Media Procurement Associate Director

Background & Purpose of the Job

This is an exciting opportunity as part of Unilever media journey.

We operate at the forefront of competitive buying, sustainable sourcing and purpose-led partnerships. We seek to combine our own technology expertise and insights with our partners, to support the creation of disruptive sourcing strategies and supplier-led innovation that respond to ever-changing consumer needs quickly, flexibly and effectively.

About Unilever Procurement

Part of the Supply Chain family, Unilever Procurement is responsible for over 30B Euro spend of material and services spend globally with more than 50,000 suppliers, over half of them in MBS – Marketing and Business Services. Getting the right services and materials, ensuring responsible procurement is critical to ensuring desire at scale. Our teams work closely with the business to understand stakeholders needs, bring innovation to meet changing consumer, employees and customers needs, and drive financial value for Unilever through competitive buying. We are at the forefront of digital procurement, bringing new tools and analytics to drive data-based decisions.

About MBS

MBS, Unilever’s Marketing and Business Services Procurement team, is responsible for Unilever’s sourcing and supplier strategy and execution for all third party spend across Marketing, Business Services, and IT, supporting the business requirements of Brands, Business Units, Business Groups, and functions to drive growth through strategic supplier management, cost and value management, and innovation. The team manages an annual spend of ~10B Euro with a supplier base of about 40,000. Within MBS, The Media Procurement Associate Director – US will increase effectiveness of our Media procurement by creating an expertise-driven model, streamlining accountabilities, building capabilities, and leveraging knowledge, relationships, and business strategies across markets, defining the future-fit strategy for media portfolio.

The person in this role will be instrumental in increasing efficiency of our Media procurement by driving scale where it makes sense, decreasing fragmentation, prioritizing higher impact spend areas, leveraging technology and data, and drive performance that unlocks growth for Unilever.

Key Accountabilities:

• Partner with BUs and media leads to manage and optimize the end-to-end bidding process for media procurement.

• Define and implement buying strategies across media channels to define optimal benefits for Unilever, balancing upfront negotiation and biddable approaches.

• Lead negotiations with external suppliers across media channels, data and tech, ensuring value delivery and alignment with Unilever’s procurement principles.

• Continuously evaluate cost drivers and market dynamics to inform and refine media bidding strategies.

• Support the roll-out of new processes and digital tools to drive efficiency and transparency.

• Provide regular insights and recommendations to senior leadership on market trends and competitiveness, supplier performance, and cost optimization opportunities.

• Collaborate with media leads to translate business briefs into actionable procurement strategies.

• Ensure delivery of value and innovation through supplier partnerships.

• Deliver against financial targets and other KPIs (including value delivery, media efficiency and effectiveness) as per business plan objectives

• Ensure Portfolio fundamentals (i.e. data consistency, data insights, recurring stakeholder communications, contracts, etc.) are all put in place

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience including buying media experience (required)

• Deep and proven experience in media buying channels and media value chain players, including AI

• Strategic sourcing, portfolio strategy expertise, with experience in managing complex portfolio/category

• Expert in negotiation and contracting

• Understanding of supply market, value chain, and FMCG knowledge. Knowledge of Media portfolios and supply markets.

• Experience in strategic supplier relationship management

• Experience on large-scale project management

• Experience in shaping and leading transformational business process reengineering, with experience driving Change Management initiatives.

• Ability to travel internationally approximately 20% of the time

General Skills & Competencies:

• Best in class analytics capabilities

• Passion for new technology and disruptive ideas

• Ability to work under pressure and in a complex global environment balancing a broad spectrum of stakeholder requirements

• Comfortable working in conditions of ambiguity and leading through change

• Able to create and drive adoption and execution of a shared vision and strategy for change.

• Ability to interact with senior stakeholders cross effectively and efficiently functionally to understand their needs and deliver effective balanced solutions

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including creation and delivery of effective presentations

• High financial and business acumen

• Strong in selling ideas and concepts

• Strong in project and time management for complex global projects

• Stakeholder management and people skills

• Tenacious and resilient in the pursuit of challenging goals

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