Associate Director - Category Management

As Category Management Capability Lead, drive influential and productive conversations with global, regional leadership, and Global Customer Sr. executive to proactively plan, build consensus on Category Mgt strategy and manage a large team and capabilities to deliver the output.

Lead team to deliver Category Mgt solutions to meet business needs of regularly scheduled and adhoc requests for; merchandise sets, new stores, remodels and special projects across All categories (CSD, Chilled, SNACKS, Nutrition) and across all Formats. Act as a leader, the change agent and assist the Category Mgt CoE teams training and development.

The lead for Category Mgt will lead this capability for GCC and play an influential role in building this capability. The role will lead the team that will work closely with in-market category leadership to drive revenue & category growth for PepsiCo.

Functional Responsibilities

• Ownership of all category management projects. Conduct collaborative session with Sector/Regional partners and stakeholders for deliverables (timelines/number of outputs/etc.)
• Drive influential and productive conversations with global and regional leadership to proactively plan, build consensus on Category Mgt strategy, COE org design and problem solve.
• Embed gold standard DX Category Mgt processes across sectors and Bus & Drive standardization of processes across markets
• Manage a large critical talent pool and drive the build vs buy strategy via the academy strategy
• Help craft career paths of his team to drive enagaement and manage attrition
• Lead and manage a consistent alignment with Sales, Planogram, Space Capability & IT/Automation teams/team leaders regarding expectation setting, collaboration, balancing resource allocation & drive ideas to meet business needs.
• Act as support and point person for Sector/Regional partners and stakeholders, when appropriate
• Scale-up operation in-line with business growth, both within existing scope, as well as new areas of opportunity to make the Category Mgt CoE capability future proof.
• Be abreast with industry best practices around process & technology and recognize opportunities to act & improve service delivery & build differential capability.
• Build a robust process framework (intake to delivery) with effective tracking interventions to proactively manage changes in scope, identify potential risks to service delivery and devise effective contingency plans.
• Continuously seek & implement process improvements and simplifications via optimal use of technology
• Lead the creation of a robust training program (onboarding & ongoing) around categories, business, industry, process, tools etc.
• Build category expertise in the CoE for snacks, beverages, chilled juice, nutrition etc. and across all Formats and also promote end-to-end category management view.
• Drive agility in the team to swiftly move across regularly scheduled and adhoc requests for; merchandise sets, new stores, remodels and special projects etc.
• Coach, mentor, motivate and supervise project team members while encouraging them to take positive action and accountability for their assigned work.
• Create an inclusive and collaborative environment and nuture a enterprising culture in the team.
• Ability to focus against speed of execution and quality of service delivery rather than achievement of SLAs
• Ensure accurate and timely delivery of teams tasks regarding:
  • work closely with Category Management and Space teams to ensure Category analytics & reporting needs meet approved parameters
  • conduct quality control ensuring all projects meet assortment requirements, innovation opportunities and Category metrics
  • mange multiple project timelines simultaneously
  • ensure timelines are met by tracking project process, coordinating activities and resolving issues
  • build and maintain relationships with internal project partners
  • work across multiple functions to aid in collecting insights for action-oriented cause of change analysis
  • Work with stakeholders in the business and DX to drive value, revenue and share for Pepsico

• Post Graduate degree prefered with at least 12+ years of Category Mgt, Retail Ops, Merchandising or other applicable retail experience
• Masters degree is a plus
• 5 years minimum experience within a commercial team/Function with direct reports and preferred 2 years experience with skip level reports
• Strong Commercial acumen and ability to connect the dots
• Advanced level skill in Microsoft Office, with demonstrated intermediate-advanced Excel skills necessary
• Propensity to learn PepsiCo software systems
• Advanced knowledge and experience of Nielsen, IRI & other research platforms
• Experience with analyzing and reporting data to identify issues, trends, or exceptions to drive improvement of results and find solutions
• Experience with implementation of retail merchandising basics (i.e., category management), and merchandising organizational structures and processes
• Best-in-Class time management, ability to set priorities and plan, multitask and meet tight deadlines
• Ability to develop effective working relationships with all levels of leadership
• Customer service oriented with ability to maintain positive attitude in all situations

Differentiating competencies:

• Consulting/Process management experience
• In cross functional conversations, serve as the subject matter expert on category team capabilities and processes, participate in the discussion of business requirements, act as a leader of change management and assist the Merchandising teams training and development
• Continuously looks for ways to improve processes and increase team efficiencies, leveraging the skills and expertise of internal department resources and cross-functional partner teams
• Close projects by gathering feedback, documenting lessons learned/best practices, and applying those best practices to subsequent projects.
• Strong data analytics skills with strong attention to detail
• Language skills - English fluent
• Excellent written and oral communication skills; proactively communicates using appropriate methods for situation and audience in clear, concise and professional manner
• Ability to work collaboratively and proactively with multi-functional teams
• Be flexible, organized and able to handle competing priorities
• Organization effectiveness