This is a key position that leads the end-to-end cycle of System Revenue/Volume Planning, pricing architecture, customer retail strategies, trade spend/TPO initiatives, performance management, and customer gap-solving recommendations. The position will have significant exposure and influence with both internal and external leaders including Sales leadership, Customers, Franchise bottlers, Brand teams and cross-functional partners while leading multiple leadership routines to gain alignment on Customer Retail Strategies, Pricing, Trade spend, and Governance.

POSITION PURPOSE:

• Leads development and creation of optimized customer annual price package plans leveraging retailer realities and TPO insights
• Leads customer-level contingency actions and gap-solving to ensure delivery of annual plan and customer JBP
• Partners with Sales Leadership & Finance on determining incremental trade investments and pricing exception requests for account base
• Provides input to Finance Forecast team on mid to long-range implications, CCF/Checkbook deployment, TPO, and guidance on key promotional events
• Franchise Leadership role in gaining alignment for price/package/promotion plans

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Lead Customer Annual Planning Process:

• Stewardship of population of forecasting and Joint Business Planning models - work with Sales leads to ensure that customer plans meet overall category goals (volume and gross
• profit) and are consistent with price architecture guardrails & retailer profitability metrics
• Connection point with Business Planning Center of Excellence on inputs & direction for the
• development of Customer Plan
• Linkage with Trade Spend Optimization -- Ensure that Customer Collaboration Fund spend requirements are met and that event optimization guidance is reflected in Customer plans
• Partner with Sales leadership on all multi-year / strategic customer planning - inclusive of non-price value-added initiatives

Pricing & Trade Spend Stewardship:

• Develops the pricing architecture, and leads the stewardship and submission to the bottling
• system.
• Evaluation of all price exception requests from within account base - accountable for conducting standardized Center of Excellence directed analysis upon each event and determining business impact vs. plan for customer & implications within broader marketplace
• Partner with finance & sales leadership on determining incremental trade investment decisions that are within Customer Collaboration Fund $ allotment and within pricing guardrails
• Partner with the OBPPC team and finance on submission of any exception requests that exceed tradespend $ budget OR violate pricing guardrails. Collaborates with bottling system and customer teams to present rationale during the approval process.

Stewardship of Customer Performance Management Routine:

• Steward all management routine requirements for the account leadership team - Inclusive of interpretation of weekly standard reports, development of monthly stewardship sessions, and quarterly / trimester business reviews.
• Scope of responsibility includes all relevant internal & syndicated marketplace data systems - Internal sales reporting tools (volume, pricing, gross profit), Nielsen, Ad view, customer-specific systems.
• Responsible for conducting all gap vs. plan analysis against volume, pricing & gross profit opportunities.
• Provides perspective on pricing & promotional ideas for closing gap vs. plan - develops fact-based evaluation of business impact for contingencies & gap solves
• Provides account leadership team perspective and analysis on competitive activity & position within the account.
• Coordination of all management routines & reporting needs with the Business Planning & Performance Management Center of Excellence

Provide Guidance on Customer Forecast & Checkbook

• Provides perspective and analysis to account managers on key holiday activities or special promotional events to better inform near-term forecast (within a 13-week horizon)
• Provides an objective and fact-based perspective on mid to long-range (beyond 13-week horizon) business trends (inclusive of gap solves & new item launches) and implications on forecast guidance.
• Evaluates full year Customer Collaboration fund checkbook balance - ensuring accuracy in capturing events spend levels; provides perspective back to sales leadership team on most effective means of deploying Customer Collaboration Fund $'s to maximize performance vs category goals.

Requirements

EDUCATION:

• Minimum Required: Bachelor's degree
• Preferred Level: MBA or other graduate degree

EXPERIENCE:

Minimum Required:

• 3- 5 years experience, preferably in the consumer goods/beverages industry

• Experience in developing business plans/business cases; strategic thinking (forward looking vision and anticipating future needs)
• Experience and comfort working directly with customers
• Experience and comfort working in Microsoft Excel, and highly proficient in analytical modeling, pivot tables, and Excel advanced formulas
• Experienced in developing Pricing & Promotion structures
• Experience and comfort working directly with senior leaders; aligning senior execs w/
• differing perspectives
• Collaborating with customer teams and other key internal/external stakeholders; effective in influencing a wide variety of stakeholders
• Effectively communicates & builds relationships at all organizational levels

Preferred Level:

• 8 -10 years experience, preferably in the consumer goods/beverages industry
• Large Regional or National Customer Team Planning
• Customer/Sales management experience
• Region/Business Unit Planning experience
• Influencing Independent Bottler Decisions

SKILLS:

Minimum Required:

• Strong analytical skills - ability to draw insights and actions from data; ability to develop volumetric & financial models that can accommodate multiple inputs from diverse data sources and be used for scenario planning
• Extensive experience with price/package/promotion plan development & analytics
• Ability to lead complex analytical exercises/projects that lead to actionable direction within the marketplace
• Working knowledge of key data systems: planning tools (e.g. Anaplan/CAPS/RPA/CPA tool), syndicated marketplace information & data (e.g., Nielsen); forecasting systems; internal financial & sales reporting; internal performance management & execution metrics (e.g. Curio, TPO, SOVI)

Preferred Level:

• Experience developing and managing trade management programs
• Deep knowledge & experience base with core Coca-Cola data systems: planning tools (e.g. Anaplan/CAPS/RPA), syndicated marketplace information & data (e.g., Nielsen); forecasting systems; internal financial & sales reporting; internal performance management & execution metrics (e.g. Curio. TPO, SOVI)

Skills:Agile Methodology; Leadership; Group Problem Solving; Strategic Thinking; Business Analytics; Communication; Business Processes; Project Management; Storytelling; Data Management; Data Modeling; Financial Forecasting