Perfect Store and Field Lead

LOCATION: Sunlight House, Kingston 

ABOUT THE ROLE

Perfect Store is a critical strategic lever for Unilever, driving brand desire, conversion and competitive advantage through outstanding in-store execution. The Perfect Store and Field Lead plays a pivotal leadership role in translating strategy into disciplined, scalable execution across the UK business. 

Sitting at the heart of the Customer Development team, this role is accountable for leading the UK Perfect Store agenda and field execution programme, ensuring Unilever brands consistently win at the point of purchase. The role combines strategic leadership, operational excellence and cross-functional influence to raise execution standards, embed capability, and unlock growth through stronger in-store performance. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the delivery of the UK Perfect Store programme and field execution agenda, ensuring excellence, consistency and impact across channels and customers

• Own the performance of the field services model through external partner leadership, with accountability for a c. £10m annual budget and a team of 120+ colleagues spanning strategy, account management and in-field execution

• Partner with Business Unit General Managers and leadership teams to align execution priorities with commercial goals, ensuring robust delivery against budget, KPIs and growth objectives

• Drive continuous improvement in execution capability through innovation in data and technology

• Lead the Perfect Store agenda across channels, including line management of the Value Channel Excellence team, to embed channel-relevant execution standards and best practice

• Ensure all execution is grounded in strong shopper and customer insight through leadership of shopper insight capability and close integration of insight into action. 

KEY SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

• Strong and progressive leadership experience across commercial, customer-facing or field-based roles, with a proven ability to lead at scale

• Outstanding commercial judgement and executional focus, with the ability to translate strategy into action that drives growth and market share

• Deep understanding of the UK retail environment and a strong track record of delivering executional excellence in complex, fast-paced settings

• Highly effective stakeholder leadership, with the credibility and influence to work across senior internal teams and external partners

• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including experience managing significant budgets and optimising return on investment

• Proven ability to build capability, lead change and drive performance through teams and partners

• Resilience, pace and agility, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and maintain focus on delivery in a dynamic environment

NOTES

• Please apply via this portal as e-mail applications may not be processed and include your Future Fit Plan if possible.

• By applying for this vacancy, you are confirming that you have made your Line Manager aware of your application and that you are at a point in your career with Unilever where it is appropriate for you to be applying for other positions.   

• Should you require additional information or reasonable adjustments to allow you to present your best self during this process, please contact your Sarah Brough on [email protected]

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).

Location  

In June 2020 we announced our plan to consolidate a number of Unilever’s offices across the South East of England into a new Unilever campus in Kingston-upon-Thames in or around early 2025. However, on the 08 August 2024 we announced to our existing staff our proposal to retain our central Head Office in London, 100 Victoria Embankment (“100VE”) until our lease expires in 2027. As a result of this new proposal, we will be consulting with our existing staff, and new joiners who join during this period of consultation at 100VE, on the proposal made in August 2024. During consultation we will clarify the future location of each team and function. This means your role will either be based in 100VE until 2027 or in Kingston-Upon-Thames from early 2025. As we are yet to commence consultation on the proposal you agree, until such a time when consultation has concluded, your normal place of work as set out in the enclosed Statement of Terms & Conditions will be 100VE. You agree that on the conclusion of the consultation your place of work will be 100VE or 100VE until early 2025 and then Kingston-upon-Thames ("the locations") and you will be notified of which of the locations will be your place of work after that consultation ends.

Relocation to the UK 

Please be aware if you are applying for this role from outside the UK, if successful, your application will be treated as a self-initiated Change Location Outside of Country (CLOC) transfer. This means any relocation costs must be self-funded with the potential to reclaim some specific pre-approved expenses up to £5,000. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you have any questions.