National Strategic Merchandising Manager

At Lindt, we are a global fast-growing consumer goods company, enchanting the world with premium chocolate. We are driven by our passion for excellence and go the extra mile ensuring that every Lindt experience is nothing short of exceptional. Our collective efforts are geared towards making a positive impact, not only in the world of premium chocolate but also in the lives of our employees, customers, and communities. Our company embraces a culture defined by the core values of Excellence, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Responsibility, and Collaboration, fostering a dynamic and collaborative environment where these principles drive our success.

Position Purpose:

The individual in this position is responsible for: developing and maintaining senior level third-party solution partnerships, achieving and/or exceeding projected sales goals, resource allocation and deployment, business-critical KPI development, data mining and reporting budget management and ROI analysis. Additionally, this person will achieve a trusted advisor status and ensure that NAM/NBM/RBM merchandising needs and sales productivity goals are met, while striving to optimize efficiencies and profitability for Lindt & Sprungli USA.

Essential Job Functions & Responsibilities:

• Develop, motivate, manage, and maintain an effective multi-market agency partnership (third party/3P) to optimize the company's competitive position at store-level; continually source new selling opportunities in an effort to achieve or exceed sales plan, all while ensuring in-store excellence and on-shelf product availability
• Ensure that retailer/channel expectations are identified and met, all without compromising the established/defined L&S market channel strategy; market and sell products appropriate to the channel, as defined within strategy guidelines
• Responsible for executing vs. short/long term strategic/tactical objectives that fully support brand-positioning strategies.
• Align with category management and shopper marketing teams to execute G-T-M Strategy and develop innovative POS and display solutions
• KPI development and tracking. Data synthesis across multiple 3P's.
• Consistently achieve sales goals while operating within allocated budget guidelines
• Plan and execute against annual resource allocation on a by-retailer, by-program basis
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the L&S portfolio in order to optimize in-store efforts and enable fact-based selling; stay current with new product initiatives, support programs, etc...to leverage w/ top retailers
• Identify and accurately/timely report competitive activity.

Experience:

• 5+ Years field sales merchandising
• 3+ Years customer management experience across MASS, DRUG, GROCERY, COT'S
• 3+ Years of 3P management experience
• Experience in Category Management and use of consumer and shopper insight

Skills & Knowledge:

• Excellent verbal, written and formal presentation skills
• Strong interpersonal and fact-based selling skills
• Proven ability to analyze, identify key trends in and communicate actionable web data
• Ability to develop accurate dynamic scheduling (converting data taking budget into account for optimized routing purposes).
• Up to 20% domestic travel

Education:

• B.S. required/Master's preferred.