Regional Category Marketing Lead

Function: UFS - Marketing

Scope: Regional – Southeast Asia (SEA)

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Terms & Conditions: Full Time

JOB PURPOSE

This role exists to turn insight into innovation, strengthening our winning portfolio of products in UFS while building a future proof set of solutions for chefs in Southeast Asia. You’ll be part of a team that believes in doing work that matters — for people and the planet.

Because here, we don’t just hire for jobs. We invite you to be part of something bigger.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the end‑to‑end regional innovation pipeline, from opportunity identification to launch, ensuring projects are on time, in full, and aligned with Southeast Asia growth priorities.

• Develop and own the Southeast Asia Category Portfolio Strategy, defining portfolio roles, pricing guardrails, renovation priorities, and long‑term category growth drivers.

• Drive cross‑market innovation execution excellence, ensuring consistent activation, strong first‑12-week performance, and rapid issue resolution across countries.

• Partner closely with Country Marketing teams to translate regional category strategies into locally relevant activation plans, innovation roll-outs, and chef/ operator-facing executions.

• Enable and coach a team of Regional Category Managers, setting clear priorities, building capability, and ensuring high performance and collaboration.

• Lead the integration of market, operator, digital, and competitive insights to guide strategic choices on portfolio, innovation, and category interventions.

• Work cross-functionally (R&D, Supply Chain, Finance, CD/Customer Development) to de-risk innovation projects, strengthen feasibility, and ensure commercial readiness.

• Consolidate and present regional category performance, including innovation KPIs, regional IMD health, portfolio gaps, and execution scorecards.

• Champion “Fewer, Bigger, Better” innovations by identifying scalable solutions across diverse SEA markets and simplifying the pipeline to maximize business impact.

• Support Regional and Global stakeholder alignment, ensuring SEA category needs are represented in global forums and global innovations are effectively landed in SEA.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 7–10 years of experience in Marketing, Category Management, or Brand Development, with proven experience leading innovation or portfolio roles.

• Strong project leadership capability, with a track record of delivering complex cross-functional innovation projects in FMCG or Foodservice.

• Experience working in multi-country or regional roles, ideally within Southeast Asia or similarly diverse markets.

• Data-driven strategic thinking, with demonstrated ability to synthesize insights, build compelling category strategies, and influence senior stakeholders.

• People leadership experience, managing and developing marketers or cross-functional teams

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in Foodservice / B2B marketing, working with chefs, operators, or culinary-driven categories.

• Familiarity with portfolio governance tools, innovation funnel management, or stage-gate processes.

• Exposure to digital-led demand generation, including chef engagement platforms, content-led conversion, or CRM/marketing automation.

At Unilever, inclusion is at the heart of everything we do. We welcome applicants from all walks of life and are committed to creating an environment where everyone can thrive/succeed. All applicants will receive fair and respectful consideration, and we actively support the growth and development of every employee.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.