Category Strategy Lead, Personal Care Canada

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world. 

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our, collaborative, and flexible working environment. Our organizational ambition centers around creating workplaces that foster equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging across all aspects of our business. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

Background & Purpose of the Job

Personal Care Canada is $ 320 Mn CAD business and ranks amongst the top 10 markets globally for Personal Care market globally. Unilever is a market leader in both the categories we operate in, Skin Cleansing and Deodorants. However, the market has become increasingly fragmented with new entrants as well as other large competitors increasing competitive heat. With the fast-changing retailer and media landscape as well as consumer preferences, we as Unilever need to act differently to sustain our leadership position and grow the category.

We need break through thinking across our portfolio and how to evolve it, inculcate an entrepreneurial spirit and stay even closer to our consumers to innovate and deploy for them with brilliance including driving culture at scale with critical upcoming events like upcoming FIFA world cup. This role will be critical to driving the portfolio. Plugging gaps keeping in mind the 3 to 5 years time horizon and find new opportunities to unlock topline and gross margin in close collaboration with cross functional team.

Who You Are & What You’ll Do

• Portfolio Strategy: Partner BU lead and category leads and finance to define opportunities to accelerate our performance and drive sustained growth. Support in structuring and landing new NA E2E ways of working across brand leads, CS&P teams, engagement, BG and Horizon 1 leads in the US.  Work closely with CSI and CMI along with external agencies to distill data to clear, sharp actionable insights to stay three steps ahead of competition.

• Innovation Funnel: Drive and manage the category innovation funnel, assessing sufficiency and strategic alignment, and identifying any gaps to be closed in partnership by brand teams. Manage the IB innovation gatekeeping and present quarterly reviews to LT and recommend actions to address any gaps. 

• Sports Program: Drive the strategic sports activation agenda for personal care together with local and global PC team as major event like COPA, FIFA etc . This includes budget allocation, sponsorship deals, x-brand coordination and customer category engagement and ROI evaluation.

• Category Strategy: Serve as lead marketing point of contact for driving our strategy with customers and BG teams shaping our long-range planning and strategy across brands and formats. This includes interfacing with the BG & BU brand teams to help identify strategic big bets by customer. Stay closely connected with category strategy leads on PC US, SCL US and APDEO US to drive synergies for Canada.
• Cost Transformation : Initiate and execute Canada unique workstreams to further unlock Gross margin to the business working closely with ISV, Shopper teams, CS&P and Media teams.
• Work closely with Finance, CS&P as well as brand teams to lead the PC LT agenda across performance, innovation governance and 12Q planning. 
• Help the BU lead build team culture by driving high standards of accountability, integrity and upholding Unilever values.

You love to win, and have fun doing it: Rigor and vigilance in understanding the competitive landscape, strong analytics, updating full category team, assessing threats and defining our defense plans. 

You’re a paradox navigator: Partner with BU leads, CS&P leads, CMI, UI, ISV, SC, Finance and Digital leads to drive initiatives across the cross functional teams considering the total value chain of cleansing and deos from R&D to shelf execution 

You’re a culture & change champion: Serve as champion for NA E2E thinking in the category  

What You’ll Need To Succeed

• Bachelor’s Degree
• 5+ years of experience in the CPG industry
• Self Starter, creating their own deadlines and plans 
• Very strong written and verbal communication skills 
• World class analytical skills and strategic thinking 
• Confidence working with senior stakeholders and diverse teams 
• Strong organizational skills, managing many competing priorities  
• Ability to work collaboratively with a wide array of cross functional partners

What We Can Offer You

Culture for Growth | Top Notch Employee Health & Well Being Benefits | Every Voice Matters | Global Reach | Life at Unilever | Careers with Purpose | World Class Career Development Programs | Check Out Our Space | Focus On Sustainability

------------------------------------------------------------

Unilever Canada is an organization committed to diversity and inclusion to drive our business results and create a better future every day for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national or ethnic origin, marital status, family status, disability, genetic characteristics, and a conviction for which a pardon has been granted.

If you are an individual with a disability in need of assistance at any time during our recruitment process, please contact us at NA.Accommodations@unilever.com. Please note: These lines are reserved for individuals with disabilities in need of assistance and are not a means of inquiry about positions or application statuses.

Unilever Canada est une organisation engagé à la diversité et à l'inclusion pour stimuler nos résultats d'affaires et créer un meilleur avenir chaque jour pour nos employés, les consommateurs globaux, les partenaires et les communautés. Nous croyons qu'un effectif diversifiée nous permet de faire correspondre nos ambitions de croissance et de stimuler l'inclusion dans l'entreprise. Tous les candidats qualifiés recevront la considération pour un emploi sans égard à la race, la couleur, la religion, le sexe, l'orientation sexuelle, l'identité ou l'expression de genre, l'âge, l'origine nationale ou ethnique, l'état matrimonial, la situation familiale, l'invalidité, les caractéristiques génétique, et une condamnation pour laquelle un pardon a été accordée.

Si vous êtes une personne handicapée qui a besoin d'aide à tout moment au cours de notre processus de recrutement, veuillez communiquer avec nous au NA.Accommodations@unilever.com. Veuillez noter: ces lignes sont réservées aux personnes handicapées ayant besoin d'aide et ne sont pas un moyen d'enquêter sur les postes.