Position Title:  (Senior) Manager Channel Development & Planning

Purpose of the Role

Part of the Commercial Operations leadership team, the Sr. Manager / Manager Channel Development & Planning enables all the human interface channels to perform at their best, ensuring effective planning, forecasting, reporting, capacity management, route-to-market (RTM) optimization. The incumbent is the key integrator between categories, the project-based organization (S&PD) and the channel deployment. The role is critical in guaranteeing the timely execution of the omni-channel commercial strategy, enabling the channel teams to focus mainly on consumers or on commercial partners, and supporting the Head of Commercial Operations in making informed strategic and operational decisions.

Core Accountabilities & Activities

• Enable channel effectiveness through planning, forecasting (including inventory, volume), capacity management, trade spend model application, reporting and performance management across all channels (Indirect Retail, Brand Retail, Multicategory Sales Experts, B2B Frontliners, B2C Customer Care)

• Participate in commercial programs, projects, and initiatives from idea generation to deployment planning, providing commercial omni-channel go-to-market (GTM) and route-to-market (RTM) expertise and driving ongoing optimization of channels capacity

• Translate the consolidated programs, projects, and initiatives requirements into a coordinated commercial deployment plan for each channel – the plan includes and integrates the go-to-market of new product launches, that are led by Indirect Retail/Trade Marketing for human-interface channels

• Ensure channel readiness to deliver omni-channel consumer experiences across all human-interface touchpoints, coordinating all the go-to-market activities (GTM), executed by different teams (incl. channels) but integrated into a single channel plan
• Set up and coordinate the Commercial Operations governance, ensuring consistent commercial execution across channels and geographies

• Optimize route-to-market (RTM) channel mix to drive commercial performance and effectiveness, providing clear recommendations to the Head of Commercial Operations and to the broader Commercial team

• Drive the development and the optimization of the human-interface channel footprint and activities to achieve short and long term financial and commercial goals and to improve channels performance, gathering the inputs of the channel leads

• Provide input for budget / forecast cycles to Finance, through the forecasting, planning, monitoring, and potential variances explanation for defined business KPIs for all the channels

Education & Experience Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in business, Management, Economics, Sales or a related field
• 10+ years commercial experience in Commercial (Channel and/or Field Force), Business Development, Finance or similar, preferably in multinational environment and at least 3+ years of experience in omnichannel environment
• At least 5+ years of leadership experience
• Experience in managing systems and processes in a fast-paced environment

Required Skills & Competencies

• Strong business and financial acumen
• Advanced strategic thinking and execution skills
• Strong analytical skills and ability to drive insights into action
• Strong presentation skills, comfortable speaking with all levels of external stakeholders and the organization
• Comfortable dealing with ambiguity, white space and unknown circumstances
• Strong collaborator to connect different departments
• A skilled leader in leading and developing diverse cross-functional teams is required
• Language skills: German and English fluent in spoken and written