The posting
Associate Manager, Planning and Insights
Location: Schaumburg, IL | Full-time | Hybrid
Department: Sales
Reports to Title: Associate Director, Planning and Insights
What You'll Do
Join our Sales team as an Associate Manager, Planning & Insights, where you’ll play a key role in bringing commercial initiatives from concept to market. You’ll partner across Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, and Revenue Management to drive successful execution while turning category, shopper, and customer data into actionable insights that help shape business decisions.
- Bring new ideas to market by helping lead commercialization of innovation, new products, and customer programs from concept through launch.
- Be the voice of Sales on cross-functional initiatives, partnering with Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, and Revenue Management to turn plans into successful execution.
- Drive commercial projects forward by managing timelines, milestones, dependencies, and priorities while identifying risks and helping remove roadblocks.
- Turn data into business opportunities using Circana, Numerator, customer POS, shopper, and category data to uncover actionable insights and recommendations.
- Shape customer strategies across assortment, shelving, pricing, promotion, and distribution to support growth and stronger marketplace execution.
- Build compelling, fact-based selling stories and customer presentations that translate complex information into clear recommendations.
- Help shape annual and customer planning by supporting AOP, trade planning, commercialization priorities, and key customer initiatives.
- Create tools that make Sales more effective, including launch toolkits, planning templates, trackers, sell-in materials, and other scalable resources.
- Influence across the organization by building strong relationships, aligning stakeholders, and driving accountability without direct reporting authority.
What You’ll Bring
Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Supply Chain, Analytics, Economics, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
- 4–7 years of relevant experience in Sales Planning, Commercial Operations, Trade Marketing, Customer Planning, Project Management, Category Management, Shopper Insights, or a related commercial function.
- Experience working with Circana, Numerator, customer point-of-sale data, syndicated data, or comparable category/shopper data sources.
- Experience partnering cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Revenue Management, and Supply Chain or related commercial teams.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and competing deadlines, identify execution risks, and deliver high-quality work.
- Experience developing commercialization plans, launch materials, customer presentations, AOP deliverables, business analyses, or similar commercial planning materials.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate data into actionable business recommendations.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
- Strong communication, presentation, organization, and project-management skills, including the ability to influence stakeholders without direct reporting authority.
Preferred
- Consumer packaged goods (CPG) experience.
- Experience with Power BI or comparable business-intelligence platforms.
- Experience with project-management tools.
- Working knowledge of category management principles, including assortment, shelving, pricing, promotion, and distribution.
What Success Looks Like
Sales Planning
- On-time and on-budget delivery of commercial initiatives through the Stage Gate process from inception through in-store execution.
- Quality, completeness, and adoption of Sales Planning support materials — launch toolkits, sell-in decks, and AOP templates — by the Sales team.
- Milestone adherence and commercialization scorecard performance across Innovation, Programs, and AOP initiatives.
- Contribution to incremental gross and net sales through effective planning and flawless commercialization execution.
- Recognition by Sales, Marketing, and Supply Chain stakeholders as a reliable, organized, and proactive commercial planning partner.
Sales Insights
- Timely delivery of accurate, decision-ready category analyses and customer presentations in support of assigned Line Reviews and selling stories.
- Adoption of category recommendations by Sales teams and assigned customers, contributing to distribution, assortment productivity, and shelf presence improvements.
What We Offer
Compensation: The annual salary range for this position is $85,000 - $110,000 per year. This position is not eligible for overtime pay.
Actual compensation may vary based on relevant experience, skills, education, internal equity, market data, and geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by law.
Bonus Eligibility: This position is eligible to participate in Mizkan’s Short-Term Incentive Plan.
Benefits: Mizkan offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, paid time off and company holidays, life and disability insurance, 401(k) with up to 4% company match, profit sharing, wellness programs, education assistance, and employee referral bonuses. Benefits eligibility and plan provisions are subject to the terms of the applicable benefit plans.
Why Join Mizkan America? Mizkan America is part of a global, family-owned company that has been Bringing Flavor to Life™ for more than 220 years. Our portfolio includes well-known brands such as RAGÚ®, BERTOLLI®, HOLLAND HOUSE®, NAKANO®, MIZKAN®, ZING ZANG® and BORN SIMPLE®.
We offer the resources of a leading food company with the agility to move quickly, take ownership, and make a visible impact. You’ll have opportunities to grow, challenge the status quo, and help shape what’s next.
Ready to Join Us?
Ready to bring your talents to a company where your work makes an impact? Apply today and help us bring flavor to life!
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