Cape Town

Position Purpose

The Head of Category and Customer is a senior leadership role responsible for delivering business growth through strategic category development, customer marketing, and revenue growth management. This role ensures that category, shopper, and pricing strategies are aligned to unlock profitable growth, deliver superior in-store execution, and maximize trade ROI across channels and customers.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute the overall Category, Customer, and RGM strategy in line with corporate and brand objectives.
• Drive collaboration between Marketing, Sales, Finance, and Supply Chain to deliver integrated commercial plans.
• Translate brand and business strategies into actionable shopper and trade programs.

Customer & Category Development

• Lead category growth strategies across key channels and customers using market, shopper, and consumer insights.
• Conduct category reviews and partner with retailers to shape assortment, shelving, and merchandising strategies.
• Collaborate with Marketing to create the annual Growth planning dialogue to present to Board members.
• Collaborate & Lead the Sales planning dialogue (SPD) with Sales to execute joint business plans with strategic customers.

Revenue Growth Management (RGM)

• Lead the development and execution of RGM strategies including pricing architecture, promotional strategy, pack-price mix, and channel/customer profitability.
• Optimize trade investment effectiveness through rigorous post-evaluation and ROI tracking.
• Analyze revenue drivers and recommend pricing, promotion, and assortment adjustments to improve margin and volume growth.
• Establish revenue growth KPIs and dashboards in collaboration with Finance and Sales teams.

Team Leadership

• Build and lead a high-performing team across trade marketing, shopper marketing, category management, and RGM functions.
• Inspire a data-driven and customer-centric culture, fostering continuous learning and performance development.

Budget & Performance Management

• Own the Customer and Trade Marketing budgets, ensuring alignment with financial targets and investment effectiveness.
• Lead the measurement and reporting of all trade and RGM initiatives with actionable insights and continuous improvement plans.

Innovation & Insights

• Leverage advanced analytics and shopper insights to drive innovation in promotions, trade tools, and shopper engagement.
• Keep ahead of market trends, channel evolution, and competitor strategies to inform growth initiatives.

Requirements

• Strategic Mindset & Strong Commercial Acumen
• Revenue Growth Optimization
• Strong Leadership & Cross-functional Collaboration
• Ability to adapt to a good and diverse working culture
• Category & Shopper Insight
• Analytical & Data-Driven Decision Making
• Trade Execution Excellence
• Change Management & Innovation
• Strong ability to manage Conflict 

Qualifications/experience 

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Business, Finance, or related field
• 6–8+ years in Trade Marketing, Category Management, or RGM, ideally within FMCG, Retail, or Consumer Goods.
• Strong commercial acumen with proven experience in revenue growth initiatives and trade spend optimization.
• Experience managing cross-functional teams and leading projects across multiple channels/customers.
• Advanced knowledge of data analytics tools (e.g., Nielsen, Circana, Power BI)

Please email cv and package requirements to marlene@servicesolutions.co.za

In line with our clients requirements a clear credit and criminal history applies