Job Title: Head of Product Data Management
Location: UK/ India
ABOUT UNILEVER:
Be part of the world’s most successful, purpose-led business. Work with brands that are well-loved around the world, that improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We promote innovation, big and small, to make our business win and grow; and we believe in business as a force for good. Unleash your curiosity, challenge ideas and disrupt processes; use your energy to make this happen. Our brilliant business leaders and colleagues provide mentorship and inspiration, so you can be at your best. Every day, nine out of ten Indian households use our products to feel good, look good and get more out of life – giving us a unique opportunity to build a brighter future.
Every individual here can bring their purpose to life through their work. Join us and you’ll be surrounded by inspiring leaders and supportive peers. Among them, you’ll channel your purpose, bring fresh ideas to the table, and simply be you. As you work to make a real impact on the business and the world, we’ll work to help you become a better you.
At Unilever, we believe that every individual irrespective of their race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, nationality, caste, disability or marital status can bring their purpose to life. So apply to us, to unleash your curiosity, challenge ideas and disrupt processes; use your energy to make the world a better place. As you work to make a real impact on the business and the world, we’ll work to help you become a better you!
Background
For Unilever to competently operate in the new digital world, we will need to significantly transform our processes, behaviors, cross-organization structures & supporting IT eco-system to enable fast, accurate and seamless end-to-end management of the data, content and codes that are directly related to the individual components and products (CUs) we buy, produce, sell and advertise.
The way we manage Product Data today is manually intensive, fragmented, inefficient, complex, siloed and often inaccessible to those who need it to effectively carry out their role in providing data to customers and consumers. It takes many touchpoints from the creation of an innovation project through to the delivery of on-pack artwork on our finished products, which is inefficient, and with no single System of Record it has the possibility of multiple failure points and rework. When we get this wrong it can lead to incidents, fines, and loss of consumer trust. As an example, missing an allergen on our artwork will result in expensive recalls from our customers.
Product Data is used by all functions in our company from R&D, Business Operations, Legal, Marketing and Customer Development across our Business Groups and Business Units. However, we do not have a fit for purpose overall process and interconnected systems that makes this easy for our Marketeers and our teams to operate effectively.
Reaching our consumers digitally, across more touchpoints, requires a new integrated and efficient way to manage end-to-end product data with clear accountability across the entire product data journey.
The aim of the Product Data Management Program is to address these challenges and provide: -
An Integrated andmore efficient process for the effective management of Product Data across Marketing, AWE, R&D, Supply Chain and E-Commerce.
A technical capability, CARA (Content Authoring, Reuse and Assembly), that integrates and orchestrates Product Data across Product Data source systems (internal & external) so that data is “right first time” and can be used with confidence, thereby delivering greater effectiveness and efficiency in the end-to-end usage journey.
The Product Data Management Programme has the following overarching outcomes: -
Reduce marketing effort through the reuse and sharing of valuable data, reduce the effort to track and communicate changes
Reduce R&D effort through the integration of data and reduction of manual handling
Reduce effort for Artwork by reducing the number of rework cycles
Avoid wasteful spend on 3rdparties, alternative technologies, incidents and fines
Reduce the effort for our operations teams to reach our consumers across multiple touchpoints
In order to deliver these outcomes, we need to drive the change in ways of working and adoption of the CARA tool to enable Product Data Management in each of the Business Units across all the Business Groups.
Scope of the Role
The role covers the following areas:–
Own the Strategy for the delivery of the PDM program as well as the design of Product Data GovernanceCapability
Build out the roll out plan of the existing capabilities in partnership with the Business Units and Business Groups
Plan out the sequence of the subsequent Release 3 and Release 4 in partnership with the R&D / Legal / Marketing functions
Lead the PDM SteerCo on behalf of the Business Sponsor and report back progress to periodically to senior stakeholders in the ULE
Setup the Data Governance of framework to drive Data Quality, Completeness and First Time Right Product Data
Build out the business case for the program for the subsequent year and have accountability for the benefits delivery
Manage the governance of the ITIB capex funding and report back to appropriate forums
Secure opex funding from the business groups for in year spends
Accountable for the overall spends of the Program
Track and Govern Business Case Benefits Delivery across beneficiaries
Responsibility for Functional Design andPDM Operations
Lead the team responsible for the functional design of the process and the associated technology solutionin partnership with cross functional team.
Anchor the Design Authority anddrive the bimonthly alignment sessions for cross functional design conversations
Oversee the PDM operations team that would be required to support the orchestration of cross functional data
Optimize / streamlineand standardize the process as much as possible to drive efficiencies and scale.
Evaluate the requests of customizations from the markets
Drive theTechnology Delivery team and Change Management
Oversight of the spendsfor technical delivery of the components of the program
Hold the technology team accountable for System performance / Quality of delivery / Uptime / Overall Resilience of the tool
Work with the UniOps in Markets team for designing and leading the Change Management for deployment into the individual Business Units
Ensure Service adherence for support teams
Essential Skills
Over 18 years of experience working in FMCG with over 5 years leading large digital transformationprograms
A good understanding on the collaboration of Business Units / R&D / Legal and Corporate Marketing in new product launches
Knowledgeable across process and cross functionaloperationsof the product value chain
Ability to partner with Finance to build out multiyear business cases and deliver financial benefits
Working knowledge on holding technology delivery teams accountable on timelines, quality, and project delivery
Excellent communication, influencing, negotiating, mentoring & team building skills
Excellent skills in persuading disparate audiences at senior levels in the organization and explaining complex ideas & recommendations to a wider audience
Understand the importance of data quality and data governance
Leadership Skills
Demonstrates strong "Inner game":
Personal drive and ability to inspire and engage others towards action
Personal mastery –emotionally resilient; always bringing the best of themselves
Agile – intellectually curious, constantly looking to develop, embraces change with sense of urgency and enjoys positively challenging status quo
Demonstrates great "Outer game":
Credible business acumen – shows understanding of business, finance and performance metrics. Has ability to effectively influence senior stakeholder within a functional and technical context
Encourages experimentation, bringing the outside in, and intelligent risk taking
Brings the voice of the consumer and internal customer into everything they do
Passion for high performance – creating motivation and focus to drive execution at speed
A talent catalyst – encouraging collaboration and inclusivity, empowering teams to be their best
Internal interfaces
PDM Business Sponsor
Business Group Presidents
R&D Operations and Digital Teams
Marketing and Artwork Excellence
Business Unit Leaders
Procurement
MDM / Supply Chain
UniOps Tech Services teams and UniOpsin Market Teams
External Interfaces
BPO Partners
Print Management Agencies
Product Partners
SI Partners
Related content
Connect with us
We’re always looking to connect with those who share an interest in a sustainable future.
Contact us
Get in touch with Unilever PLC and specialist teams in our headquarters, or find contacts around the world.
Contact us