Director, Commercial Category Strategy

The role:

In this role, you are a senior commercial leader. You lead Category Strategy & Revenue Growth Management (RGM), shaping enterprise-wide category, portfolio, and pricing strategies. These strategies aim to deliver profitable and sustainable growth.

You will drive an integrated approach to category leadership, customer strategy, pricing, trade investment, and innovation influence. This approach will have a strong focus on incrementality and long-term value creation across Win In Skin brands in the US.

At Kao, we offer amazing benefits that are available to you on your first day of employment (healthcare, 401(k) plus company match), 36 total days off (vacation and holidays and sick) and a competitive salary range of $210,000 - $250,000. We also offer a hybrid work schedule.

What you will do:

Lead US Win in Skin Category Growth Team

• Build out US Category Management capability, including category management personnel leading captainship at Walmart
• Develop and implement a robust best-in-class product, channel, and category strategy for the US Win in Skin. This strategy should include a clear road map for our portfolio spanning 1-3 years. To drive market share, category growth, and consumer penetration, utilize brand guidelines and NPD plans/strategy from global teams across all brands.
• Lead the development of category strategy for the US in Skin Enhancement areas, such as UV, Safe Color and Sunless. This involves uniting all Kao relevant brands in the determined category. Collaborate with the AEMEA Global Skincare team on Skin Enhancement areas, such as UV, Safe Color, Sunless, and TBD, to drive best go-to-market execution.

Strategic Category Leadership & Growth Enablement

• In collaboration with sales, marketing and commercial leadership, craft bespoke retailer stories for our brands within the physical retailer categories, and prioritize and safeguard category captain thought leadership.
• Develop and execute long-term growth strategies that drive revenue expansion in line with K27 plans for the US

Revenue Growth Management (RGM)

• Evaluate Brand Identified opportunities and recommend new channel strategies for our brands to enter.
• Design and execute enterprise-wide pricing, pack architecture, and trade investment strategies to maximize net revenue realization.
• Build frameworks to evaluate promotional effectiveness and drive incremental, profitable growth.

Incrementality & Performance Management

• Establish KPIs and dashboards to measure incremental growth across product, channel, and customer dimensions.
• Champion advanced analytics and scenario planning to improve decision-making and forecast accuracy.
• Partner with Finance to model profitability, ROI, and long-term value creation of strategic initiatives.

What you will need:

• Bachelor's Degree required
• 15+ years of progressive experience in consumer goods sales, brand or retail, with at least 5 years leading Category Strategy and/or RGM functions
• Prefer background working in commercial management, brand marketing, digital marketing, or sales
• Strategic and analytical thinking with understanding of consumer goods, category management, and RGM levers*
• Proficiency in advanced analytics, financial modeling, and trade optimization tools to develop department strengths across each

How we work: Having been selected among the World's Most Ethical Companies for 19 consecutive years, we are a company with a purpose and strong corporate values. We never compromise on quality and create our products with care for the consumer and the environment. At Kao, each employee can actively shape their job and their career. We work collaboratively to achieve our common goals, always aiming to deliver the best for our customers.

What we offer: A friendly and flexible work environment with great compensation packages, benefits package, ongoing development and the opportunity to enhance your skills and deliver tangible results. At Kao your voice will be heard. Your opinion really counts. We believe that change comes from taking opportunities into your own hands, so we value and reward entrepreneurial thinking and innovation.

Hiring Process: Kao embraces the diversity and the individual personalities of its people because we believe it is diversity that makes us strong. This is why we welcome applications from all areas of the global community.

Want to learn more? If you feel you are as unique as our products and want to find out why 33,000 people across the globe opted for a career with us, please visit our Americas website. The website is https://www.kao.com/americas/en/.

Kao USA is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disabled and veterans.

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