Senior Director, Category Leadership – Central Large Store Retail

Summary: At The Coca‑Cola Company, growth starts with understanding the evolving customer and shopper landscape. Our ability to deliver value for retail partners in a dynamic marketplace depends on insights-driven strategies and the strength of our Category Leadership capabilities. As   Senior Director, Category Leadership – Central Large Store Retail , you will lead a highly strategic portfolio of national and regional customers and oversee a team accountable for translating marketplace data and consumer trends into actionable growth strategies. This leadership role goes beyond execution—it combines strategic thinking, commercial agility, and organizational influence to shape customer partnerships that accelerate category performance and long-term profitability. You will partner closely across Sales, Bottlers, Customer Shopper Insights, Space Strategy, Commercial Strategy, and other enterprise teams to deliver solutions that unite customer priorities with Coca‑Cola’s growth objectives. Travel expectation is approximately 30% What You’ll Do for Us Lead and inspire a geographically dispersed Category Leadership organization, driving a culture of collaboration, curiosity, and customer focus. Recruit, develop, and elevate top talent while building capability in analytics, commercial strategy, and customer engagement. Provide leadership for direct reports, including leader-of-leaders responsibilities, ensuring accountability, succession planning, and ongoing development frameworks. Serve as the senior Category Leadership partner for a portfolio of Central Large Store retailers, shaping category growth strategies and delivering annual and multi-year planning recommendations. Build trusted relationships with senior retail decision makers and act as a thought partner to Sales leadership on both immediate and long-range planning. Translate customer, shopper, and marketplace insights into actionable frameworks, category blueprints, and growth recommendations tailored by priority account. Coordinate with Sales, Bottling partners, and Commercial teams to execute customer growth strategies integrated across enterprise capabilities. Balance near-term business imperatives with long-range category vision, aligning resources to unlock the highest-value opportunities for Coca‑Cola and its retail partners. Collaborate with insights, space, digital commerce, revenue growth, and segmentation teams to deliver connected solutions grounded in shopper needs and performance analytics. Scale best practices and standardized methodologies for Category Leadership excellence across multiple accounts and the broader organization. Represent the customer voice to influence enterprise innovation, commercial planning, and growth strategies that reflect evolving retail dynamics. Requirements & Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Economics, Finance, or related field required; MBA preferred. 10+ years of progressive experience across Category Leadership, Category Management, Customer Sales, or Commercial Strategy roles within CPG or retail environments. Proven ability to lead diverse teams and build organizational capability through strong talent management practices and inclusive leadership behaviors. Exceptional strategic agility with experience linking long-range commercial priorities to actionable category programs. Expertise in interpreting complex analytics and distilling insights into recommendations that influence senior stakeholders and customer decision makers. Advanced proficiency with relevant platforms and tools, including space planning software, assortment solutions, MS Office, Power BI, and syndicated data sources (NielsenIQ, Circana). Experience managing relationships with customer-specific data platforms such as 84.51, dunnhumby, or similar resources. Skilled in customer engagement and negotiation with a proven record of delivering successful commercial outcomes through collaborative