UNFI plays a crucial role in making sure families across the U.S. and Canada continue to have access to food during the COVID-19 crisis. In March, we hired over 1,000 people to meet the greater demand for our products. Hiring continues today for 1,000 more warehouse workers and drivers. We’re proud to welcome our new team members who have joined us to help make a difference in our communities. Building Better. We’re hiring at locations all across the country NOW. Deliver what matters most to communities in need right now – food and supplies.

Providence, RI

$160,400 – $259,500 a year – Full-time

Full Job Description

Purpose: The Vice President Brand Management is responsible for elevating, strengthening, and expanding our brands strategies, brand marketing and innovation strategies to enable growth and focused decision-making. This role will be responsible for enabling “winning Private Brands programs and plans” through developing a clear portfolio strategy, compelling brand strategies, inspiring brand stories that are in line with company objectives and Brands+ ambition and goals. As a key leader on the Brands operating team, this role is responsible for creating a high-performing culture through people-focused leadership and will have oversight to the brands management, creative and consumer insights teams

Job Responsibilities:

Strategy & Planning (20%):

• Drives the growth of the portfolio via differentiated brand marketing and omnichannel strategies
• Develops and grows the LT portfolio and brand strategies in alignment with the company’s long-range plan, business objectives and operating team collaboration (i.e., Path to $2B).
• Defines clear portfolio strategies (“where to play”) prioritizing key categories and mega brands that will lead our growth agenda
• Leads annual planning, 3-year strategic planning, and brand planning calendars, including budget management and performance reporting to accelerate growth in key regions/ channels of distribution
• Evaluate brand strategies, including brand positioning, consumer and competitive targets, pricing, and execution requirements to deliver performance goals. Recommends opportunities to leadership.
• Leads the portfolio innovation strategy and pipeline, leaning in on market insights, consumer trends and customer insights to lead the strategy and plans.
• Working in collaboration with cross-functional and external partners, the Sr. Director/VP is accountable to deliver margin and profitability goals with oversight of the portfolio P&L
• Responsible for crafting, stewarding, and disseminating the Brands+ story/narrative to internal and external stakeholders

Brand Strategy Execution (35%)

• Leads the Annual Business Plan for Brands+, inclusive of brand plans and the innovation plan for B+
• Creates and oversees the execution of annual brand plans
• Drives execution against business and financial objectives
• Identifies key performance indicators for brands portfolio
• Creates guidelines to measure new products and programs against prior to implementation
• Develops an innovation to market process in partnership with the Operating Team
• Collaborates, sets and monitors 2-year new product pipeline including line extensions (category expanders), emerging categories and frontier innovation in partnership with Product Development and Product Business Management leadership 35% POSITION DESCRIPTION 2 Revised 11.2021
• Develop differentiated creative and promotional strategies to expand opportunities, capitalizing on consumer trends and brand permissions
• Influence key functional partners in the development and delivery of key brand strategies through integrated planning processes, with successful in-market execution
• Build business opportunities in partnership with the Commercial teams, Sales, the regions, and key retail partners
• Champion the ideation, development, and launch of new products

Brand Marketing (10%)

Leads brand marketing disciplines, including brand management, integrated marketing, insights, and innovation to enhance brand equity, including category and brand business plans with full P&L; consumer loyalty; customer relationships; marketing communications (print, digital, social, PR, events); and analytics

• Build innovative marketing strategies that support the brand’s strategic imperatives to drive growth, market share expansion, and consumer engagement
• Ensure effective and efficient translation of brand/marketing strategies, including digital, into consumer activation plans, packaging design, and partners with Sales Operations to build compelling selling materials

Insights & Analytics (15%)

• Grow the insights and analytics function within the Brands+ Team to further understand the market and product trends and other research.
• Leverage insights to help better the overall brands strategy, to gain deeper consumer and customer insights, and to strengthen the sell strategy.
• Supports B+ specific customer RFP, pitches, and sell stories to ensure compelling recommendations that positively impact the (1) Category (2) customer (3) UNFI are delivered.

Leadership (20%)

Serve as a key member of the Brands+ operating team and leader within Brands+

• Provides leadership that enables a high-performing culture
• Energize and motivate the organization around both near-term priorities and long-term strategies
• Create a culture of collaboration and trust across a broad and complex cross-functional team.
• Act as a role model for working across segment, functions, and teams. Grow, coach, and develop the Brand Management, Brand Marketing, and Insights teams
• Ensure the team has the capabilities required to deliver the business strategy while providing challenging and aspirational career growth for individual team members

Job Requirements:

Education/ Certifications/or Equivalent combination of education training and experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing or related field required; MBA strongly preferred

Experience:

• 10-15 years of marketing experience, with experience in increasing roles of leadership and responsibility within CPG Brand management, food & beverage industry experience, Private Brand Experience preferred
• Proven experience turning ideas into action and tracking ROI or P&L Impact

Knowledge/ Skills/ Abilities:

• Strong leadership ability and experience developing and leading marketing and brand professionals.
• Proven ability to build “winning plan” and deliver results through deep analytics, insights and data.
• Experience developing, implementing and/or measuring effectiveness of product and/or digital innovations.
• Experience leading innovation-to-market processes and teams.
• Ability to understand and think strategically; ability to execute plans and programs that drive profitable sales.
• Experience integrating and balancing big-picture concerns with day-to-day activities.
• Evaluates and pursues initiatives, investments, and opportunities based on their fit with broader strategies.
• A curious leader, “outside-in” mindset, leaning on learnings from the market, competitive set and adjacent industries to build effective strategies and plans
• Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills – exceptional power-point storytelling skills
• Promotes teamwork and works to remove barriers to collaboration.
• Understands and interpret financial results and analysis and develop appropriate recommendations.
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment across all levels; can thrive in a complicated, fast-paced matrix environment.
• Champions new ideas and initiatives and creates an environment that supports innovation; leverages fresh perspectives, breakthrough ideas, and new paradigms to create value in the market. Leads calculated risk-taking opportunities.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT/ DEMANDS:

• Some travel may be required
• Most work is performed in a temperature-controlled at-home or office environment
• Incumbent may sit for long periods of time at desk or computer terminal
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.
• Incumbent may use calculators, keyboards, telephone, and other office equipment in the course of normal workday
• Stooping, bending, twisting, and reaching may be required in completion of job duties

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature of the work performed by the employees assigned to this job. All employees must comply with Company policy and applicable laws. The responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified may vary within each department and/or location.