Director Marketing & Product Planning (professional kitchen equipment)

The organization

For one of our clients, a global stock listed professional kitchen and food equipment manufacturer with more than 8,000 employees’ worldwide serving customers in 60 countries, we are looking for a Director Marketing & Product Planning. Its European HQ is in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and is responsible for expanding and steadily growing the business in EMEA.

The position

The Director Marketing & Product Planning is responsible for supporting all the sales activities. More specifically, s/he is managing the products and their marketing such as product planning & management, price control, and market analysis. Furthermore, s/he is part of the European Board, and therefore involved in budget and strategy planning of sales and profit. S/he leads a team of 10 FTE including Product Management, Service & After Sales and Advertisement & Promotions.

• Develop product and marketing strategies for regional sales and guide its’ execution.
• Develop market intelligence and product planning further, investigate competition in different markets to establish strategic new model development plan.
• Conduct further market analyses, review pricing, and improve sales and gross margin.
• Create a marketing & communication plan.
• Coordinate building sales budget and keep track of the progress.
• Liaise closely with Sales and the Manufacturing Site(s) (R&D/Engineering).
• Build optimum service networks in the field with external service providers.

Candidate profile

Background and Experience

• 15 years of work experience in marketing of which +5 years of experience in a leadership position
• Extensive experience and knowledge of Product Planning and Pricing is a must.
• Working in food service equipment industries is a very much preferred
• Proven track record of developing product- and business plans, including pricing strategies
• Wide knowledge of sales and after-sales processes as well as performance management
• Successful experience working with Sales Teams and Senior Management
• Ideally, expertise in marketing intelligence and experience in working with Japanese culture
• Very good English spoken and written, and other languages are a plus

Personal Skills

• Strong leadership skills, ability to guide, support, and motivate
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Very good analytical skills ability to interpret quantiative data
• Decisive and able give strong recommendations build on data
• Profound negotiation and presentation skills
• Pragmatic mentality and hands-on approach as well as results oriented
• Strategic vision, detail-oriented
• Focused and knows how to prioritize
• Resilient

Interested?

If you are interested, please apply via the link below. Here you will be redirected to our website, where you can apply to the vacancy. 

Please submit your CV in English and Word format, and application letter if desired. Reference and diploma checks are standard part of the procedure; assessment, background checks and pre-employment screening may also be part of the procedure.

For questions about the responsibilities and the profile, please contact Kristina Bartellas at +31 20 697 14 10.

Questions:

1. Please elaborate on your experience with Product Planning, Product Management and developing Pricing strategies
2. Please describe the kind of products and industries you have worked in.
3. Please explain your scope in terms of people (FTE managed), geographical scope and budgets.
4. Please shortly describe your experience with after sales.