Associate Category Strategy & Planning Manager - Degree and TCT Deo

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world. 

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our, collaborative, and flexible working environment. Our organizational ambition centres around creating workplaces that foster equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging across all aspects of our business. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

JOB PURPOSE

The Associate Category Strategy and Planning Manager (aCS&P) holds a pivotal role within the CS&P organization, influencing immediate in year results as well as driving achievement of the longer-term category strategy. As a key business partner to the brand, category strategy, field sales, innovation, shopper marketing, CD finance, and supply chain teams, the aCS&P Manager will help support strategically growing the Personal Care Degree business across key strategic customers and will also focus on leading the Trade Category Toolkit (TCT) process for the full DEO portfolio.  

The aCS&P Manager will be the key liaison between Customer Development and Brand/Supply Chain/ Finance/ Insights/ Category Management. You will lead the development & deployment of a channel strategy for the DEO Brands and drive profitable growth. The aCS&P is a key business partner to the brand teams, setting and deploying channel strategy for their category and deploying holistic customer investment across customers to deliver profitable growth.  This role represents the customer in core organizational processes including S&OP, IBP/IPM & NRM.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE

• Support and provide assessment of growth drivers, competitive landscape, and opportunity growth areas for Degree DEO
• Develop key milestone deliverables and timelines associated with Trade Category Toolkit
• Serve as direct/primary lead in brand/field sales communication for TCT
• Manage forecast, locks, allocations, and share back plan within the business and S&OP process to facilitate proper production and minimize waste and markdowns
• Must be able to multi-task and balance several projects and priorities concurrently
• Key strategic link between brand building/development and field sales on planning, strategy & opportunity management
• Lead key development of various strategic projects to grow the total Deodorant category

This position reports into the Deo Manager Category Strategy & Planning - Degree.

• Customer Facing Category Strategy/ Market Development:
  • Develop Customer Facing Category Strategy with key business partners to translate and localize category strategy into Channel and Category marketing plans by Customer/ Region/ Channel.
  • Develop and implement price and promotional strategy, for region/ customer/ channel focusing on shopper
  • Oversee the development of robust in store brand execution for key retailers/channels bringing brands to life in store.
  • Support new product introduction for listing into mix.
• S&OP – lead consolidated Customer Development (CD) input and support the ‘output’ for owned businesses, drive CD business performance
  • Drive Customer/ Channel/ Region input to the S&OP process for brands.
  • Drive business performance for months 1….3 including gap closure activities.
  • Monitor implementation customer marketing plan
• Integrated Business Plan/ Innovation Process Management
  • Channel/Customer lens-based thought leadership, feedback and inputs into the category building plan, brand JTBD, SKU portfolio for next year
  • Input into innovation / renovation business cases e.g. pack size by channel (Ecommerce incl), pricing, distribution targets & trade margins

• Assist Team Lead in development of the holistic channel category strategy
• Derive insights from ongoing analyses to recommend actions to field teams
• Champion for key strategic category growth initiatives
• Responsible for Innovation Handshake management at a category level.
• Be a key participant in the monthly S&OP process
• Management of periodic gap closing activities
• Key liaison to leadership in Supply Chain, Finance, and Brand Building
• Provide inputs to Marketing Operations for BMP and Brand Innovations for the IPM process
• Provide input into Division-level category investment plan (incl. trade budgeting and target setting)
• Input into Shopper Marketing budgets and programming
• Create and maintain national customer investment guidelines
• Own incremental trade funding process
• Has effective communication and organizational skills.

You’re a born leader: You have a voice and drive engagement.  You can leverage a team to achieve results.   

You’re a strategy guru:  You are excited by the opportunity to craft the strategy for new brands, entering new spaces.  You leverage broad learnings and pare down to actionable insights.

You’re a dot connector: You thrive on building relationships.  You enjoy collaborating with cross functional teams to drive results.

You love to win and have fun doing it: You have a growth mindset.  You proactively identify opportunities/risks and have the bias for action to achieve You’re a storyteller: You can creatively communicate and adapt brand strategy to appeal to field teams and customers. 

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED

Experiences & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required
• 3+ years of experience in consumer goods and sales/customer development
• Proficiency with IRI (Syndicated Research data), MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook) required
• Proficiency or demonstrate ability to learn Evergreen and Merlin (SSAS) preferred
• Excellent communication and relationship building skills, strong attention to detail, proficient in analytics, ability to coordinate across various functions, and ability to manage and prioritize actions across multiple brands/customers
• Strong understanding of customer operations and channel drivers
• Holistic business thinking with clear evidence of addressing business challenges and delivery
• Proven ability to influence others and take a stand

Pay: The pay range for this position is $86,080 to $129,120. Unilever takes into 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.

What We Can Offer You

Unilever at a Glance | Working at Unilever | Powering our Purpose | Planet & Society | Unilever’s Brands | Unilever on LinkedIn | Strategy | Unilever | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Careers at Unilever |  Benefits, Learning, & Wellbeing | Latest News About Unilever  #WC123

Leadership

• You are energized by delivering fantastic results. You are an example to others – both your results and your resilience. You are constantly on the lookout for better ways to do things, engaging and collaborating with others along the way.
• As an individual you are the one responsible for your own wellbeing and delivering high standards of work. You must also focus on the Consumer and what they need. You are humble and have your head up, looking around to interpret evidence and data smartly, spot issues and opportunities to make things better.

• Critical SOL (Standards of Leadership) Behaviors
  • PASSION FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE: Takes personal responsibility and accountability for execution and results. Has an owner’s mindset, using data and insight to make decisions.
  • PERSONAL MASTERY: Sets high standards for themselves. Actively builds own wellbeing and resilience.
  • CONSUMER LOVE: Whatever their role, always looks for better ways to serve consumers. Invests time inside and outside to understand the needs of consumers.
  • PURPOSE & SERVICE: Has humility, understanding that leadership is service to others, inside and outside Unilever.
  • AGILITY: Explores the world around them, continually learning and developing their skills.

------------------------------------

Unilever is an organization committed to diversity and inclusion to drive our business results and create a better future every day for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal law and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. 

For more information about your Federal rights, please see Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination isIllegal and Pay Transparency Non discrimination Provision.

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 NA.Accommodations@unilever.com. 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.