Associate Director, Category Marketing UFS North America

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.

Unilever Food Solutions is a business built by Chefs, so we know what you face every day in the kitchen. Everything we do is focused on making your life a little easier. Our purpose is to Free Chefs to love what they do. 

Unilever Food Solutions is the foodservice (B2B) part of Unilever F&R, and as such we are at the heart of carving out some of the new WOW between Retail, OOH and FS teams – Aurora. We are present in 26 multi-country organizations (MCOs) and have an ambitious plan to grow double digit in the coming years.

The NAM Foods Team sits at the heart of the portfolio and innovation transformation to go hand in hand with the business target and the market needs. So, if you thrive on challenge and want to be part of a progressive, ambitious and fast-paced team which embraces the digital first world to get closer to your customer, leverages lean and agile ways of working to move and learn fast, then this is a role for you!

JOB PURPOSE

We are searching for an experienced Associate Director, Category Manager to take Global strategy and leverage local insight to strengthen the existing portfolio and build the future portfolio for Out-of-Home across Scratch  Categories.

This role’s focus is on the Scratch category and it’s main Unilever brands, as well as UFS brands. This category is a key strategic choice for the business as well as the widest and most complex portfolio that extends from Bases to Sauces, Soups, Entrees etc – covering categories that are big, profitable and face high competition in the markets. Category performance and adherence to UFS strategy is key to deliver total UFS’s growth ambition. 

This role offers the opportunity to be part of a growth plan for the category and for UFS’s main growth platforms and to shape the future funnel and propositions. This is the 2nd biggest brand and category for UFS.  As such, it demands strategic, entrepreneurial, can-do attitude paired with strong project management skills. A good degree of familiarity with brand communication, digital tools and innovation process is also required.

• Responsible for driving core along with establishing a clear roadmap for sub-brands within the portfolio, craft their growth acceleration and market winning plan
• Devise a clear roadmap for all sub-categories within Scratch whether to Accelerate, evolve or defend play basis market understanding, growth potential and our right to win
• Innovation and Renovation Project Management, delivery, strategy, Portfolio Transformation and Brand Communication. Expectation is to challenge the business in terms of speed of innovation and ways to launch in the market within the digital transformation journey
• Owns portfolio positioning, sustainable growth strategy and strategy into action to win market share, including net revenue management
• Drives the full Operator Lifecycle: Work closely with Operator Experience Marketing to understand the Customer Experience (CX).
• Own local Category Strategy and Innovation / Rejuvenation roadmaps, as well as ‘Brand-Led Growth’ initiatives. 
• Lead business transformation via owning progressive innovation platforms, being able to drive network/virtual teams globally to think and act differently. Strong can-do mentality and mindset a must!
• Understand deeply Scratch category insights and foresights-- from trends to tensions, opportunities and competition.
• Ensure Global Category Strategies reflect key insights from NA
• Define growth strategy for Scratch to capitalize trends and tailwinds, or fix the tensions

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE

• Country & stakeholder management
• Digital
• P&L reviews and analysis
• Budget ownership

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED

Experiences &