Sr. Manager - Commercial Strategy

JOB DESCRIPTION: This is a unique opportunity to operate with a general management mindset, sitting at the intersection of Sales, Marketing, Innovation, Revenue Management, Supply Chain, and our retail customers to help shape how and where we grow the business. As a Manager of Commercial Strategy, you will translate consumer, category, customer, and business insights into action—setting customer strategy, shaping go-to-market plans, leading channel-driven product initiatives, and identifying opportunities to improve sales and profitability. You will bring the voice of the customer upstream to influence brand and innovation strategies, while partnering cross-functionally to optimize assortment, price-pack architecture, promotion, and retail execution. With broad exposure across the commercial organization, you will lead high-impact initiatives and help determine where we play, how we win, and how we create value for our customers, consumers, and business.

JOB DUTIES:

Customer Strategy: Set clear focus and lead strategic planning to maximize commercial opportunities and partnership with key customers
Channel-Driven Product Strategy: Lead cross-functional initiatives to deliver product and pack solutions tailored to unique needs of priority channels
Go-to-Market Strategy: Utilize category insights to address G2M strategy and improve sales and profitability across assigned retailers and channels.
Analytics & Insights: Leverage syndicated data (e.g., Nielsen, IRI, Circana), shopper insights, and internal performance metrics to identify trends, gaps, and growth opportunities.
Cross-Functional Partnership: Work closely with Sales, Marketing, Revenue Management, and Supply Chain to align category strategies with overall business unit goals – inclusive of assortment optimization, price pack architecture, and promotional strategy execution.
Business Planning: Support annual joint business planning with customers by delivering category growth stories, shopper insights, and innovation opportunities.
Customer-Led Brand Strategy: Bring customer and channel insights upstream to influence brand and innovaton strategies and strengthen retail execution.

Business Insights & Tools

Maintain reporting tools ensuring up-to-date information is available to all sales and management personnel.
Provides on-going trend analysis of customer data (business performance and drivers) to seize value-creating opportunities re: new distribution, promotional effectiveness, trends and competitive activity; works with Sales to take corrective action as necessary

Planning and Execution

Along with National Sales Directors and Category Management, develop strategies for joint business planning, category reviews, and new item presentations.
Provides input into customer planning cycle based on knowledge of category and shopper trends, competitive issues, etc.
Help analyze and recommend action for go-to-market responses due to competition/channel activity
Performs other duties as apparent or assigned

REQUIRED SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

CPG Category, consumer, & shopper knowledge
Extensive knowledge of category management principles and ability to apply to the Produce category
Strong communication skills (written and oral)
Exceptional analytical and project management skills
Excellent presentation, consensus-building and leadership abilities
Proven ability to work with cross-functional teams and influence others
Excellent time management, critical thinking and problem-solving skills
Self-driven to achieve goals; high energy level is essential; strong, dedicated work ethic
Able to source, collect and manipulate data to derive meaningful, actionable insights
Must be very proficient in Microsoft Office Applications, expert level in Excel and PowerPoint
Experience with building databases and mining syndicated data sources for insights (IRI/Nielsen)
Travel: ~20% required for account calls and sales meetings

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor's degree
6-8+ years Sales, Category Management, Revenue Management, Customer Development, or other relevant experience in the CPG industry (including 5+ years in Analytics)

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Produce category experience
Master’s Degree / MBA

PHYSICAL DEMANDS & ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS:

N/A
HOURS & WORKDAYS:

N/A