Senior Analyst, Sales Strategy & Planning

Senior Analyst, Sales Strategy & Planning

At Bel, we are not just a company—we are a company on a Mission, built on 160 years of bold innovation, family values, and a commitment to social purpose. With beloved brands like Babybel®, GoGo squeeZ®, The Laughing Cow®, and Boursin®, our snacking solutions bring more than joy; they want to serve as a force for good. Our U.S. Mission? To help close the critical 80% nutrition gap by making it easier for Americans to eat more fruits, veggies, and dairy as part of their daily lives. The company has headquarters in Chicago and New York City and operates 4 manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI; Brookings, SD; Traverse City, MI; and Nampa, ID. #IWorkForAllForGood

Job Description Summary

The Senior Analyst, Sales Strategy & Planning plays a critical role in driving profitable growth across the business through best-in-class commercial planning, analytics, and cross-functional execution. This role partners with Field Sales, Brand Marketing, Category Strategy, RGM, Finance, and Supply Chain to translate business strategy into actionable commercial plans that improve market performance and execution quality. The ideal candidate is a highly proactive, agile, and self-driven professional who thrives in fast-paced, evolving environments. They demonstrate the ability to quickly adapt to changing priorities, operate independently with minimal oversight, and bring a high level of organization and structure to complex initiatives. With strong analytical and commercial acumen, this individual excels at transforming data into concise, impactful insights that drive decision-making.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Sales Strategy & Business Planning
• Support customer business reviews, annual planning, and commercial strategy presentations
• Help bring innovation to market by supporting sell-in, forecasting, product setup, and performance tracking
• Support communication and drive execution of key brand initiatives to the field sales team
• Translate category and brand strategies into actionable recommendations across distribution, pricing, promotion, assortment, and merchandising
• Identify growth opportunities and risks through strong cross-functional collaboration
• Analytics, Insights & Decision Support
• Analyze shipment, POS, consumption, market share, distribution, velocity, and financial performance trends, utilizing both syndicated and internal data
• Leverage insights and retail analytics across multiple data sources to proactively develop compelling, data-driven selling stories
• Develop clear, concise, and actionable recommendations using tools such as Circana/IRI, NielsenIQ, retailer POS, TPM systems, and internal reporting platforms
• Sales Planning & Operations
• Own and maintain internal trackers to ensure alignment, transparency, and organization across innovation pipelines, projects, meetings, and activation planning
• Coordinate and drive execution of key commercial initiatives, product launches, promotional events, and customer programs, ensuring timely and effective delivery
• Support monthly forecasting, volume pacing, and S&OP processes through data-driven analysis and cross-functional collaboration with Sales and Supply Chain teams
• Support the development and execution of strategic initiatives to advance category objectives across channel development, assortment, merchandising, shopper marketing, pricing, and promotion
• Continuously improve planning processes, reporting and operational workflows to enhance efficiency
• Participate in periodic business reviews to evaluate forecast accuracy, identify performance gaps, and contribute to actionable plans that drive continuous improvement
• Customer & Cross-Functional Partnership
• Serve as a key liaison between Field Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and Category teams
• Incorporate Customer and Field Sales feedback into commercial planning recommendations
• Support the Field Sales Team with customer-facing materials, selling stories, trade shows assets, and samples
• Build strong collaborative relationships while contributing to a high-performing, team-oriented culture grounded in trust, respect, and mutual support

Qualifications and Competencies

Bachelor's degree in business administration, marketing, finance, supply chain, or related field required

3+ years of experience in CPG, food/beverage, retail, category management, sales planning, commercial strategy, analytics, revenue growth management, or related functions

Experience supporting national customers, customer planning, or commercial execution within a matrixed organization preferred

Specific competencies required

• Demonstrated strong analytical, financial, and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication skills; understands audience and adjusts communication to drive desired results
• Proven ability to communicate complex and/or detailed information to multiple individual/audiences with differing knowledge levels, both in writing and verbally
• Experience with syndicated data platforms and customer POS systems preferred (Circana/IRI, NielsenIQ, 84.51°, Numerator, etc.)
• Experience with trade promotion management (TPM), forecasting, or business intelligence tools preferred (Power BI, Tableau, SAP, Anaplan, etc.)
• Ability to synthesize large datasets into concise insights and recommendations

Performance Expectations: Quality, accuracy, timeliness, reliability, and thoroughness of work performed; ability to gain the trust and respect of management, coworkers and brokers; maintain the integrity of confidential business and product information; ability to communicate effectively and develop good working relationships with other employees is essential to accomplish goals and objectives of the department.

Working Conditions: Work is performed primarily in a hybrid office environment (2–3 days per week in-office, Chicago-based). Standard work hours are generally aligned to normal business operations, with flexibility required during key planning periods, customer meetings, and business deadlines. Position requires up to 10% travel.

Total Rewards

• Base Salary: $100,000 - $110,000
• Bonus opportunity: 12%
• 401k Match
• PTO, Medical, Dental and Vision coverage from Day One

Bel Brands is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, disability status or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Bel Brands also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees based on any of these protected categories. It is also Bel Brand's policy to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws respecting consideration of unemployment status in making hiring decisions. Bel Brands is committed to recruiting, hiring and promoting people with disabilities and veterans. If you need an accommodation or assistance in using the website, please call View phone number on click.appcast.io.