Associate Director Beauty & Personal Care-Kroger

Location: Cincinnati, OH. Full-time position. International assignment not available; relocation not provided.

About the role

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. We 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.

The Grocery Division plays a strategic role for Unilever in meeting the needs of many consumers, and Kroger — Unilever BPC's 7th largest customer in North America — is a critically imperative business partner who aims to drive collective growth for both Kroger and Unilever Consumers. The Associate Director, Kroger is responsible for delivering topline volume across all Unilever categories, including Beauty & Wellbeing & Personal Care.

Responsibilities

• Manage and lead a direct and indirect team to deliver the individual and collective success required of the overall team
• Lead both near-term and long-term Joint Business Planning (JBP); lead the development of strategic platforms and other growth drivers to achieve growth targets across all categories at Kroger
• Work with the Business Development Team and the internal Brand and CS&P teams to ensure the plans are resourced and that Spend and Volume are synchronized in order to deliver the JBP
• Create and operationalize the Kroger customer strategy including all components of the go-to-market plan including “Big Bets”, innovation execution, trade investment ROI and the integration of shopper marketing plans with merchandising plans
• Cross-functionally lead all aspects of operational delivery of the business plan including initiating growth platforms, forecasting & retail inventory level management, supply chain compliance and managing deductions and balancing trade investment

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required with minimum 10 years of related Sales, Category Management, and Customer Planning experience
• Customer Strategy and Planning experience required
• Must have experience managing a direct NSV of $100M+
• Proven leader and motivator of people with experience leading direct reports of 2-3+
• Successful track record of key Customer Business Manager experience required across multiple COT
• Strong financial and business acumen, including P&L ownership, customer planning with effective internal/customer communication, and analytical skills
• Skilled in verbal & written communications to work with Kroger Leadership Team, Business Development Team, and CS&P (and Brand Team)

Preferred Qualifications

• Resilience: Thrive on challenges and confidently navigate ambiguity with numerous support groups to deliver growth initiatives
• Growth Mindset: Ability to present and sell new ideas and techniques to all Kroger and Unilever personnel to achieve profitable sales growth and turnover targets. Always seeking to optimize and evolve
• Working knowledge of Nielsen/IRI, Evergreen, and Customer POS Data is strongly desired; leveraging the Simplify platform to enable faster and more profitable growth will be a critical factor for future growth at Kroger
• Ownership Mindset: Ask challenging ‘why’ questions and take full accountability for successes and failures
• Big Picture Thinking: Connect the dots and develop strategic plans to deliver growth

Pay

The pay range for this position is $146,200 to $219,400. Unilever takes into consideration a wide range of factors that are utilized in making compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, qualifications and education, and other business and organizational needs.

This position is bonus eligible and Long-Term Incentive (LTI) eligible.

Benefits

• Health insurance (including prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage)
• Retirement savings benefits
• Life insurance and disability benefits
• Parental leave
• Sick leave
• Paid vacation and holidays
• Access to numerous voluntary benefits

Any coverages for health insurance and retirement benefits will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans and associated governing plan documents.