Category Development Manager at Mondelez International

• You provide compelling insights and engage with customers and key account teams. You identify and track category opportunities that support growth or defend risk and apply your insights for category, shopper, and consumer metrics when analyzing and translating data sources.

How you will contribute

You will:

• Responsible for the development and execution of selling programs related to their assigned Category's innovation, distribution, merchandising, and promotional plans
• Key linkage between the Customer Business Teams (CBTs) and the Category Innovation, Marketing and Equity teams to ensure that our strategies and tactics are aligned to the needs of our Customers
• Responsible for building category and customer plans for the assigned Category, working collaboratively with Category teams, Insights, and Customer Business Teams (CBTs)
• Be seen as the Category expert internally and create compelling, actionable & measurable category plans
• Provide thought leadership internally & externally around brand & category initiatives (promotional strategy / budget planning) 
• Leading delivery of category dashboard / fundamentals and recommending corrective actions to ensure targets are met
• Ongoing assessment of critical baseline volume opportunities / risks and lead initiatives to optimize category performance

What you will bring

A desire to drive your future and accelerate your career and the following experience and knowledge:

• Category development, key accounts and market insight analysis and delivering growth through category leadership
• Having a future-focused mindset, demonstrating curiosity about industry trends, digital solutions and innovation for consumers and translating opportunities into business plans
• Delivering strategic plans, measuring and monitoring results, and making recommendations to achieve growth targets
• Influence stakeholders and interacting effectively with others, with the courage and resilience to hold an alternative point of view
• Analytical skills and business acumen
• Proven experience in the fast-moving consumer goods field is a distinct advantage

More about this role

Strategic Category Leadership

• Lead co-creation of 3-year category strategies identifying Category Value Drivers. Contribute relevant consumer insights during brand planning processes and developing customer plans.
• Own the category development & Management agenda within annual and long-range business planning cycles.
• Identify growth opportunities through consumer, shopper, and market insights.
• Proactively identify competitive risks and growth opportunities.
• Shape in-store execution strategy based on shopper behavior insights.

Insights & Analytics

• Own end-to-end category reviews externally & internally including market analysis and NPD sell-in.
• Lead compelling category sell-in stories for key customers, owning assortment optimization and planogram strategy.
• Leverage syndicated data sources (e.g., Nielsen, IRI, Dunnhumby) and internal data to generate insights & translate these into customer-specific growth initiatives
• Deliver executive-ready insights to Sales, Marketing and Finance.
• Promote a culture of data-driven decision making.

Innovation & Growth

• Lead NPD commercialization through the Mondelez stage & gate processes.
• Identify innovation opportunities based on emerging trends.
• Ensure alignment between innovation pipeline and category strategy.

Stakeholder Leadership

• Develop strong working relationships & category captaincy in insights with our strategic customers
• Influence and align cross-functional stakeholders across Sales & Marketing.
• Lead strategic discussions with senior internal and external partners.
• Be a thought leader within the category and commercial teams.

Education Qualifications/Certificates

• 7–10+ years’ experience in Category Development, Category Management, Insights, or Customer Management within FMCG.
• Relevant Tertiary qualification-Bachelor of Commerce or similar.

Job Specific Requirements

• Advanced Excel and PowerPoint proficiency.
• Strong track record of delivering category growth and influencing commercial strategy.
• Advanced analytical skills and strong financial acumen.
• Experience leading customer-facing category presentations and range reviews.
• Experience with syndicated data tools (Nielsen, IRI, Dunnhumby, Price Probe).
• Budget management experience.   
• ROI analysis and communication of best practice
• In-Depth understanding of Consumer & Shopper Behavior across channels
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment.