CSP Director Australia

Director of CSP – Australia
Function : Customer Development
Reports to : Head of CD Australia
Location : Sydney
Terms & Conditions : Full-time

About the Role
The Category Strategy Planning and Operations Director is responsible for defining and leading the long-term strategic vision for the categories Unilever operate in, driving sustainable, profitable growth across the Australian market. This role translates consumer, customer, and market insights into clear strategic choices, portfolio priorities, channel choices and innovation roadmaps aligned with business and brand objectives.

As a senior leader within the organization, the Category Strategy Director partners cross-functionally with Marketing, R&D, Finance, Supply Chain, and Sales to ensure category strategies are actionable, scalable, and competitively differentiated. This role will sit on the Customer Development Leadership team and lead the full CSP team for Unilever Australia.

Key Responsibilities
1. Category Vision & Strategic Leadership

• Define the 3–5 year category growth strategy aligned with Unilever’s priorities and focus areas

• Identify whitespace opportunities, adjacencies, and portfolio expansion areas.

• Lead annual and long-range strategic planning processes for the category, starting with the IBP process

• Establish clear growth pillars, innovation platforms, channel strategies and  investment priorities and optimisation

2. Portfolio & Innovation Strategy

• Own the category portfolio architecture (price tiers, formats, channels, geographies).

• Lead innovation strategy from insight identification to commercialization roadmap.

• Drive renovation, premiumization, and margin expansion initiatives.

• Ensure innovation pipeline supports long-term growth and brand equity goals.

3. Consumer & Market Insights

• Translate data and insights into strategic choices and growth drivers.

• Monitor competitive landscape, emerging trends, and disruptive threats.

• Leverage analytics to identify performance gaps and growth levers.

4. Financial & Performance Ownership

• Partner with Finance to align strategy with financial targets (growth, margin, mix).

• Drive value creation through pricing, mix optimization, and cost discipline.

• Track performance KPIs and course-correct where necessary.

5. Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead cross-functional alignment across the Australian team and help support the New Zealand team with guidance where needed

• Influence senior stakeholders and drive decision-making at executive level.

• Build strong partnerships with Unilever Go To Market to ensure execution  excellence through the line

6. Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach, and develop high-performing strategy and category teams.

• Build strategic capability in portfolio management, insight translation, and growth planning.

• Foster a culture of accountability, agility, and consumer-centric thinking.

Functional Leadership

• Strategic thinker with long-term vision and strong execution discipline.

• Data-driven decision-maker with strong financial acumen.

• Influential leader capable of aligning diverse stakeholders.

• Growth mindset with strong innovation orientation.

• High resilience and adaptability in dynamic environments.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED
Experiences & Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in FMCG/CPG, strategy, or category leadership roles.

• Proven track record of building and executing category growth strategies.

• Strong commercial acumen and P&L understanding.

• Deep understanding of consumer behaviour and brand-building principles.

• Experience working in complex, matrixed global organizations.

• Exceptional analytical, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

• Proven track record of leading successful teams and incubating talent in organisations

Skills

• Category Growth Management – Provides Unilever with deep, objective knowledge of customer strategies and needs, acting as a consultant internally and externally. Generates unique category and shopper insights that allow Unilever to identify superior growth opportunities at category and cross-category level, with implications for innovation and activation.

• Channel Mastery – Deep understanding of the customer, their strategic plan, operating environment, structure, existing capabilities, challenges and competitive threats. Designs and executes long-range strategic plans that create new demand and opportunities for both the customer and Unilever.

• Digital Commerce – Understands the digital landscape (business models and modalities), shopper fundamentals (e.g. ROPA) and their implications to win in digital commerce. Designs commercial plans to maximise outcomes across the channel mix.

• Commercial Strategy – Partners CSP and Customer Development teams to  develop and sell-in optimal customer plans across Price/Promo, Innovation, Mix and Investment. Leads end-to-end initiatives, category and brand strategy deployment and quarterly customer reviews.

• Data Literacy – Examines and interprets a wide variety of data and information and makes recommendations or decisions. Uses analytics to form narratives and tell compelling stories.

• Executional Excellence – Defines and deploys executional standards at category, brand and customer level. Measures results, identifies opportunities and provides solutions to close executional gaps. Drives ruthless prioritisation of actions and dynamically adjusts resources to deliver results.

Leadership

• You are an inclusive motivator of people. Your team delivers with real passion, growing and learning from each other.

• You remain accountable for your own results and motivate others to deliver with passion, creating an inclusive and engaging climate. You balance challenge with support and coaching, understand the wider business context and demonstrate strong emotional intelligence.

Unilever Behaviours

• TALENT CATALYST – We inspire people to grow with support and honesty

• PERSONAL MASTERY – We bring our best, whatever the challenge

• AGILITY – We are curious, courageous and adaptable to change

• CONSUMER & CUSTOMER LOVE – We delight our consumers and partner our customers better than anyone else

• PASSION FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE – We are hungry to win together, prioritise ruthlessly and own the outcome

• PURPOSEFUL IMPACT – We care deeply about delivering positive impact for business, people and plan

What awaits you at Unilever?

The core of Unilever’s culture is captured as Human, Purposeful, Accountable. You will be joining a dynamic, flexible, and inspiring work environment that truly cares about your wellbeing, values what you do and celebrates your success.

This is your opportunity to be part of a purpose-led business and a global community where you can progress your career both locally and internationally. You will also benefit from amazing discounts on external company products, attractive employee referral reward program amongst other benefits.

This is a great opportunity to work within an iconic and global organization. We have gained our reputation as one of the world's most admired employers by providing an environment where individuals can achieve their goals, both professionally and personally. Make no mistake we expect a lot from our people as they do of us. So, if you can rise to the challenge, don't waste any time - apply now!

We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to provide a positive, barrier-free recruitment journey. Should you require additional information or reasonable adjustments to allow you to present your best self during this process, please contact anz.talent@unilever.com.

Unilever is an organization 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.

This means we encourage people with all backgrounds to apply, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Māori and Pacific Peoples, and people with disabilities. Interested in learning more, check out our Reconciliation Action Plan and Workplace Adjustment Policy on the Unilever webpage.

At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! We encourage you to advise us at the time of your application if you require any reasonable adjustment so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.

Unilever is an organization 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.

This means we encourage people with all backgrounds to apply, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Māori and Pacific Peoples, and people with disabilities.

At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! We encourage you to advise us at the time of your application if you require any reasonable adjustment so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.