plus paid training, tuition reimbursement and a robust educational platform – DevelopU – with more than 10,000 free courses to support you along the way.
• An inclusive working environment where you can build meaningful work relationships with a diverse group of professionals.
• Take advantage of opportunities to build on our team‑oriented culture, such as joining one of our Employee Resource Groups.
• Access to our wellness and employee assistance programs.

Job Description:

About the Role:

We are seeking a Senior Manager, Growth Unit to join our team based in Oak Brook, IL. The Senior Manager, Growth Unit is responsible for leading category business performance, delivering financial commitments, and translating Growth Unit strategy into clear annual plans, commercial priorities, and executable growth initiatives.

This role serves as a category P&L owner and cross‑functional business leader, partnering closely with Commercial, Finance, RDI, Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement, and Food Safety & Quality to deliver net sales, margin, service, innovation, productivity, and customer commitments. The Senior Manager will use category, customer, competitive, operational, and financial insights to define category ambition, identify value creation opportunities, prioritize initiatives, remove barriers, and ensure disciplined execution against the annual operating plan and long‑term strategic plan.

This role also develops talent, leads cross‑functional category tables, and builds operating rhythms that improve accountability, speed, and decision quality across the business.

Business Strategy and Category Leadership

Own category business performance, including profitability, growth, operational priorities, and achievement against annual targets. Set and execute the category strategy, ambition, and growth plan aligned to enterprise and Growth Unit priorities. Translate category strategy into a prioritized pipeline of growth, productivity, pricing, portfolio, and customer initiatives. Analyze category data, customer needs, consumer trends, competitive activity, and operational performance to identify growth opportunities, defend market share, and improve margin. Define portfolio, pricing, bid, contract extension, and customer strategies in partnership with Commercial, Finance, and functional partners.

Financial Performance and P&L Management

Manage assigned category P&L performance, including net sales, gross margin, volume, pricing, mix, productivity, and operating assumptions. Lead target setting, budget guidance, annual operating plan inputs, forecast reviews, and business performance routines for assigned categories. Identify and close value gaps where margin erosion, service issues, cost pressures, capacity constraints, or execution risks are impacting performance. Partner with Finance to evaluate initiative economics, customer profitability, pricing actions, bid decisions, risks, opportunities, and trade‑offs. Monitor results and develop contingency plans to ensure delivery of financial commitments.

Cross‑Functional Execution

Lead category tables and cross‑functional teams to establish priorities, drive accountability, resolve gaps, and deliver annual and strategic plans. Collaborate with Commercial, Operations, Planning, Procurement, Corporate Engineering, RDI, and Food Safety & Quality to execute initiatives, support capacity planning, and enable commercialization. Drive disciplined project execution by aligning scope, timelines, financial expectations, resource needs, risks, and customer commitments. Ensure strong communication across functional teams, so decisions, trade‑offs, and escalations are timely, transparent, and action oriented.

Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement

Identify opportunities to improve service, quality, cost, productivity, working capital, capacity utilization, SKU health, and portfolio effectiveness. Use business insights and performance metrics to simplify work, improve decision quality, and accelerate execution across the Growth Unit. Lead business reviews, initiative reviews, bid reviews, strategic planning discussions, and recurring operating rhythms for assigned categories. Drive adoption of consistent processes, tools, and governance that improve accountability and help the organization deliver with speed and discipline.

People Leadership

Develop, coach, and manage direct reports and cross‑functional partners to strengthen business ownership, commercial acumen, and execution capability. Build succession strength and create clear development plans for team members supporting assigned categories. Model TreeHouse Foods values by fostering accountability, collaboration, transparency, inclusion, and a continuous improvement mindset. Create clarity around priorities, decision rights, performance expectations, and measures of success.

Important Details:

This is a full‑time, first‑shift hybrid position located at our Oak Brook, IL office.

The anticipated compensation for this position ranges from $122,900.00 - 184,300.00 USD annually. This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, specific competencies, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue‑based metrics and business or organizational needs. For certain roles, the successful candidate may be eligible for annual discretionary merit compensation award, bonus and equity pay.

You’ll fit right in if you have:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, Food Science, or a related field required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in business management, category management, commercial strategy, general management, finance, supply chain, or related roles required.
• Experience in food, beverage, CPG, manufacturing, private label, or related industries preferred.
• Demonstrated experience managing business performance, financial targets, commercial plans, and cross‑functional execution.
• Strong P&L, financial, analytical, and strategic thinking skills with the ability to translate insights into action.
• Proven ability to lead cross‑functional teams, influence without direct authority, and drive decisions in a matrixed environment.
• Strong communication, executive presence, problem‑solving, and change leadership skills.
• Ability to manage complexity, prioritize competing needs, and deliver results in a fast‑paced environment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and business analytics tools required; experience with ERP, syndicated data, financial planning, or business intelligence tools preferred.

At TreeHouse Foods, we embrace diversity and inclusion for innovation and growth.

We are committed to building inclusive teams and an equitable workplace for our employees to bring their true selves to work to help us “Engage and Delight – One Customer at a Time”.

TreeHouse Foods is an Equal Opportunity Employer that prohibits discrimination or harassment of any type.

All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Applicants who require an accommodation to participate in the job application or hiring process should contact disability‑[e-mail].

TreeHouse Use Only:

#IND1 TreeHouse Foods is a private label food and beverage leader focused on customer brands and custom products. When customers partner with TreeHouse they can expect access to an industry‑leading portfolio, strategic vision, on‑trend innovation and insights, world‑class supply chain, operational excellence and flexibility, collaborative approaches, and dedicated customer service. Our strategy is to be the leading supplier of private label food and beverage products by providing the best balance of quality and cost to our customers. We engage with retail grocery, food away from home, and industrial and export customers, including most of the leading grocery retailers and foodservice operators in the United States and Canada. Our portfolio includes a variety of shelf‑stable, refrigerated, and snack products. Customers can expect comprehensive flavor profiles including natural, organic, and preservative‑free ingredients in many categories and packaging formats. TreeHouse Foods is best known for food and beverages produced by our two largest businesses Bay Valley Foods, LLC (including E.D. Smith and Sturm Foods) and TreeHouse Private Brands. With more than 10,000 employees in over 26 plants across the United States and Canada, TreeHouse Foods is based in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Recruitment Agencies

To all recruitment agencies: TreeHouse Foods does not accept unsolicited agency resumes/CVs. Please do not forward resumes/CVs to our careers email addresses, Treehouse Foods employees, or any company location(s). TreeHouse Foods is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes/CVs.