Head of Category Insights and Trade Strategy

:

Summary:

The Category and Trade Insights Manager will play a key role in driving the development and execution of category strategies, sales plans, and trade investments. This individual will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including Sales, Finance, and Operations, to ensure the effective tracking and analysis of revenue, trade spend, and customer-specific plans. This position will also be responsible for managing key third-party resources, such as Spins and Nielsen, to provide actionable insights and performance analysis.

Key Responsibilities:

Category Insights and Sales Strategy

• Lead the creation of category insights and set sales strategies to achieve channel, customer, brand, and product group objectives.
• Lead the annual operating plan process for sales, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
• Contribute to the development of the annual selling presentation and establish relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Lead customer-specific planning in collaboration with the field team and broker resources.
• Deliver quarterly business updates on account plans and performance.

Gross Revenue and Trade Spend Management

• Lead the planning, building, tracking, closing, and analysis of gross revenue and trade spend investments.
• Manage tools and processes for tracking top retail/club customer plans, ensuring their integration into the Telus system.
• Prepare actualization reports for product movement across indirect retail customers.
• Conduct Return on Investment (ROI) analysis for top customer spend events to ensure effective use of trade funds.
• Maintain and update the Customer Authorization document as needed.

Partnership with Finance

• Partner with the Finance team to ensure the accurate capture and accounting of Gross Sales, R&A (Reserves and Allowances), and Net Sales.
• Deliver a 13-week cash flow analysis to the accounting team to support ongoing forecasting and planning future spending liabilities, with rationale, to support strategic decision-making.
• Provide guidance on risks and opportunities impacting sales plans, ensuring alignment with financial goals.
• Develop Management of Third-Party POS Resources
• Manage key third-party Point of Sale (POS) resources, including Spins, Nielsen, and other market intelligence providers.
• Oversee contracts with third-party vendors and assist in negotiations to secure favorable terms.
• Lead Brand Health updates and ensure follow-up actions are completed in a timely manner.
• Deliver ad hoc reporting and analysis to support key initiatives and provide actionable insights to leadership.

Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.

• 5+ years of experience in category management, trade insights, or sales strategy within a consumer goods or CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) environment.
• Strong experience with sales planning, trade spend management, and revenue forecasting.
• Proficiency in utilizing POS tools (Spins, Nielsen, etc.) and systems like Telus or similar enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms.
• Proven ability to conduct data analysis, develop insights, and make strategic recommendations to senior leadership.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally with Sales, Finance, and Operations teams.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines.

Work Environment:

· This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, and fax machines.

· Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical Requirements:

· The physical demands described here represent those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of this job successfully.

· An office position, which may require sitting for long periods of time and a significant amount of time in front of a computer entering data and preparing reports

· While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand, walk, use hands to finger, handle, or feel, and reach with hands and arms.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $90,000.00 - $110,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance

Schedule:

• Day shift

Experience:

• Food Industry: 5 years (Required)
• Dairy : 2 years (Preferred)

Work Location: Remote