Product Strategy and Management Director

The Director Product Strategy and Management - Food manages a portfolio of product lines within the Food Business Team, driving business and product strategy, execution, and results in a manner that maximizes long-term profitability. The incumbent in this role will deliver P&L results and is responsible for the health of an assigned product portfolio for the U.S. Foodservice and National Account Food Business.

Day-to-Day Role:

• Proactively manage a portfolio of products, and plan and drive growth through revenue and profit building blocks.
• Develop, implement and drive multi-year and annual strategies for the assigned product lines through close collaboration with other functions.
• Collaborate with his/her VP and as applicable others to create annual financial goals and budgets including revenue, gross margin, COGS, price and portfolio mix aligned to strategic priorities.
• Support his/her VP in developing and implementing pricing strategy for the assigned product lines, and make or recommend pricing decisions for certain large customers.
• Lead and assume the Sponsor role for cross-functional efforts to discover and execute cost-reduction initiatives that do not negatively impact the customer/consumer experience.
• Lead all aspects of product life-cycle management for assigned products including the product portfolio strategy, product management, pricing guidelines, product development, product enhancements, and SKU optimization.
• Identify and then champion and commercialize, through collaboration with other functions, new product development and innovation projects. Assume project Sponsor role, ensuring that projects deliver the predicted business benefits.
• Develop a deep understanding of our customers and markets, and use these insights to develop, and then drive successful implementation of, strategies.
• In collaboration with his/her VP, partner with Sales to drive relationships with key customers and provide direction on product line focus areas to maximize sales and profitability.
• Collaborate with Marketing and Sales on product-line marketing including brand strategy, brand standards, channel marketing messaging, and brand activation to achieve desired customer outcomes and financial results.
• Collaborate closely with Sales, FP&A, and Supply Chain Management on demand planning and forecasting to achieve desired financial and customer outcomes (e.g. minimize excess inventory and maximize fill rates for key product lines).
• Gain executive leadership alignment on financial plans and new products via internal processes by building a robust business case to support innovation and capacity expansion efforts, ensuring alignment to business and product strategy.
• Collaborate with other business units where needed to ensure the best overall outcome for the business.
• Model/promote a culture of accountability within the Business team and throughout the organization.

Core Skills and Qualifications:

The ideal candidate must possess all of the following:

• Bachelor's degree in business or related field of study; MBA or equivalent degree preferred.
• Seven (7) years of experience in product line management (e.g. pricing, new product development, SKU optimization, P&L management, Marketing).
• Seven (7) years of supervisory experience with strong executive leadership and management skills developing high-performing and effective teams.
• Strategic thinking and collaboration skills.
• Knowledge of New Product Development processes; Stage Gate experience preferred.
• Proven ability to drive change including the ability to influence all levels, streamline processes, integrate, and associate pieces of information gathered from multiple sources.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to persuade and influence decision-making of individuals, groups, or work teams, and to explain complex issues to a variety of audiences.
• Ability to blend creative problem solving with data driven, analytical, financial (e.g. NPV, financial statements, DCF), and quantitative skills with a demonstrated ability to analyze complex problems with data, assumptions, and judgment using best practices and analysis to formulate solutions.
• Ability to recognize all relevant issues, and their relative importance, when making decisions.
• High level of personal and professional integrity and trustworthiness with a strong work ethic and the ability to work independently with minimal direction.
• Experience using Microsoft Office, including the ability to create professional reports, documents, presentations and spreadsheets in MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications:

• Experience in the foodservice packaging industry preferred.