Director - Category Leadership

Bel, makers of iconic brands including GOGO squeeZ, Babybel, The Laughing Cow, and Boursin is a growing global company that values your contributions, strives to create a sense of belonging for everyone and offers career growth and development opportunities, as well as competitive total compensation and meaningful well-being benefits from day one. For All, For Good, our company signature, reflects Bel’s commitment to sustainability and healthier and responsible food for all. The company has headquarters in Chicago (Bel Brands USA) and New York City (GoGo Squeez) and operates 4 manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI; Brookings, SD; Traverse City, MI; and Nampa, ID.

Job Description Summary

Gogo Squeeze is looking for a dynamic category thought leader who can help us redefine better-for-you snacking. This individual will be a cross-functional team leader focused on evolving GGS category strategy for the future with our customers. Leading a group of category managers, this visionary will shape the future of snacking both internally and externally through data-driven insights and exceptional team leadership skills.

Essential duties and responsibilities

• Accountable for the leadership, direction and development of four Category Development Manager direct reports.
• Responsible for all Category Leadership activities supporting Gogo Squeeze business with over $600MM in sales
• Responsible for the direction, coordination and strategic plan development of the Category Leadership initiatives with our GGS sales teams and our Broker Partners across the US Market. 
• Creates and delivers long term vision for GGS category strategic plans while driving accountability towards execution within customers
• Lead data management and negotiation for budget for customer specific activities
• Key contact on strategic global Category Leadership projects with Bel Group leading key initiatives such as Category Vision, Channel segmentation, & Market data intelligence
• Responsible for syndicated data, external vendor management and budget planning for all customer related headquarter and retail data needs.  External relationships include negotiations and management with companies such as Nielsen, Kantar, IRI….
• Expert on utilizing and leveraging syndicated databases, to include customer-specific data warehouse information and loyalty card analysis (e.g., IRI, Nielsen, 84.51, Market 6, Fresh Facts, Panel, Customer Specific, Luminate etc) to create direction for the category within assigned accounts
• Develop and lead category strategy and recommendations/implementation plan for customers while aligning to the strategies and tactics of accountability
• Drive Category Validator relationships with strategic customers including customer facing meetings and partnership
• Interact and collaborate with sales (Field, Retail and Sales Dev Teams), marketing…

Skills and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree: MBA preferred
• Proven 10+ Years of experience in category management, preferably in the food and beverage industry.
• Strong leadership and team management skills.
• Excellent data analysis and strategic planning abilities. Skilled in analytical story telling.