Assistant Director, Category Management

Lactalis USA is currently seeking candidates to join our Category Management team, located in New York City.

Lactalis, the world leader in dairy, is a family-owned business with more than 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals worldwide, committed to nurturing the future by providing healthy and delicious dairy products that bring people together every day. We produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together every day. We offer an enviable range of dairy brands including Galbani, President, Kraft Natural Cheese, Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond, Parmalat, Siggi's, and Stonyfield Organic in addition to several brands imported from our affiliates in Europe.

At Lactalis, our core values of AMBITION, ENGAGEMENT, and SIMPLICITY are at the heart of everything we do. We are dedicated to building a safe, diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace and we know that our candidates come from many different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. If you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job posting, we still encourage you to apply and share with us your STORY, your PASSION, and your EXPERTISE! You may be just the perfect candidate for this or other roles within our company.

From your PASSION to ours

Category Management is an essential function within the Lactalis American Group commercial team and responsibilities range from being a critical member of the selling process to owning internal reporting of market conditions to working across functions to provide a critical and unbiased perspective of data and information. This role will be responsible for managing two unique teams (Deli Category Management and Dairy Category Management). The Associate Director of Category Management will report directly to the VP/Sr Director of Category, Strategy & Portfolio and must be able to enhance the relationship with the Commercial VPs and President (Retail Sales, Deli Sales, Dairy Sales, and Marketing). This individual must have stellar communication skills and in order to manage people both subordinates and superiors as well as peer expectations.

From your EXPERTISE to ours

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily

• Inspire, Coach and Develop direct reports through regular in-person meetings, internal and external training plans and "on the job" experiences (such as but not limited to Customer Meetings) to deliver business results; creating an environment where all careers grow according to our talents, ambitions and capabilities
• Establish trust and rapport with key customer and retailer Dairy Department Leadership
• Serves as a thought leadership and strategic advisor to the Sales VPs of both Deli and Dairy
• Champion the Category/Department Vision of the future working as the catalyst to keep the commercial functions of both LAG (Lactalis America Group, hiring Business Unit) and sister Business Units (Lactalis Heritage Dairy and Lactalis U.S. Yogurt)
• Responsible for having an eye toward the future
• Vendor relationships and budget maintenance to ensure Category Toolbox is full and being leveraged to maximize ROI or being evaluated and negotiated for replacement
• Interface to Global Insights & Category team for aggregating and fulfilling reporting and building of vision
• Demonstrate commitment to a safe working environment that promotes the health and well-being of all employees and that will further contribute to the Company's overall performance and success.
• Travel and/or extended or off work hours may be required.
• This description reflects management's assignment of essential functions, it does not proscribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned.
• To fulfill these responsibilities, tools such as a computer, phone, and/or allowance(s) may be provided.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these Essential Duties and Responsibilities.

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

Education & Experience

• Bachelors in related field or 7-10 Years of related experience required
• Previous people management experience required
• Expertise in Syndicated Data, Panel Data, Loyalty Card Data required
• Ability to travel >25% in a given month

Skills / Abilities / Specialized Knowledge

• Incredible proficiency in all Microsoft Office Applications (especially Excel and PowerPoint)
• Retailer specific platforms (i.e. Gateways, dunnhumby/Luminate, 84.51 but not limited to)
• Knowledge of U.S. Retail Landscape

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities.

#LI-Hybrid