Senior Customer Business Manager

We are Kao, listed as one of the world’s most ethical companies for the last 19 years.

Our brand portfolio spans across three sectors; Consumer Care (John Frieda, Bondi Sands, Bioré, Jergens, Curél), Professional Hair (Goldwell, Oribe, KMS Hair, Kerasilk), and Molton Brown.

Our corporate philosophy, the Kao Way, guides us in everything we do – acting with integrity, courageously driving innovation, and treating each other with trust and respect.

The role:

The Sr. Customer Business Manager exists to drive profitable, sustainable growth with assigned customers by developing and executing customer-specific strategies that align retailer priorities with company objectives. This role owns customer business performance, including financial results, joint business planning, commercialization, and execution, while serving as the primary strategic partner to both the retailer and internal cross-functional teams.

Through data-driven decision making, customer influence, and leadership, the Sr. Customer Business Manager identifies growth opportunities, optimizes trade-offs across volume, margin, and investment, and ensures execution excellence to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes, strengthen customer relationships, and achieve organizational growth and profitability goals. 

At Kao, we offer amazing benefits that are available to you on your first day of employment (healthcare, 401(k) plus company match), 36 total days off (vacation + holidays + sick) and a competitive salary range of $120,000 - $150,000 plus bonus.

What you will do:

P&L, Budget and/or Financial Management

• Compares planned and actual consumption and shipments, identifies and reports on variances to trade (mdf & opp funds) 
• Uses financial budgeting practices and tools, including the processes, adjustment procedures, and practices for consideration of an entire customer or multiple customer budgets 
• Coaches others on the effective use of financial budgeting practices and tools 
• Owns customer-level financial performance and contribution targets 
• Decides where to lean in or pull back investment by making informed trade-offs between volume, margin, and investment 
• Leads in-year course correction to protect profit and hit commitments through optimization & trade-offs
• Decide promotional cadence and assortment priorities 
• Identify and execute profitability improvement initiatives (pricing, mix, promo)

Planning & Execution                                                     

• Secure distribution, placement, and support for launches
• Influence launch priorities by customer and channel
• Adjust plans based on early data
• Own customer execution success end‑to‑end
• Decide where to flex plans to hit profitable, business building results
• Resolve cross‑functional execution barriers
• Prioritize business issues or impact to deep dive into
• Prioritize requests coming in by brand/trade/customer
• Answer "what should we do differently?" questions
• Translate insights into recommendations
• Identify root causes and implications
• Diagnose root causes behind performance gaps or wins
• Analyze and document risk assessment and benefits analysis information

Retailer Connection                                                                                                          

• Set agendas and shape customer conversations
• Push back and reframe buyer requests when needed
• Influence decisions using data and strategy
• Partner with Brand/Trade to deliver key brand and initiative stories to retailer
• Lead Account team in creating and (then) evaluating retailer-focused executions
• Lead platform strategy discussions with key partners
• Ensure integration with broader Sales, Trade, and Brand strategies

Joint Value Creation

• Plays an active or lead role in preparing business assessment deliverables from a best practices mindset including major activities and tasks, drawing on prior experience from a variety of business plans and markets
• Lead development of Joint Business Plans (JBPs) for assigned customers, including multi year growth plans to achieve growth & margin targets as appropriate
• Decide which growth initiatives matter most (distribution, promo, innovation, omni‑channel)
• Translate company priorities into retailer‑specific value stories
• Align JBPs with brand, trade, and financial objectives before customer presentation
• Negotiate trade‑offs between volume, margin, and investment
• Decide where to lean in, pause, or pivot based on performance
• Diagnose underperformance and implement corrective actions
• Communicate wins, learnings, and risks to leadership

Leadership & Development                                                                                       

• Support and advocate thought leadership in each direct reports’ respective area, while not directly responsible for those individuals’ day to day activities.
• Implement a learning mindset for themselves and their team to stay current on trends, resource allocation & industry capabilities to close existing gaps & develop relevant capabilities in the future.
• Foster a positive, fact based, growth-minded, and collaborative team environment within team, department, and cross-functionally. Champion professional development and individual growth while driving team performance, alignment, and engagement across the Kao organization.

What you will need:

• Bachelors Degree required in Business Administration or a related field, MBA is a plus, but not required
• 10+ years of relevant CPG related experience; knowledge of sales fundamentals, including assortment, pricing, merchandising, promotion, distribution, and category management principles
• Strong Microsoft Office Usage (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Outlook), Canva a plus
• Intermediate negotiation and selling skills, including the ability to address objections, communicate value propositions, and support customer business reviews
• Self-motivated with a growth mindset, strong attention to detail, and the ability to operate independently while exercising sound business judgment
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate complex data into actionable business recommendations and customer selling stories
• Strong communication and executive presentation skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders internally and externally
• Demonstrated ability to coach, develop, and motivate team members, providing ongoing feedback and fostering an environment of accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning

At Kao, we believe the diversity of our teams strengthens our global mission. Here we trust and respect each other, collaborating in a friendly and inclusive work environment to achieve great results.

What you can expect from us:

• An entrepreneurial environment where passionate and innovative teams come together.
• Respect, teamwork and collaboration are at the heart of how we work.
• A workplace culture that prioritizes employee wellbeing
• A broad range of benefits, including flexible working, competitive salaries, health and wellbeing offers, retirement, insurance options, and more…
• Learning and development opportunities

Your voice matters here — we value entrepreneurial thinking and innovation from our teams.

To find out why 33,000 people across the Globe work at Kao please visit:

https://www.kao.com/americas/en/careers/

Discover careers at Kao and how we live our purpose, Kirei – Making Life Beautiful.
https://kao.voyse.io/

Kao is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disabled and veterans.