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Director, Trade Operations
ConAgra
Chicago, IL, United States
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Conagra Brands has the most energized, highest-impact culture in food. Our people persistently challenge and disrupt marketplace/business conventions and we are respected for our great brands, great food, great margins and consistent results. Conagra Brands, be part of building something BIG.
Job Summary
As the Lead for Trade Operations, this individual will lead a team responsible for designing, developing and supporting sales applications and reporting tools to meet the strategic sales planning and trade management requirements of customer teams. As the strategic leader, this role serves to represent Field Sales by ensuring existing system technologies are being fully leveraged to optimize sales effectiveness and efficiency, while working with cross functional partners to identify new systems or processes to drive continuous improvement. This position interacts and collaborates heavily with Field Sales, Finance, Headquarter Sales, IT and other support teams through project work and day-to-day support of trade systems and reporting. This position also requires the people management and development of the Trade Operations team to ensure continued development of team members as well as succession planning to ensure continuity of system support.
Responsibilities:
• Day-to-Day User Support and Maintenance
◦ Assist sales force in resolving any issues with the Trade Management planning system
◦ Ongoing training for Trade systems (Trade Promotion Management - TPM, New Item Distribution Funding, Reporting, Deduction & Check Request tool, etc.)
◦ Engage in multiple tasks while simultaneously supporting production systems and reporting
◦ Integrate acquisitions into current business and system models, developing new capabilities based on business driven decisions
◦ Maintain day to day activities associated to maintenance of tools above
• Optimize Processes and Tools
◦ Professionally drive and challenge Sales teams on needs, assumptions, and expected outcomes through collaboration; working to develop and drive to one consistent process across the organization and minimizing customization
◦ Work closely with Sales teams to identify challenges or opportunities within existing sales and trade planning processes, systems and reporting tools
• Build Sales Planning Tool Capabilities
◦ Charts the course for the evolution of Sales Planning tool capabilities
◦ Stays abreast of the latest developments in sales planning and optimization tools. Seeks to integrate them within existing organizational capability where applicable
◦ Serve as liaison between field sales, business units and IT to determine the best trade systems solutions needed to serve the business. This includes gathering business requirements, assessing needs, analyzing gaps and alternatives to develop and automate the most effective and efficient solutions
◦ Support or lead existing projects in collaboration with IT and Sales teams by:
# Gathering and understanding business requirements
# Testing and validating end-to-end design internally and with customer base
# Transfer knowledge through training to all impacted parties
# Provide ongoing support for project implementation
• Develop the Support Team
◦ Recruits, hires and develops a team with collective expertise to manage all project, operational, tactical, and administrative elements of sales planning tool support within a highly collaborative environment
◦ Balance responsibilities to ensure continuous development for each individual with special thought given to succession planning to ensure support stability
Position Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA also a plus
• 8-10 years of business experience, including people management; 5+ years of Sales experience within Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry is strongly preferred
• Experience with enterprise systems, reporting or SAP is recommended
• Strong knowledge of cross-channel customer base, ideally with experience in sales planning
• Strong business, financial & analytical acumen to problem solve system issues, identify best practices and build long term systems strategy
• Demonstrate ability to build cross-functional relationships and influence individuals at higher levels within the organization to impact behaviors and outcomes.
• Demonstrate a track record of thinking in new and imaginative ways, challenging the status quo, driving continuous improvement, and effectively managing change.
• Proven success dealing with time-sensitive ambiguous issues in a dynamics business environment, driving towards resolution and progress with varying amounts and quality of information.
• Direct supervisory experience of employees and leading small teams.
Conagra Brands is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, pregnancy, leave status, disability, veteran status, genetic information and/or any other characteristic or status protected by national, federal, state or local law.