JOB OVERVIEW:

The Manager of Category Commercialization is responsible for leading the commercialization of select Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) beverage brands across liquid refreshment beverage categories, including company owned and Allied brands. Your ultimate goal is to drive success with our shoppers, customers and partners by helping to drive a commercial beverage strategy that is coherent across channels. The Manager will be the driving force between the Brand and National Retail Sales (NRS) Teams by identifying growth opportunities and leveraging key insights/trends that lead to actionable brand and retail plans. Additionally, the Manager will be responsible for collaborating with key cross functional teams and stakeholders, participating in the Annual Brand Planning process, tracking category performance, building category selling materials, owning product commercialization, supporting major industry/sales meetings and reporting out to senior leaders. We are looking for a team player who has the ability to drive influence throughout the organization, enjoys building relationships cross functionally, exudes strategic acumen, takes full ownership of assigned projects and identifies growth opportunities.
The ideal candidate will bring 5 or more years of consumer packaged goods (CPG) experience and will have led commercial efforts in the development, implementation, and measurement of category plans across the commercial organization. Knowledge of the beverage industry specifically would be considered a plus.
This role will be located in the KDP Plano HQ office and will require up to 25% travel. This person will report to the Director – Category Commercialization.
Responsibilities:

The key areas of focus for this role include commercial planning, category assortment, innovation commercialization, and category sales growth strategy.

• Support the Sr Director Category Commercialization with daily workload / projects. Main workstreams include AOP initiatives/projects, executional tracking, and alignment of category activities
• Collaborate with activation, brand, supply chain, shopper insights, marketing, RGM, and category management to identify and build a prioritized annual calendar of relevant activities, programming, occasion/brand/price/pack/channel (OBPPC) tactics and tools required to deliver against the annual commercial plan for assigned categories
• Represent the full category commercial perspective in all discussions/decisions across the enterprise and when consulting Brand marketing partners
• Build compelling, best in class insights-based category selling stories and operating plans that support annual commercial plans for the KDP selling organizations (NRS and RTM) inclusive of brand initiatives, innovation, category drivers, right assortment, and merchandising
• Shepherd the commercialization efforts for new product innovation as well as retail account specific product or package innovation, ensuring retail readiness and launch excellence
• Provide commercial guidance for the annual brand process and innovation launches
• Track in year performance and determine tactical changes or additions to the commercial programming to address AOP goals
• Provide on-going leadership and support for company-wide and sales specific meetings i.e., NRS Quarterly Business Reviews, National Sales Meeting, customer AOP meetings, Bottler Meetings, etc.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Minimum 5 years’ experience Sales, Marketing, and/or Commercial leadership experience
• Experience in consumer goods or retail products strongly preferred, and beverage industry knowledge is a plus
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited US or international university; MBA Preferred
• Commercial strategy or Channel strategy development experience is preferred

• Support the Sr Director Category Commercialization with daily workload / projects. Main workstreams include AOP initiatives/projects, executional tracking, and alignment of category activities
• Collaborate with activation, brand, supply chain, shopper insights, marketing, RGM, and category management to identify and build a prioritized annual calendar of relevant activities, programming, occasion/brand/price/pack/channel (OBPPC) tactics and tools required to deliver against the annual commercial plan for assigned categories
• Represent the full category commercial perspective in all discussions/decisions across the enterprise and when consulting Brand marketing partners
• Build compelling, best in class insights-based category selling stories and operating plans that support annual commercial plans for the KDP selling organizations (NRS and RTM) inclusive of brand initiatives, innovation, category drivers, right assortment, and merchandising
• Shepherd the commercialization efforts for new product innovation as well as retail account specific product or package innovation, ensuring retail readiness and launch excellence
• Provide commercial guidance for the annual brand process and innovation launches
• Track in year performance and determine tactical changes or additions to the commercial programming to address AOP goals
• Provide on-going leadership and support for company-wide and sales specific meetings i.e., NRS Quarterly Business Reviews, National Sales Meeting, customer AOP meetings, Bottler Meetings, etc