Senior Manager, Transaction Zone

Mars Wrigley Confectionery

Field-Based

Ideal Locations: Chicago, IL or Newark, NJ

This role is field-based and reports to the Transaction Zone Team Lead. Immediate Consumption (IC) sales typically occur at the point of transaction at the end of the shopping trip when the consumer is most primed for purchase. Changes in payment technology away from traditional, full-service checkouts have been eroding IC Sales at an accelerating pace in recent years.

This associate will play a critical role in providing fact and insight-based solutions that drive impulse categories for our retail partners and Mars Wrigley at the Front End.  This individual will serve as the primary insight and strategy development provider for our categories across small format customers leading to marketplace execution. This role will work closely with internal and external partners, such as checkout technology companies, rack manufacturers, retail designers, and other CPG companies.

What are we looking for?

• 5+ years of experience in Category Management, Sales Leadership, Retail Leadership or Consulting with previous experience in analytics, account management, and category leadership
• 2 years of CPG experience preferably with key strategic accounts
• 2 years of experience preferably with snacks, beverage, or other impulse categories
• Experience with In-Store Strategies and Tactics, Shopper Understanding and Category Leadership Expertise
• The knowledge, skills, and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a Bachelor's degree, or equivalent work experience
• Experience working with syndicated data software (i.e., IRI or Nielsen)
• Experience with promotional / non promotional strategy development
• Experience working with Microsoft Office programs specifically Excel and PowerPoint
• Strong communication, collaboration, and presentation skills
• Ability to manage cross functional/multi-task projects
• Ability to manage conflicting priorities and meet deadlines
• Ability to travel up to 25% of the time

What will be your key responsibilities?

• Create, build, and deploy a pro-active, consultative engagement plan with Small & Large Format customers on Transaction Zone design projects to execute solutions that balance shopper convenience, operational efficiency, and sales conversion. 
• Support the development of merchandising strategies to maintain or improve IC shopper conversion around new and evolving payment technology platforms.
• Engage with partners to develop an ecosystem of thought leadership and execution capability making Mars Wrigley the best-in-class partner in the US for Transaction Zone design.
• Build and maintain a leading-edge understanding of payment technology, retail design, shopping behavior, and other knowledge domains required to maintain an industry-leading perspective on all issues associated with shopper payment and merchandising solutions for IC products.
• This team must be able to work collaboratively with Sales partners in both Category Leadership and Customer teams. The associate must be able to adopt principles and learnings from one retail channel to others. Projects with customers will often require managing the confidentiality of internal customer data; discretion is critical.
• Finally, this role will be responsible for building and maintaining an ecosystem of external partners that will allow Mars Wrigley to build an industry-leading point of view on evolving payment technology and how to maintain IC merchandising as payment technology evolves.

What can you expect from Mars?

• Work with over 130,000 like-minded and talented Associates, all guided by The Five Principles.
• Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
• Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
• An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.