Global Category Leader – Potatoes

KFC•Plano, TX

About The Position

Lead Yum!’s global Potatoes category across KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill to create sustainable value, strengthen supply resilience, enable brand growth and deliver competitive advantage through the scale of the Yum! system. The role uses category expertise, market insight and strategic supplier partnerships to improve restaurant unit economics, embed responsible sourcing and support the global Potatoes category community. The Global Category Leader owns the category thesis and 3–5 year roadmap, develops supplier and commercial strategies, and aligns global brands, regional supply chain teams, Finance, FSQA, FIT, Sustainability and suppliers around category priorities. The role leads supply assurance and capacity strategy, category market intelligence, value creation, responsible sourcing, data standards and digital workflows. It also coordinates global-to-regional implementation while respecting regional contracting and sourcing decision rights. Regional teams retain responsibility for operational continuity and market execution.

Requirements

Significant Supply Chain, category management or procurement experience, with demonstrated depth in strategic category leadership across multiple markets or regions.
Ability to develop multi-year category strategies, make clear strategic choices, and translate them into executable programs and measurable business outcomes.
Strong commercial, financial and analytical acumen, including experience using category economics, cost drivers, supplier economics, market or commodity intelligence and pricing mechanisms to shape decisions and create value.
Experience in strategic supplier relationship management, including senior supplier leadership engagement and using supplier capability, investment, innovation and Joint Business Planning to create value and strengthen resilience.
Ability to lead through a complex global matrix, influence senior stakeholders across brands, regions and functions, resolve competing priorities and create alignment without relying on direct authority.
Ability to anticipate category and supply risks, use external insight and scenario thinking to inform decisions, and balance commercial value, resilience, responsible sourcing and brand requirements.
People and digital leadership skills, including building capability through coaching and cross-market learning and using data, analytics, digital sourcing and AI-enabled tools to improve decisions and execution.

Nice To Haves

Relevant food, ingredient or commodity experience is advantageous.

Responsibilities

Own the global Potatoes category thesis and 3–5 year roadmap across KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill, translating brand and regional priorities, market intelligence and supplier capability into strategic choices and executable programs.
Align Global Brands, Regional Supply Chain, Finance, FSQA, FIT, Sustainability and suppliers on category choices, specifications, investment and implementation.
Lead product specification optimization to improve consumer consistency, supplier capability, resilience and the ability to leverage Yum!’s scale while preserving legitimate brand or market differentiation.
Lead the global Potatoes supplier strategy through segmentation, strategic relationships, Joint Business Planning and performance agendas that strengthen supplier capability, capacity, yield, innovation, resilience and value.
Establish commercial models and, where appropriate, long-term agreements and cross-regional sourcing opportunities that regions can leverage.
Own the global Potatoes supply-assurance and capacity strategy; identify multi-tier and emerging category risks and establish mitigation priorities, continuity expectations and escalation triggers with regions and strategic suppliers.
Lead the global Potatoes Community of Practice by sharing insight and best practices, coaching category leaders, enabling cross-market learning and strengthening category capability and succession pipelines.
Define the global commercial and value-creation agenda using category economics, cost drivers, should-cost insight, supplier economics, commodity exposure, indices, pricing mechanisms and negotiation strategy.
Partner with Finance and regions to translate agreed opportunities into measurable, realized business outcomes while protecting supply and brand standards.
Build a forward-looking view of the Potatoes market, integrating supply-and-demand dynamics, commodity exposure, capacity, cost drivers and market scenarios into category strategy, supplier negotiations, pricing mechanisms and category actions.
Orchestrate global-to-regional implementation of agreed priorities, including demand aggregation, supplier transitions and benefits tracking; provide visibility into adoption and escalate barriers while respecting regional contracting and sourcing decision rights.
Build responsible sourcing, origin and traceability requirements into category roadmaps, supplier selection and strategic partnerships, balancing enterprise commitments with commercial, availability and market considerations.
Build category data standards, analytics and digital workflows, using trusted data, AI and relevant tools to improve market intelligence, sourcing, supplier management, decision quality and execution.