Associate Director Category Planning & Performance Deodorants

Function: Customer Development

Work Level: 2C

Reports to: Category Strategy & Planning Director Deodorants

Scope

Location: Englewood Cliffs, NJ >

Terms & Conditions

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 centers 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.

Category Strategy & Planning

• Our Category Strategy & Planning (CS&P) organization oversees category strategy, category and shopper insights, channel and customer planning, and shopper marketing expertise in our US Deodorants business which is part of Unilevers biggest Business Group Personal Care in the US.
• This role will be in a senior leadership position overseeing the Category Planning responsibilities for the US Deodorant business across Dove, Dove Men Care, Degree, Axe and Shea Moisture.
• Category Planning function works closely with Field Sales, Marketing (local and global), Shopper Marketing, Finance, Net Revenue Management, Supply Chain, and internal Trade Marketing functions bringing commercial strategies to the retail (including dComm) with flawless execution achieving US Condiments top and bottom-line growth targets.
• The Associate Director Category Planning & Performance Deodorants will be the voice of the customer and the shopper within the US Deo cross-functional business team ensuring channel and customer insights are incorporated in developing short and long term brand and customer commercial plans that coincides with retailers’ strategies to deliver profitable growth for Unilever and our 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.

What Will Your Main Responsibilities Be

• Driving growth on US Deodorant business with entrepreneurial and challenger mindset to reignite competitive growth
• Accountable for the category P&L related to S&OP (Sales & Operating Plan), expanded KPIs and the financial growth targets assigned by category leading Chief Growth Officer
• Run in year forecasting process with finance and demand creating marketing teams
• Translating data into insights and insights into action by crafting commercial plans that executes against Category Growth Strategy across Category Value Drivers
• Crafting channel and customer trade budgets and annual growth targets that ladder up to Deos P&L business delivery meeting top and bottom line financial KPIs
• Deliver business group and category strategy by customer & channel
• Diving deep into Channel pricing, distribution gaps, competitive analysis, trade optimizations, promotional analysis, and shopper insights to build Commercial Plans
• Setting and deploying channel strategy for their category and deploying holistic customer investment across customers to deliver profitable growth
• Voice of customer, channel & shopper in IBP & JBP, voice of category and brand with customer and into the field organisation
• Own category assortment & promotional strategy and perform data-driven analysis for ongoing commercial promotional optimization
• Own OPSO process
• Work with field teams to ensure excellent in-store activation
• Own NNR driving initiatives (NRM Lever 1, 4 & 5)
• Execute innovation launch plans and lead D4C/D4R: executes locally and integrates upstream into BU informing innovation pipeline
• Own execution of national x-cat / x-customer promotional tentpoles
  
  

Experiences & Qualifications

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA preferred
• At least 10 years’ experience in Customer Development, Account Management, Trade Marketing, Category Strategy, and/or Brand Marketing Operations within Consumer Goods industry
• Results driven and ownership mindset to achieve set goals and KPIs
• Proven ability to demonstrate analytical thinking, data-driven decision making, and ability to influence through strategy story-telling through data and insights
• Retail, eCommerce, and Omnichannel experience preferred
• Ability to think strategically, and produce results in a highly entrepreneurial environment
• Excellent oral/written and presentation skills ; ability to tailor your communication style across a multitude of disciplines leadership levels
• Energized by collaborating with cross-functional partners on new and creative ways to solve business problems
• 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)
• Very Good level of business acumen
• Strategic and analytic thinking incl. solution orientated mindset
• Senior Stakeholder Management & Strategic influencing
• Excellent Team & leadership skills
  
  

Skills

• Category Growth Management
• Channels
• Data Literacy
• Executional Excellence
• Commercial Strategy
• Digital Commerce
  
  

Leadership

This is a team leadership role requiring to bring dynamic attitude and passion the growing the category and talent in the organisation. You will need to demonstrate excellent leadership skill with particular focus on

• Talent Catalyst that builds an exclusive cross-functional team that embraces end to end collaboration while stretching each other to reach ambition goals
• Passion for High Performance to over-deliver against assigned targets while managing market volatility by having an agile mindset to find creative solutions to achieve results
• BUSINESS ACUMEN: Creates sustainable growth with purpose, engaging different partners across the system for change.
  
  

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 is Illegal 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.