VP, Category Leadership

About the role

The role is highly valued and influential, driving the organization's growth ambition by developing and executing category growth strategy across all channels and categories in the US portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, expand, and communicate category growth strategies across all channels and categories in the US portfolio, focusing on Distribution, Merchandising, Shelving, and Pricing (DSMP) fundamentals.
• Develop and maintain the long-term planning for the category management function on horizons of 1, 3, and 5 years.
• Translate Category Management annual and long-term priorities to actionable sales stories and initiatives.
• Instill a 'customer led' strategic approach within brand, category, and innovation teams—helping design a future that expands reach and drives brand values and product innovation.
• Generate high-quality, actionable insights to inform innovation opportunities throughout the product development cycle; lead advanced analytical techniques on transactional, demographic, and syndicated data.
• Work collaboratively with Field Sales, Sales Operations, and Customer Marketing to develop recommendations for aligned KPIs and ensure process integrity each session.
• Align support for Joint Business Plans (JBPs) for key customers with the Sales Leadership Team.
• Manage data and tool supplier relationships and contracts; align on demand planning through the S&OP process.
• Deliver results from the category leadership team through close coaching, strategic thought leadership, and problem solving.
• Recruit and develop a highly-engaged and high-achieving Category Management team capable of sustaining the company's profitability, goals, and vision.

Requirements

• Define, prioritize, and shape consumer needs-based, commercially viable opportunities in the consumer packaged goods space.
• A combination of strategic, intuitive, and quantitative skills—a puzzle solver who can transform data into selling stories and link insights back to the business in a way that has direct impact on internal and external business decisions.
• Demonstrated experience bringing the consumer to all phases of innovation and new product development throughout the entire development cycle: opportunity identification, ideation, concept and product development, product optimization, validation/testing, and commercialization.
• Strategic and proactive thinking to develop category strategies and translate them into distribution, shelving, pricing, and merchandising objectives.
• Experienced research moderator in all types of qualitative approaches.
• Interpersonal skills to interface effectively with the necessary internal and external stakeholders, building solid relationships and achieving category sales goals.
• Solid MS Office skills, especially Excel and PowerPoint, with storytelling capabilities to translate data and insights into compelling selling narratives.
• Past customer-facing sales or category management experience required; trade marketing experience preferred.
• Syndicated data expertise required (IRI/Circana preferred); experience with shopper insights platforms.
• Experience managing a team to deliver results; line manager experience providing career development for team members.

Qualifications

• 12–15+ years of category management, innovation insights, market research, consumer insights, future trends, or related field experience for consumer-facing CPG companies; Foods/Confectionery experience preferred.
• 10+ years of relevant experience with Customer Management experience; prior category management role required.
• Bachelor's degree in a business, marketing, or related discipline required; MBA or advanced degree in Social Sciences, Statistics, Market Research, Mathematics, Decision Science, Data Science, or Econometrics preferred.

Skills

• Define, prioritize, and shape consumer needs-based, commercially viable opportunities in the consumer packaged goods space.
• A combination of strategic, intuitive, and quantitative skills—a puzzle solver who can transform data into selling stories and link insights back to the business in a way that has direct impact on internal and external business decisions.
• Demonstrated experience bringing the consumer to all phases of innovation and new product development throughout the entire development cycle: opportunity identification, ideation, concept and product development, product optimization, validation/testing, and commercialization.
• Strategic and proactive thinking to develop category strategies and translate them into distribution, shelving, pricing, and merchandising objectives.
• Experienced research moderator in all types of qualitative approaches.
• Interpersonal skills to interface effectively with the necessary internal and external stakeholders, building solid relationships and achieving category sales goals.
• Solid MS Office skills, especially Excel and PowerPoint, with storytelling capabilities to translate data and insights into compelling selling narratives.
• Past customer-facing sales or category management experience required; trade marketing experience preferred.
• Syndicated data expertise required (IRI/Circana preferred); experience with shopper insights platforms.
• Experience managing a team to deliver results; line manager experience providing career development for team members.

Benefits

At Ferrara, we're proud to support our employees with comprehensive benefits that enhance health, financial wellness, and include paid time off (PTO).

Pay

The salary range for this role is $211,875 - $296,625 annually.