Category Manager Africa at IFF

Role Overview

It’s an exciting time to be part of the IFF family! 
We are an industry leader in food, beverage, scent, health and biosciences, where science and creativity meet to create essential solutions for a better world – from global icons to unexpected innovations and experiences. With the beauty of art and the precision of science, we are an international collective of thinkers who partner with customers to bring scents, tastes, experiences, ingredients and solutions for products the world craves. The NOURISH division at IFF is seeking a Category Marketing Lead for Culinary & Snacks in our AMETI region – and we hope it’s you! 

The Category Marketing Lead is responsible for leading a cross-functional team through the development and implementation of a 3-year category plan to grow IFF sales in the Culinary & Snacks category. The Category Marketing Lead is directly responsible for the identification and execution of the initiatives defined in the plan and involved in customer facing activities. This is a challenging and visible role. The candidates will need to demonstrate their potential to become the trusted partner of multiple internal stakeholders (e.g. sales, product management, innovation, and communication), to gain commitment at all levels in the organization to turn plans into actions, and to engage customers by developing and presenting insightful marketing content. The role is in our Nourish platform but will be covering the full IFF portfolio. 
This position reports to the Regional Marketing Leader for NOURISH in AMETI.

Key Responsibilities

•  Lead the AMETI Category team in the development of a 3-year Category plan. Build on industry insights, business strategies and overall capabilities to define key initiatives, tactics and resources required to grow and defend IFF business in Culinary and Snacks.
•  Drive the roll-out of the Category plan with sales teams in AMETI.
•  Execute initiatives included in the Category plan, in particular marketing efforts. Collaborate with key stakeholders to develop Marketing initiatives and present these initiatives to key accounts.
•  Collaborate with other functions within Marketing and Product Experience to define key priorities for Culinary and Snacks in the region.
•  Monitor and report on the execution of the category plan to the AMETI leadership teams on a quarterly basis. Track progress against category financials targets, opportunity pipeline targets and milestones for key initiatives. Highlight corrective actions required and decisions to be made.
•  Support key account managers and sales managers in engaging and developing relationship with our customers by executing on our marketing strategies tailored to our customer’s brands and consumers.
•  Leverage interaction with external and internal stakeholders to collect industry insights, derive implications for the business and recommend actions to support our growth ambitions in the Culinary and Snacks Category.

You have:

•  Minimum 5-8 years of business experience (marketing, sales, business development), preferably in the Culinary and Snacks market but with flexibility to other industries. 
•  Strong communication skills. Proven ability to develop and deliver impactful marketing communications to customers.
•  Excellent listening, analytical and influencing skills. Demonstrated ability to collect insights (qualitative/quantitative), generate conclusions and drive discussions with key stakeholders to develop and implement appropriate solutions.
•  Engagement, leadership and high-level of energy.
•  Proven ability to work effectively in a matrix organization and drive cross-functional project teams through effective influence management.
•  Strong knowledge of strategic and operational marketing fundamentals.
•  Strong interpersonal skills to connect people from different part of the organization, foster collaboration and manage potential conflicts to move things forward and drive execution.
•  Highly developed written and verbal communication in English.
•  High proficiency with PowerPoint and Excel.

Preferable Attributes

•  Master’s degree in marketing or business-related field OR Bachelor/Master’s degree in food science or Marketing and/or work experience in the food ingredients industry.
•  Experience in building, executing and tracking results and impact of marketing plans.
•  Other language skills relevant to the AMETI region.