Strategic Category Planning Manager

Position Snapshot

Business areas: Nestlé Canada

Job title: Strategic Category Planning Manager

Location: North York, Ontario

Job Grade: 19

Position Summary

We are looking for a Strategic Category Planning Manager based at our Head Office in North York, Ontario reporting into the VP of Category and Shopper Development. This role is responsible for providing project leadership to priority customer projects for the category team as well as driving category leadership expertise and capability across the selling organization. This position will be responsible for driving category and Nestle growth through the development and deployment of the Category Leadership Framework and support the Sales Operational Master Plan.

A day in the life of...

As a Strategic Category Planning Manager, you will lead in building category management capability within the selling organization as well as set and implement the standard for stronger customer facing category management and determine how the group works most effectively with other key roles within the organization.

You will also:

Engage and partner with customers under a category approach
Manage projects for customer aligned and enabled category growth
Lead the category management capability and work
Be responsible for all Category Leadership project related customer deliverables including content while escalating strategic context to leadership
Support prioritization and project identification across customers and categories
Lead in the development of a framework for Category Leadership
Work in conjunction with Business Optimization on the Category leadership & deployment plan
Set and implement the standards for strong customer facing category management
Support BUs in collaboration with global team on key category strategies and support local market to develop plan within the global framework against drivers that meet our customer needs
Contribute to the Integrated Commercial Planning (ICP) process improving content to reflect customer insights based on shopper marketing and consumer insights
Work to ensure consistent deliverables and align category selling story for retailers to reflect consumer driven category growth drivers
Work with Retail sales to create, sell and execute framework to improve activation of category strategies at the retail level
Develop team capabilities through proper knowledge transfer and training within key systems




What will make you successful

As the successful candidate, you will be the champion for the brand throughout the organisation so you will need to be passionate, tenacious, results focused and really enjoy working in a highly energetic and exciting environment. You will already have great 8-10 years of sales and strong analytics experience, coupled with your highly organised, dynamic approach. Pro-activity, tenacity and enthusiasm are essential, as is your ability to understand and work within our competitive market.
You will also have:
A university degree in Business Administration. MBA an asset.
Account management experience
Strong leadership, collaborative/interpersonal skills, analytical skills, project management and time management skills, with exceptional attention to detail.
Demonstrated knowledge of business driving technology solutions (i.e. Nielsen, BW, Source) and internal/external industry insights and trends.
Knowledge of Customer Best Practice, Market Intelligence, Category/Channel/ Shopper trends and shopper Insight into actionable ideas as well as the Joint Business Planning process.
Highly developed organizational, communication, negotiation and presentation skills.
Excellent oral and written communication skills with expertise presenting to both small and large groups.
Knowledge of Nestle Category and customer base will be considered a strong asset.



We are Nestlé, the largest food and beverage company. We are 308,000 employees strong driven by the purpose of enhancing the quality of life and contributing to a healthier future. Our values are rooted in respect: respect for ourselves, respect for others, respect for diversity and respect for our future. With more than CHF 91.4 billion sales in 2018, we have an expansive presence with 413 factories in more than 85 countries. We believe our people are our most important asset, so we'll offer you a dynamic inclusive international working environment with many opportunities across different businesses, functions and geographies, working with diverse teams and cultures. Want to learn more? Visit us at www.nestle.com.

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