Sr. Product Management Manager

Position Summary:

Position is responsible for the proactive management of sales margin, product mix, volume retainment/growth, product category development and margin enhancement strategies for the foodservice channel.  Provide leadership and direction of specific product segments and formats for all business channels and guiding the development of people within reporting structure. Responsible for the development and implementation of company initiatives and commercialization activities involving Sales, Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain Planning, Procurement, Finance and Logistics that require strategic action as directed by Sr. Director of Product Management.  

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Maximizes margin enrichment through detailed customer/market analysis, working closely with Operations, Procurement, Finance, Sales and Marketing.   Supervises and approves all pricing models for assigned Foodservice Channel. Ensures the team analyzes daily enterprise generated reports to evaluate and take action upon actual sales margins that do not meet Company expectations.  Leads process with Finance and Operations and Supply Chain to determine new volume impact, ideal production location and manages customer corporate pricing accordingly.  This position is responsible for ensuring that all cost roll changes are being accurately passed on to customers.    Develop, communicates and implements corrective action plan when margin expectations are not being met. 
• Proactively manages the P&L.   Responsible for the development and/or oversight of all significant pricing proposals/RFPs developed by direct reports, both existing and new business.  Ensure pricing history is captured in the appropriate system of record: Forge, Velocity, etc..  Ensure the Product Management team has the ability to research and provide solutions to sales that address specific selling opportunities which address customers needs (i.e., lower price, competitive items, etc.) that maximize the return to the Company.
• Supports Product Management leadership by incorporating their team's Annual Budget and Long Range Plan strategies into the tactical decisions of PLM.  Work closely with Finance on setting the budget targets for each FY as well as proactively managing Accruals and Reserves and identifying contigency plans.
• Work closely with Director of Business Analytics and Systems and team to ensure appropriate data cubes and reports are available to proactively manage the P&L for Foodservice.  This includes leveraging both MicroStrategy data via our datawarehouse and ensuring we have reporting that is consistent accross the commercial organization for diagnosing the business (i.e. "one source of the truth").
• Plays a key role in sales planning process and create linkage between Product Management and Supply Chain planning for Foodservice.  Executes the management pricing for all custom and branded labels and is familar with all customer contract parameters for respective customers.   Develop strategies for the management of SKUs (i.e. simplification) and product platforms including inventory management strategies.  

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor Degree preferred or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years in the Food Industry with a working knowledge of the Food Service Sales process, sales personnel, broker involvement, how a distributor operates, and how the products inevitably get in the hands of the operator customer and their consumers preferred.
• Minimum 3+ years people leadership experience preferred. 
• Must have ability and proven experience to develop a strategic pricing system.  
• Must have ability to understand the nuances of the sales process, especially ability to understand price elasticity models when price is coupled with rebate programs, operator deals, oil contracts and product mix.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
• Must fully understands VF Financial systems, including definitions and impact factors of Margin, Accruals, Standard Costs, Operational Overhead rates, etc.
• Must be highly analytical and able to tackle projects that are very large and complicated in scope.
• Communication is a mandatory skill as this position will be interfacing with many departments and functions within Ventura Foods:  Finance, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain (plant and corporate), Purchasing, Legal, Pricing and Agreement Management.