Commercialization Director - Central

What makes this a great opportunity?

Suntory Global Spirits is a world leader in premium spirits with $5.5 billion in annual revenues and an ambition to become the World’s Most Admired Premium Spirits Company. We have a strong vision and strategy, an incredible brand portfolio grounded in quality and craftsmanship, an unwavering commitment to sustainability and top talent across the organization. We are focused on driving value across key priorities including American whiskey, Japanese Spirits, Scotch, Tequila and Ready-to-Drink. Headquartered in New York City, Suntory Global Spirits is a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings, which is world renowned for delivering quality and excellence across a range of products and categories.

Unlike a traditional Commercial Planning leader, this position owns the Commercial Operating System for a Regional business unit within the U.S. business that will feed into the holistic planning process and performance management led by Commercial Excellence (CommEx) Operations. It integrates planning, forecasting, execution, analytics, governance, and performance management into one standardized approach that enables each Business Unit to operate with greater consistency, accountability, and speed.
The success of this role should be reflected not only in stronger business performance, but in a Commercial organization that plans better, forecasts more accurately, measures performance consistently, executes with greater discipline, accelerates share growth, and strengthens commercial decision making.

Role Responsibilities

Commercial Planning at region, market, and customer levels

Lead the annual and monthly commercial planning process across the Regional organization.
• Support Commercial Finance in developing annual depletion targets and monthly phasing and develop differentiated market targets based on:
o Market consumption trends
o Population migration
o Legal Drinking Age (LDA) population growth
o Market opportunity
• Support U.S. Brand and CommEx to align on:
o Commercial building blocks
o Customer investments
o Market investment priorities
o Innovation allocations
o Allocated high-value SKU’s
• Support Finance and CommEx to ensure consistent planning methodology across Region.
• Lead monthly commercial planning reviews for regions.

Forecasting & Demand Planning
Own the Region commercial demand forecasting process to improve forecast accuracy and business predictability.
• Align Commercial with Supply Chain and Finance on one demand forecast by embedding statistical forecasting into commercial demand planning.
• Support Digital & Technology to enhance Anaplan forecasting capabilities.
• Improve forecast accuracy through predictive analytics.
• Support monthly forecast reviews and help identify forecast, or phasing, risks.

Share Performance Management
Support an enterprise share management process that shifts the organization from measuring share to actively growing share.
• Support the Analytics team to build predictive share forecasting models for Nielsen (Open States) & NABCA (Control States).
• Develop annual share plans focused on moving forecasted share decline into sustainable share growth.
• Prioritize the Customers, State, and Brands representing approximately 80% of Retail Sales Value.
• Drive specific commercial strategies focused on key must win share battles.
• Lead monthly Share Performance Reviews with Commercial Leadership.

Commercial Execution
Implement standardized execution planning and performance measurement across the Region in partnership with CommEx Operations.
• Support the Commercial Planning and Strategy teams to establish equitable sprint period and annual execution objectives and quantify the incremental commercial value.
• Collaborate with D&T and CommEx Operations on optimizing enterprise performance management tools including Commercial Scorecards, Leaderboards, KPI Dashboards, Annual SIP Performance Tracker.
• Execution focus areas include Distribution, Displays, Point of Distribution (POD), Cold Box, Menu Placement, Point of Sale Materials

Opportunity Identification
Support cross-functional teams to drive data-led opportunity identification and development of commercial growth plans.
• Partner on annual Commercial Growth Plans identifying opportunities by Customer, State, Market, Category, Segment, Price Tier, Brand, Variant, Package Size.
• Partner cross-functionally with CommEx Operations, Commercial Strategy, Finance, Brand Marketing, Channel & Category Development, and Sales Leadership
• Translate insights into actionable commercial priorities.

Commercial Leadership & Governance
Partner with the Sr. Director, Commercialization to lead the operating cadence that keeps the Commercial organization aligned, informed, and accountable.
• Participate in the weekly Commercial Leadership meeting.
• Contribute to agendas focused on priorities, decisions and execution.
• Coordinate cross-functional communication.
• Manage Monthly Business Reviews.
• Publish Mid-Month and End-of-Month Depletion Updates and Commentary.
• Deliver Commercial performance updates to Commercial Leadership.
• Drive governance around planning, reporting and commercial accountability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• 5-10 years’ experience in the Spirits, Beer, RTD alcohol categories, with deep understanding of its route-to-market dynamics.
• Demonstrated track record of developing and executing commercial strategies that drive growth and market share.
• Strong experience working with third-party distributors and managing senior-level trade relationships.
• Experience operating in a matrixed organization, effectively managing internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience balancing strategic planning with hands-on execution in high-growth or entrepreneurial environments.
Demonstratable Leadership Skills
• Engagement – dynamic individual with the ability to build trust quickly and communicate a strategy.
• Influence – ability to guide key stakeholders who potentially have competing agendas, focus on gaining alignment, not agreement
• Negotiation – engaging in a dialogue designed to drive an outcome which satisfies various interests.
• Prioritization – effectively identifies and communicates high value opportunities
• Simplification – minimizes low value activities to maximize effectiveness and impact of their team.
• Collaboration – experience managing projects or initiatives across multiple functions.
• Orchestration – proven track record of coordinating a group of individuals around a shared ambition and holding them accountable for performance.

The salary range for this role is $170,000- $200,000 along with an annual bonus, 401K match, profit sharing, and medical and wellness benefits. The salary range is commensurate with the candidate’s location, experience, and skillset. The range will vary if outside of this location.