POSITION OVERVIEW: Sr. Director I, Category Leadership – Large Store Portfolio Regional Accounts

We are seeking an experienced advisor to lead a customer-facing team of Category Directors within the North America Large Store portfolio for Coca-Cola. This role is integral to driving The Coca-Cola Commitment’s pledge of delivering actionable and relevant insights in our direct customer and industry partnerships. In this position, you will lead a team of associates with distinct account responsibilities, manage upward stakeholder relationships, and direct strategic decision-making. You will coach the team to build strong collaborative relationships internally and externally through effective problem-solving, prioritization, and a focus on maximizing our retailers’ beverage growth potential while creating value for Coca-Cola.

This role reports directly to the Senior Director II, Category Leadership in Large Stores.

What We Want You to Bring:

• Extensive knowledge of insights and effective use of data from Coca-Cola and broader industry syndicated and primary research sources.
• Strong track record of building trusting relationships externally and internally.
• Excellent active listening skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with a capability for storytelling.
• Creative and agile problem-solving skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity with customers and in a networked organization.
• Commitment to team success and curiosity, while prioritizing results.
• Demonstrated development skills and experience in people leadership or peer coaching, or mentorship.

Position Responsibilities:

• Lead a team to deliver independent and impactful category advocacy across the beverage portfolio.
• Influence customer senior executives to collaboratively build strategies & tactics for category growth.
• Partner with Sales Leads to be an indispensable category resource for retailers.
• Provide coaching to the team with a bias for continuous improvement and excellence.
• Key deliverables include opportunity assessment, beverage strategy development as part of a category blueprint, shopper insights, and assortment recommendations.

Key Focus Areas:

Strategic Thinking and Strategy Development:

• Lead opportunity assessment of annual business planning processes to drive a relevant category strategy that will win in the marketplace.
• Deliver objective total store and beverage solutions with differentiated and actionable insights.
• Provide leadership and stewardship for retailer’s beverage categories (Sparkling, Still, and Nutrition).

Networked Communication and Alignment:

• Report business successes and barriers to Large Store Portfolio Category Lead with proposed next steps and solutions.
• Proactively share updates on key industry news and insights with cross-functional leadership.

Team Growth:

• Recruit, develop, and inspire a category team to deliver effective category growth recommendations focused on customers’ needs and strategic priorities.
• Develop solid working relationships with customer category management and leadership teams, as well as Coca-Cola bottlers, to drive mutual win execution.
• Cultivate independent and influential relationships within retailer’s organizations.

Education & Experience:

• Minimum Required:
  • 8+ years in the CPG Industry
  • Senior level experience within the consumer goods/beverages industry
  • Strong knowledge of category management principles and analytic techniques.
  • Bachelor’s degree
• Preferred:
  • 10+ years in the CPG Industry
  • Direct team management experience or substantive matrixed project leadership
  • MBA or other graduate degree
  • Experience across multiple disciplines beyond category management (Shopper Insights, Revenue Growth Management, etc.)

Skills:

• Demonstrated reputation for high customer engagement that drives business results
• Success in managing and prioritizing multiple customers, projects, and stakeholders
• Ability to link category leadership strategies to customer strategies
• Advanced analytical capability with the ability to draw insights and actions from data
• Strong working knowledge of syndicated data (Nielsen, Circana)
• Strategic thinking, forward-looking, and time-conscious planning skills
• Proven oral and written communication, storytelling, and influencing skills

Travel: 30-40%

Location: Atlanta AOC or other USA office - Dallas (Plano), Irvine, Bloomington (Minnesota), Chicago (Nutrition/Fairlife), Cincinnati, NY (BASN), Rogers (Walmart), Nashville.

Job Code: 30017651

Skills:

Social Media; Key Performance Indicators (KPI); Digital Advertising; Category Management; Branding; Demand Generation; Quantitative Research; Marketing Strategies; Channels Strategy; Customer Insights; Market Segmentation; Qualitative Research; Microsoft Office; Strategy Development; Commercialization StrategiesPDN-9ee80487-427b-49a9-a616-0fa11b1718ff