Category Strategy Manager, Skin Cleansing & BBMs Personal Care

Job Title: Category Strategy Manager, Skin Cleansing & BBMs Personal Care

Location: London

Term: Maternity Cover

JOB PURPOSE

With a WL1 Direct Report, the role will report directly to the Category and Customer Growth Strategy and Operations VP, to lead the Skin Cleansing category globally on multiple category agendas, working closely with Global Brand Leads, Cross Functional Leads and BU Leads. This is a high visibility role working hand in hand with senior stakeholders, learning from the category leadership team directly – enabling excellent opportunity to build category fundamentals, develop strategic competencies and leadership qualities. This role will also lead the execution of the Big Bold Moves (BBMs) agenda for Personal Care, ensuring delivery of the roadmap plans and coordination across the brands and x-functional leads.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Skin Cleansing Category Strategy Manager

The incumbent will partner for all category initiatives, inputs and general consultation from both BG/BU teams across all functions. They will also support, anchor and lead key strategic workstreams. Key areas of focus will include:

• Anchor short and long term skin cleansing category innovation plans to deliver multi-year innovations for each respective BU strategy and support the translation of category strategy to each brand/ BU to execute brilliantly in market

• Lead Skin Cleansing Category Strategy refresh, translating the PC strategy (BG and BU specifics) and deeply understanding the future demand spaces

• Lead Bars to Liquid MDM – support operationalising the current Model into BU Plans

• Performance analysis and reporting, category reviews, and running monthly category forum meetings

• Lead innovation cycle governance (Investor Boards and Innoflex) for BU and BG projects – leading end to end

• Ownership of category 12QP - Linking with BG and BU teams to ensure plans are always up to date and sufficient

Big Bold Moves ('BBMs') Lead for PC

The incumbent will Lead the BBMs workstream for Personal Care by driving strategic innovation platforms, managing cross-functional squads, and ensuring delivery of transformational growth initiatives aligned with category strategy. Key areas of focus will include:

• Own the BBMs workstream roadmap and ensure alignment with PC Category Strategies and FGM priorities.

• Define and cascade clear KPIs for BBM initiatives (input/output metrics) and monitor progress against targets, identify gaps, and propose corrective actions.

• Drive development and deployment of BBM platforms and lead BBM squads comprising CMI, R&D, Design, and Marketing.

• Ensure rigorous governance and timely decision-making across global and BU teams.

• Foster a culture of innovation and agility within the BBM squad.

ALL ABOUT YOU

The role encompasses multiple different aspects, with the need to constantly juggle between ‘developing strategic vision’ & ‘crafting Growth Agenda’ to ‘operational and Governance. This will require a high level of agility and shift in mindset. To be successful in this role, the incumbent must have:

• A strong understanding of P&L, Retail, Consumer and Brand Metrics

• Experience in leading/managing process

• Ability to manage conflicting priorities and requirements from multiple stakeholders, in different time zones

• Skill in ‘crafting’ strategic, business documents/presentations (a strong story teller)

• Proficiency in MS Office Suit (esp. PowerPoint and Excel) - comfortable to operate with large amount of data

• Ability to see through trends and patterns are important skill sets

• Deep understanding of consumer insights and technology trends in Personal Care

In addition to those non negotiable skills requirements, desirable skills include:

• Strong personal mastery and self discipline with passion for driving the category culture

• Requires interpersonal Skill with experience of managing senior stakeholders and large cross functional teams in multiple time zones

• Flexibility & Adaptability - Short turnaround times (often with changing priorities) to meet deadlines for big workstreams; be able to anticipate changes while meeting deadlines

• End to end knowledge of Innovation process & validation requirement

WHAT WE OFFER

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all. 

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (unilever.com).