Build category vision and strategic roadmap; energize and inspire the organization to bring the category vision to life.
Stay deeply connected with customers, consumers and emerging trends to anticipate current and future wants and needs.
Analyze the business landscape and competitive context to identify opportunities and gaps, modify growth strategies and recommend corrective actions to meet or exceed category business objectives.
Establish strategic and executional priorities for the category, steward cross-functional leadership, enable and empower others to bring the category strategy and priorities to life.
Collaborate with sales, marketing, food application and supply chain team to develop core ingredient & product application platforms across sales channels.
Define and measure winning in the category; accountable for in-market performance tracking on an ongoing basis and making necessary changes quickly to maximize the category performance.
Lead product strategy and category positioning to meet changing consumer needs and enhance value proposition; ensure the product category & animal free ingredient application systems are optimized for consumer and customer relevance, and profitable growth across all segments.
Drive the innovation agenda, new product pipeline and prioritization for the category based on in-depth category knowledge and consumer insights. Oversee the cross-functional implementation of NPD projects from concept to launch.
Partner with Marketing Communications (“marketing”) on the development of inspired marketing plans that guide the right balance of long-term brand development and achieving category business goals.
Partner with Sales in developing the sales tools that support the selling process; participate in customer calls/market visits to monitor product performance and to identify improvement opportunities to move the business forward.
Partner with Sales and Finance to develop pricing strategies based on understanding of category price elasticity and competitive pricing and deliver plans through active P&L management for the category.
Collaborate with the Strategy team on short, medium- and long-term plans to optimize for the overall P&L performance of the business and appropriately prioritize resource with other category manager peers.
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
MBA or equivalent with experience in food & beverage industry.
Our ideal candidate needs to have over 8-10 years of experience supporting and/or leading B2B food ingredient sales and/or business development teams.
Experience managing a $25M+ P&L.
Command of innovation and commercialization processes.
Experience delivering presentations to customers & executives.
Experience in analyzing primary and secondary research, digesting the information, and leveraging it for use in sales presentations and for product marketing decisions.
Experience managing a team of direct reports and cross-functional teams.
Understanding of the following areas: manufacturing, packaging, contract manufacturing, partnerships, B2B marketing, sales, budgeting & P&L.
Excellent communication skills, with experience in managing complex, cross-functional projects.
Strong analytical and quantitative skills.
Total fluency in MS Office applications, especially Excel & PowerPoint.
Build and maintain relationships with decision-makers and influencers in companies within your book of business