Job Description:
The Category Strategy & Process Excellence Lead is an execution-driven commercial role within the Central Europe MS&D department. This role is responsible for localizing regional category strategies, facilitating critical yearly processes for regional strategy deployment, and leading strategic coordination across key channels and accounts communities.
What will be your key responsibilities?
Category Vision & Category Strategy Lead (CE)
- Regional Collaboration: Act as the primary operational link between the CE cluster and regional category strategy teams, ensuring local market insights and shopper trends are integrated into regional planning.
- CE Localization: Drive the end-to-end localization of regional and global category visions to match the diverse retail structures and consumer behavior across Central Europe.
- Key Retail Partners Category Stories: Author and customize high-impact, persuasive category stories and shelf guidelines for key retail partners, providing local sales teams with the arguments needed to secure range and shelf space.
CE Lead for the regional strategy localization process
- Framework Localization: Own the localization and adaptation of the regional strategy framework for the Central Europe cluster.
- Market Workshop Facilitation: Design, organize, and facilitate interactive workshops and capability sessions with individual country markets to embed the regional strategy localization process into local business routines.
- Process Governance: Monitor process timelines, track deliverables, and support country-level commercial teams in maintaining the integrity and high execution standards of the regional framework.
Customer Community Facilitation for Central Europe
- Community Coordination: Champion and facilitate the cross-market customer Category Community in CE. Drive best-practice sharing, range optimization, and joint category plans across the cluster's customer account teams.
- Customer Process Navigation: Lead and facilitate category processes and strategic customer discussions for key priority accounts across CE markets. Ensure a unified brand positioning and coordinate customer-specific activation calendars.
- Regional Portfolio Coordination: Navigate the process and act as the primary coordinator with the regional team to align to manage portfolio catalogue listings and ensure cluster-wide alignment.
What are we looking for?
- Education: A university degree or equivalent higher education.
- English Skills: Fluent in English, both written and spoken.
- Experience: At least 5 years of experience, ideally in Category Management, Sales, Analytics, or Brand Management.
- Customer Focus (Must-Have): Practical experience in Sales (like a Key Account Manager role) or close cooperation with retail customers.
- Data Storytelling: A proven ability to turn customer insights into clear stories that drive action.
- Analytical Tools: Strong experience using sell-out data tools like Nielsen
What can you expect from Mars?
- Work with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles.
- Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
- Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
- An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.
Skills Required
- University degree or equivalent higher education
- Fluent English, written and spoken
- At least 5 years of experience, ideally in Category Management, Sales, Analytics, or Brand Management
- Practical experience in Sales, such as Key Account Management, or close cooperation with retail customers
- Proven ability to turn customer insights into clear stories that drive action
- Strong experience using sell-out data tools such as Nielsen
Mars Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Mars and has not been reviewed or approved by Mars.
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Healthcare Strength — The benefits package is positioned as comprehensive, with broad medical coverage and additional protections like life insurance and short- and long-term disability. Mental health support is emphasized, including free mental health services and wellbeing programming under initiatives such as Mars Be Well.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is highlighted as market-leading in the U.S., with an example of 18 weeks fully paid for both parents. Additional family-related leave types such as sick time for caregiving and bereavement leave are also described as part of the overall package.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings are described as strong, including 401(k) matching (with a 6% match cited) and pension plans in some cases. The broader package also references retirement savings options and contributions aligned to local market practice, supporting long-term financial security.
Mars Insights
What We Do
For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, ORBIT®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, SKITTLES®, WHISKAS®, COCOAVIA®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, Pet Partners™, and VCA™. We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive.
