Sr. Category Strategy Manager, B2B Functional Beverage

Glanbia•Chicago, IL

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Category Strategy Manager – Functional Beverages is responsible for driving the strategic growth of the Global Functional Beverage Category within the Premix portion (B2B) of Glanbia Health & Nutrition. As the Senior Category Strategy Manager, you will lead and liaise with cross-functional teams internally and externally to effectively manage and deliver on initiatives and strategies and will serve as a key link between technology partners, customers, and all relevant Glanbia functions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
5-10 years of experience in the B2B food and/or ingredients space preferably with a focus on business development, strategic marketing or product management
High proficiency with MS Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
Strong financial acumen with experience shaping portfolio P&L outcomes, pricing, pack architecture, and strategic business cases.

Nice To Haves

Proven ability to influence senior executives through data-driven storytelling, strategic frameworks, and compelling recommendations.
Ability to effectively communicate verbally and in written form with co-workers, top management, internal and external customers including excellent writing and presentation skills.
Collaborate with project teams and across changing structures within a high-growth business.
Influence senior stakeholders through data-driven storytelling and strategic insights.
Strategic thinker, highly analytical, with good problem solving skills and comfortable with assessing market/business opportunities understanding statistics.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the global category strategy for Functional Beverages, including innovation priorities, go to market plans, and H&N cross-portfolio solution selling to accelerate revenue growth.
Lead the development of deep category understanding by synthesizing global market, consumer, and competitive insights to identify priority growth opportunities and inform strategic decision making.
Serve as the category expert in customer engagements, partnering with sales and other functions to translate market insights into innovation opportunities and commercial growth.
Coordinate new product launches with cross functional teams, ensuring strong value propositions backed by consumer insights and competitive analysis
Partner with sales to expand the opportunity pipeline and support targeted prospecting for new and emerging customers.
Regularly assess category, key customer and brand performance, identifying opportunities to enhance customer appeal and category growth (including new beverage formats)
Define and manage the category collaboration and innovation pipeline and roadmap, ensuring alignment between customer demand, technology capabilities, and long term portfolio-strategy.
Support delivery of category revenue ambition by identifying, prioritizing and advancing high-value commercial opportunities (win-room).
Responsible for developing business cases and clear financial return expectations for various operational initiatives to achieve the functional beverage category strategy.
Position Glanbia H&N as a category thought leader through industry presentations and trade shows.
Enable the commercial (and wider organization) through category education, sales tools, and training that increase Glanbia H&N’s right to win.
Vet new global market opportunities (technologies, expansions, partnerships, etc.) within the functional beverage category and provide recommendations.
Develop value-added pricing approach by understanding key market insights, competitive differentiators, and related factors.
Lead cross functional alignment across R&D, marketing, insights, procurement, and commercial teams to ensure strategy execution.
Provide category direction in commercial planning cycles and assist in driving forecast accuracy and alignment with short and long-term financial objectives.