Category Strategy Director

England, United Kingdom

Professional seated at a conference table with laptops and a presentation screen in a modern office setting

Job ID:: R-1173421
Date posted:: 01/27/2026
Job Type:: Full time
Job Category:: Marketing

Job Title: Category Strategy Director – Personal Care (Deodorants & Skin Cleansing)

Location:Blackfriars, London

Job Purpose

Personal Care is a large, complex, global business with market-leading power brands across Deodorants and Skin Cleansing. Winning requires sharp category market-making, stronger innovation choices, and an operating rhythm that enables speed and execution quality across a highly matrixed network (Global Brand teams, BUs, and top markets).

• The Category Strategy Director leads the development and execution of end‑to‑end category strategies for Deodorants and Skin Cleansing, ensuring category leadership through future‑looking insights and foresights, innovation excellence, and the full leverage of Unilever’s differentiated brand portfolio.

• The role combines:

• Strategic Category Leadership: Define the long‑term category vision, set growth priorities, and identify the big bets that shape the future of the categories.

• Portfolio Strategy & Stewardship: Drive strategic portfolio choices that maximise penetration, premiumisation, and superiority across markets.

• Insights‑ and Foresights‑Led Growth: Translate consumer, shopper, and market foresights into actionable growth opportunities and category‑shaping plans.

• Influence & Stakeholder Leadership: Orchestrate and influence a complex global ecosystem across BGs, Markets, R&D, CMI, Finance, and Customer Teams to land strategy and unlock growth.

• Business Performance Management: Monitor global category performance, identify risks and opportunities, and recommend corrective interventions to deliver sustainable, profitable growth.

Responsibilities

• Shape and drive category strategy for Deodorants and Skin Cleansing, translating outside-in consumer, market and customer understanding into clear strategic choices and market-making plans.

• Lead category disruption and growth opportunities, identifying emerging trends and whitespace (in partnership with CMI) and converting them into actionable initiatives and big bets.

• Partner with Global Brand teams and top markets to align category market-making with brand strategies and ensure strategies are activated through market plans and execution.

• Strengthen innovation funnel sufficiency and governance for the categories—ensuring robust pipeline health, quality of ideas, and disciplined progression through the funnel.

• Management of 2 Direct Reports (Category Strategy Managers) and a total team of 6

• Drive excellence in unmissable superiority by improving clarity of superiority drivers, accuracy of tracking, and follow-through on gaps with relevant teams.

• Run strong category performance cadence: conduct market/category analysis, monitor performance and key indicators, and initiate corrective actions with brand and market teams.

• Enable integrated planning and operating rhythm across stakeholders by contributing to core global planning processes (incl. integrated business planning), ensuring decisions, inputs and outputs land with quality and on time.

• Build a collaborative, inclusive way of working across a complex global network— connecting teams, raising strategic quality, and accelerating delivery through influence.

• Coach and develop talent across the category community through mentoring, capability building and role-modelling high standards of strategic and execution excellence.

All About You

• Proven experience in category management, category strategy, brand strategy or brand marketing, with a track record of driving growth and innovation.

• Strong strategic thinking and analytical capability, with a consistently data-driven approach to decision-making.

• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence in a complex, matrixed, global stakeholder environment.

• Strong consumer and market understanding, with passion for solving consumer needs through desirable, superior products and innovation.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, able to create clarity, alignment and momentum across levels and geographies.

• A mindset that is open, adaptable and resilient, able to embrace ambiguity and translate it into structured plans and execution.

• Experience working in or with global roles / diverse markets (preferred), with the ability to navigate different market contexts and business realities.

NOTES

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food,Homeand Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Dove,Tresemme, Lynx, Lifebuoy, Shea Moisture, Persil,Domestos, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Marmite, The Vegetarian Butcher, Graze and Pot Noodle.

Faced with the challenge of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet.That’swhy our purpose is ‘to make sustainable living commonplace’ 

Location

In June 2020 we announced our plan toconsolidatea number ofUnilever’s offices across theSouthEastof England into a new Unilever campus in Kingston-upon-Thames in or around early 2025. However, on the 08 August 2024 we announced to our existing staff our proposal toretainour central Head Office in London, 100 Victoria Embankment (“100VE”) until our lease expires in 2027. As a result of this new proposal, we will be consulting with our existing staff, and new joiners who join during this period of consultation at 100VE, on the proposal made in August 2024. During consultation we will clarify the future location of each team and function. This means your role will either be based in 100VE until 2027 or in Kingston-Upon-Thames from early 2025. As we are yet tocommenceconsultation on the proposal you agree, until such a time when consultation has concluded, your normal place of work as set out in the enclosed Statement of Terms & Conditions will be 100VE. You agree that on the conclusion of the consultation your place of work will be 100VE or 100VE until early 2025 and then Kingston-upon-Thames ("the locations") and you will be notified of which of the locations will be your place of work after that consultation ends.

What We Offer

Not only do we offer a competitive salary and pension scheme,wealso offer an annual bonus,subsidised gym membership, a discounted staff shop and shares.You’llhave the opportunity to work directly with our renowned and exciting brands in a flexible and hybrid working environment.

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We are a key advocate of wellbeing and offer a variety of support for our people including hubs,programmesand development opportunities. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace andto, above all, createpossibilities for all.

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creatingpossibilitiesand growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups,please click hereEquity, Diversity & Inclusion at Unilever | Unilever.

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How is Unilever tackling this?

Many of Unilever’s recruitment sites publish a warning to candidates about recruitment fraud. The Cyber Security team also proactively scan for signs of people setting up fake Unilever sites and act to close them down.

What can I do?

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Unilever does not accept responsibility or liability for any candidates who are financiallyimpactedby recruitment fraud. Your vigilance is key!

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