Sr. Category Strategy Manager, Functional Beverage

Glanbia Nutritionals, Inc.; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Health & dental plan

Generous family leave policy

401K

Staff discounts

Job summary

Glanbia Nutritionals, Inc. seeks a Senior Category Strategy Manager for Functional Beverages in Chicago. In this role, you will drive strategic growth of the global category, leading cross-functional teams and managing initiatives.

Ideal candidates have a Bachelor's degree, 5-10 years in the B2B food space, and strong financial acumen. The position offers a hybrid work model and a competitive compensation package, including a salary range between $100,000 - $150,000 plus annual bonus.

Qualifications

• 5-10 years of experience in the B2B food and/or ingredients space.
• Strong financial acumen with experience shaping portfolio P&L outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the global category strategy for Functional Beverages.
• Lead the development of deep category understanding by synthesizing insights.
• Coordinate new product launches with cross-functional teams.

Skills

Business development

Strategic marketing

Product management

Data-driven storytelling

Financial acumen

Education

Bachelor’s degree

MBA or advanced degree

Tools

MS Word

Excel

Outlook

PowerPoint

Job description

Sr. Category Strategy Manager, Functional Beverage

Senior Category Strategy Manager – B2B Functional Beverages
Glanbia Health & Nutrition

Role Summary

The Senior Category Strategy Manager – Functional Beverages is responsible for driving the strategic growth of the Global Functional Beverage Category within the Premix portion (B2B) of Glanbia Health & Nutrition. As the Senior Category Strategy Manager, you will lead and liaise with cross‑functional teams internally and externally to effectively manage and deliver on initiatives and strategies and will serve as a key link between technology partners, customers, and all relevant Glanbia functions.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the global category strategy for Functional Beverages, including innovation priorities, go‑to‑market plans, and H&N cross‑portfolio solution selling to accelerate revenue growth.
• Lead the development of deep category understanding by synthesizing global market, consumer, and competitive insights to identify priority growth opportunities and inform strategic decision making.
• Serve as the category expert in customer engagements, partnering with sales and other functions to translate market insights into innovation opportunities and commercial growth.
• Coordinate new product launches with cross‑functional teams, ensuring strong value propositions backed by consumer insights and competitive analysis.
• Partner with sales to expand the opportunity pipeline and support targeted prospecting for new and emerging customers.
• Regularly assess category, key customer and brand performance, identifying opportunities to enhance customer appeal and category growth (including new beverage formats).
• Define and manage the category collaboration and innovation pipeline and roadmap, ensuring alignment between customer demand, technology capabilities, and long‑term portfolio strategy.
• Support delivery of category revenue ambition by identifying, prioritizing and advancing high‑value commercial opportunities (win‑room).
• Responsible for developing business cases and clear financial return expectations for various operational initiatives to achieve the functional beverage category strategy.
• Position Glanbia H&N as a category thought leader through industry presentations and trade shows.
• Enable the commercial (and wider organization) through category education, sales tools, and training that increase Glanbia H&N’s right to win.
• Vet new global market opportunities (technologies, expansions, partnerships, etc.) within the functional beverage category and provide recommendations.
• Develop value‑added pricing approach by understanding key market insights, competitive differentiators, and related factors.
• Lead cross‑functional alignment across R&D, marketing, insights, procurement, and commercial teams to ensure strategy execution.
• Provide category direction in commercial planning cycles and assist in driving forecast accuracy and alignment with short and long‑term financial objectives.

Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 5‑10 years of experience in the B2B food and/or ingredients space preferably with a focus on business development, strategic marketing or product management.
• High proficiency with MS Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
• Strong financial acumen with experience shaping portfolio P&L outcomes, pricing, pack architecture, and strategic business cases.

Preferred Skills

• Proven ability to influence senior executives through data‑driven storytelling, strategic frameworks, and compelling recommendations.
• Ability to effectively communicate verbally and in written form with co‑workers, top management, internal and external customers, including excellent writing and presentation skills.
• Collaborate with project teams and across changing structures within a high‑growth business.
• Influence senior stakeholders through data‑driven storytelling and strategic insights.
• Strategic thinker, highly analytical, with good problem‑solving skills and comfortable with assessing market/business opportunities, understanding statistics.

Hybrid with approximately 15‑25% travel to customer sites, Glanbia offices, supplier visits, and industry events.

Benefits

The opportunity to develop your career on a global stage, continuous learning through an on‑demand learning platform, and a competitive compensation package including staff discounts, generous family leave policy, health & dental plan, competitive salary, 401K. Glanbia provides a reasonable range of compensation for roles; the salary range for this role is $100,000 - $150,000 plus an annual bonus. This range may not be applicable to other locations and targeted salary is midpoint of range. Factors that could be used to determine your actual salary may include your specific skills, years of experience and comparison to current employees already in this role.

At Glanbia, we celebrate diversity, because we know that our individual strengths make us stronger together. We welcome and encourage interest from a wide variety of candidates, and we will give your application consideration, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.