Senior Retailer Strategy Manager
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Work Setting: Hybrid
Employment Type: Full-time
Salary: CAD $92,600–$142,600 USD-equivalent base salary range as listed
Function: Retailer Strategy, Customer Strategy, Sales Strategy, Category Management, Trade Marketing, CPG
About the Role
The Senior Retailer Strategy Manager will develop differentiated omnichannel, e-commerce and customer strategies to drive business growth and financial performance across an assigned portfolio.
This role acts as the voice of the customer across business planning and execution, translating shopper, consumer, category, retailer and competitive insights into commercial recommendations. The position partners closely with Sales, Brand, Finance, Supply Chain, Demand Planning, Category Management and Customer Service to drive category growth, promotional effectiveness and successful new-product launches.
Key Responsibilities
- Represent the customer perspective within monthly integrated business planning, translating shopper, category, consumer, retailer and competitive insights into actionable commercial recommendations.
- Analyze customer POS data, market share trends, competitor activity and business performance against targets, bringing customer insights into S&OE and demand-planning forecasts.
- Lead short-term Retail, Innovation, Strategy and Execution planning to prioritize deliverables across a 0–3 month horizon.
- Drive in-year performance through gap closure, trade-spend optimization, promotional effectiveness, pricing, margin and category-growth initiatives.
- Evaluate trade investment and promotional ROI through post-event analysis and performance measurement.
- Lead cross-functional execution across Sales, Brand, Finance, Supply Chain, Demand Planning, Category, Customer Service and Project Management.
- Provide customer inputs into portfolio reviews and new-product planning, including distribution, trade funding, promotional strategy, availability and execution requirements.
- Develop and execute new-product launch plans, including retailer sell stories, sales enablement materials, launch toolkits, promotional guidance and objection handling.
- Build promotional, category-growth and omnichannel activation plans using Revenue Growth Management, trade fundamentals, e-commerce, digital shelf, retail media and Joint Business Planning principles.
- Translate brand and category priorities into customer-specific annual plans, sales toolkits, customer presentations, trade strategies and go-to-market plans.
- Support retailer line reviews, innovation sell-in, category-growth recommendations and customer-facing commercial presentations.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Business or a related field.
- 6+ years of relevant professional experience, including at least 3 years in direct Sales, Marketing, Customer Strategy or a related commercial function.
- Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to turn complex data into clear commercial recommendations.
- Experience working with shopper insights, customer POS data, competitive intelligence, market trends and commercial performance metrics.
- Strong understanding of consumer sales, Canadian retail channels, trade fundamentals, promotional planning, pricing, margin and ROI.
- Experience with forecasting, monthly volume reporting and business performance analysis.
- Ability to create compelling customer-facing presentations, retailer sell stories, launch materials and sales enablement tools.
- Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills and the ability to communicate sophisticated information concisely.
- Strong project management, prioritization, problem-solving and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders across multiple organizational levels and functions.
- Valid Canadian G driver’s licence.
Preferred Experience
- Experience within CPG, consumer goods, manufacturing or retail.
- Familiarity with NIQ, Numerator, Tableau, Power BI, syndicated data, customer portals or data visualization platforms.
- Experience with trade promotion, pricing, commercial finance, trade investment, promotional ROI, margin or P&L analysis.
- Experience developing customer-facing sell stories for retailer line reviews, innovation launches, Joint Business Planning and category growth.
- Knowledge of e-commerce, retail media, digital shelf metrics, online merchandising and omnichannel activation.
- Background in category management, shopper marketing, trade marketing, customer marketing, sales strategy or key account management.
- Experience across Canadian pharmacy, grocery, mass, club, discount or e-commerce channels.
- Professional fluency in English and French is a strong asset.
