Nigeria Customer Strategy and Planning Manager BWPC at Unilever

Exciting Career Opportunity: Nigeria Customer Strategy and Planning Manager BWPC at Unilever

Are you a commercially driven strategist with a passion for consumer goods? Do you excel at translating shopper insights into winning market strategies? Unilever, one of the world’s most successful and trusted consumer goods companies, is seeking a highly analytical and dynamic Customer Strategy and Planning (CSP) Manager to lead growth across their Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care (BWPC) portfolio in Nigeria.

Unilever’s brands are household names across the globe and within Nigeria. From personal care essentials like Lux and Pears to home care favorites like Omo and Sunlight, and nutritious food staples like Knorr and Lipton, Unilever products are designed to make daily life better. The company achieves its outstanding success by combining deep local market knowledge with world-class international business expertise. Crucially, Unilever measures its success not just by financial metrics, but by the positive impact it makes on employees, consumers, and the environment.

About the Role

As the Customer Strategy & Planning (CSP) Manager for the BWPC portfolio, you will occupy a pivotal position within Unilever’s commercial engine. Your primary focus will be to drive category growth and channel excellence across Nigeria. You will act as the strategic bridge between Customer Development (Sales), Brand, Category, and Supply Chain teams, ensuring that shopper and customer perspectives are at the heart of every key business decision.

Key Responsibilities

The CSP Manager will take ownership of several critical business areas designed to optimize market execution and revenue growth:

• Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP): You will lead the consolidation of Customer Development inputs into the S&OP process, owning monthly and quarterly business performance. By leveraging market insights, you will champion customer perspectives in forecasting and demand planning to improve accuracy.
• Channel & Category Strategy Development: You will design and execute robust category strategies to meet annual business targets. Partnering closely with Brand and Category teams, you will ensure channel priorities are fully integrated into plans and seek out untapped growth avenues across traditional trade, modern trade, e-commerce, and emerging channels.
• Innovation & Project Management: You will provide valuable customer-centric insights early in the innovation funnel, ensuring that product launches are optimized for flawless in-market execution, including appropriate pricing, assortment, merchandising, and visibility.
• Integrated Business Planning (IBP): You will represent channel and customer needs during IBP discussions, contributing critical intelligence regarding trade margins, pricing models, and category growth opportunities.
• Net Revenue Management (NRM) & Trade Investment: You will steer conversations around profitable growth by optimizing the product mix (packs, SKUs, channels, and customers) and ensuring efficient allocation of trade investment budgets.
• Category Leadership: You will create blueprints for traditional, modern, and digital channels of the future, helping the business successfully navigate shifting consumer habits.

Required Qualifications and Experience

To succeed in this challenging yet rewarding role, candidates should possess the following profile:

• Education: A Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing, Commerce, or a closely related discipline.
• Experience: A minimum of 7 years of progressive experience within Sales, Marketing, Customer Development, Trade Marketing, Category Management, or Customer Strategy & Planning.
• Key Capabilities: Strong expertise in Category Management (CATMAN), Shopper Marketing, and Net Revenue Management (NRM) processes.
• Analytical & Financial Acumen: Excellent commercial skills with a proven track record of using data-driven insights to drive commercial performance.
• Leadership: Outstanding stakeholder management, influencing skills, and proven people management experience in complex commercial environments.

Why Work at Unilever?

Unilever is a purpose-led business that fosters continuous learning, innovation, and career development. Joining Unilever Nigeria means joining a collaborative, diverse environment where fresh ideas are welcomed, performance is rewarded, and corporate responsibility is an everyday reality.

Method of Application:
Interested and qualified? Go to Unilever on careers.unilever.com to apply