Trade Marketing Director

About ZURU

ZURU is a reimagination company. We look for categories that have stood still, then we build next-generation products and brands that set the new standard. ZURU Toys is reimagining play. ZURU Edge is reinventing everyday consumer brands. Rhodes Pet Science is reimagining pet science. ZURU Tech is leading the next building revolution.

ZURU started in 2003 with two brothers from New Zealand, and we're still founder-owned and operated today. Since then we've become the world's second-biggest privately held toy company, and nearly half of all Gen Y and Gen Z households with kids in the US own a ZURU product. Today we're 5,000 people in 34 offices, selling into more than 150 markets, backed by over 100 acres of fully automated manufacturing. And we're only getting started.

Position Overview:

We are looking for an exceptional Director of Trade Marketing – U.S. to help define and elevate how ZURU goes to market. This is a highly influential commercial leadership role responsible for establishing the strategy, frameworks, operating disciplines, and standards that underpin our U.S. sales organization. The Director will own ZURU's 4P commercial framework across Presence, Price, Place and Promotion, while partnering closely with our Sales Directors to elevate forecasting, account strategy, commercial planning, and execution. This person will not directly own retailer relationships; instead, they will help ensure every Sales Director and account team has the strategy, tools, insights, and operating discipline required to win. The mandate is simple: build the commercial operating system that enables ZURU to become the best sales organization in the U.S. toy industry.

Position Impact:

ZURU is one of the largest and fastest-growing toy companies globally, driven by a relentless focus on innovation, disruption, and execution. As our U.S. Toys business continues to scale, we are building the commercial capabilities required to move from being a high-growth supplier to becoming a true category leader across the U.S. market. Success in this role will mean ZURU has a clearly defined and consistently executed commercial operating model across the U.S. — with stronger forecasting discipline, sharper category and retailer strategies, and every major account backed by a robust, insight-led 4P strategy. This role will help ZURU further establish itself as a best-in class commercial organization, capable of consistently driving category growth and winning with the largest retailers in the U.S

Roles & Responsibilities:

Own the U.S. 4P Strategy & Commercial Framework:

• Own and continuously elevate ZURU's U.S. 4P strategy across Presence, Price, Place and Promotion, establishing a consistent commercial standard across every retailer and channel.

• Develop the frameworks, tools, scorecards, and governance required translate the 4Ps from principles immeasurable execution.

• Partners with Sales Directors develop channel-specific, category-centric 4P strategies that reflect each channel's shopper, category strategy, competitive environment, and commercial opportunity.

• Establish clear standards for assortment architecture, pricing and price ladders, promotional strategy, placement, merchandising, distribution, exclusivity, and new-product launches.

• Create a regular review cadence tassess performance against 4P standards, identify gaps, and drive corrective action.

• Act as the guardian of commercial excellence, challenging teams where plans or execution fall below the required standard

Sales Strategy & Commercial Planning:

• Partner with U.S. Sales Directors build robust annual, seasonal, and account-level sales strategies.

• Translate ZURU's company and category ambitions in clear retailer growth strategies, priorities, and commercial plans.

• Establish frameworks for account planning that clearly articulate where we will play, how we will win, and what must be true deliver the plan.

• Challenge Sales Directors tenure strategies are insight-led, commercially sound, ambitious, and executable.

• Connect retailer strategies across channels tenure ZURU is making deliberate choices around assortment, exclusivity, pricing, promotional activity, launches, and distribution.

• Help identify whitespace opportunities and the biggest commercial levers capable of shifting the needle across the U.S. business.

Forecasting Discipline & Business Planning:

• Partner with Sales Directors, Commercial, and Finance establish world-class forecasting discipline across the U.S. organization.

• Build standardized forecasting frameworks, processes, assumptions, and review cadences across retailers and channels.

• Drive accountability around forecast accuracy and ensure teams can clearly articulate the assumptions, opportunities, and risks underpinning their forecasts.

• Create stronger connectivity between POS performance, inventory, distribution, promotional plans, new launches, retailer commitments, and revenue forecasts.

• Challenge both upside and downside assumptions, ensuring forecasts represent the team's best commercial view rather than simply a financial target.

• Identify forecast risks early and work with Sales Directors to establish clear mitigation or acceleration plans.

Build the ZURU Sales Operating System:

• Codify ZURU's Ideal Sales Vision and translate it to practical standards for how our commercial teams operate.

• Develop scalable frameworks covering account strategy, 4P planning, forecasting, business reviews, new-item launches, promotional planning, retailer negotiations, and performance management.

• Create best-in-class templates and tools that improve both the quality and consistency of commercial thinking across the organization.

• Establish clear KPIs and scorecards measure execution against our commercial standards.

• Reduce unnecessary complexity while ensuring teams have the processes and disciplines required to manage an increasingly large and sophisticated business.

• Continuously identifying opportunities improve the effectiveness, speed, and quality of decision-making across Sales.

Category Analytics & Insights:

• Turn data in clear commercial actions, partnering with Sales, Commercial, Category Management, and Analytics tenure retailer strategies are grounded in fact-based, category-first insights.

• Develop scorecards that measure performance across the 4Ps and clearly identify gaps and opportunities.

• Ensure teams understand not simply what happened, but why it happened and what we are going do about it.

• Use retailer, category, shopper, competitive, and internal data identify opportunities grow ZURU brands and the categories in which we compete.

• Help elevate business reviews from performance reporting in strategic, insight-led conversations with our retail partners.

Sales Leadership Partnership & Capability Building:

• Act as a strategic thought partner the U.S. Sales Directors while maintaining the independence to challenge plans and execution were required.

• Coach teams on commercial thinking, category storytelling, account strategy, forecasting, 4P planning, and data-led decision-making.

• Identify capability gaps across the organization and develop frameworks, training, and tools close them.

• Create mechanisms for sharing best practices across retailers that winning category strategies are rapidly replicated across the U.S. business.

• Raise the commercial standard of the entire organization — not by doing the Sales Directors' jobs for them, but by enabling and holding them accountable to consistently exceptional standard.

Skills & Experience:

• 8–12+ years of experience across Trade Marketing, Sales Strategy, Commercial Strategy, Category Management, Revenue Growth Management, Sales Operations, or related commercial leadership roles.

• Significant experience within CPG, Toys, Consumer Products, or another high-velocity retail environment.

• Strong understanding of major U.S. retail and the commercial levers required to win across mass, club, ecommerce, value, grocery, drug, and other channels.

• Deep understanding of the 4Ps: Presence, Price, Place and Promotion.

• Demonstrated experience building commercial frameworks and embedding them across Sales organizations.

• Strong forecasting, financial, analytical, and business-planning capabilities.

• Experience translating POS, inventory, distribution, pricing, promotional, and market data into commercial decisions.

• Proven ability to influence and challenge senior stakeholders without relying on direct reporting authority.

• Exceptional communication and presentation skills with the ability to simplify complex commercial problems.

• Highly accountable, action-oriented, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.

• Strong bias toward continuous improvement and raising organizational standards.

• Commercially minded leader who combines strategic thinking with an obsession for execution — equally comfortable building a framework, interrogating a forecast, or working through the details of a retailer's promotional plan.

Who thrives at ZURU

This isn't a 9-to-5. We move fast, think big and set goals most companies would call impossible, then go after them. The people who thrive here are entrepreneurs at heart. They own their work, chase bold ideas and never stop raising the bar.

At ZURU, you drive your career, and we give you the platform to take it as far as you can. There are opportunities here that you won’t find anywhere else, and you'll be surrounded by talented people who make things happen. We're a true meritocracy: we reward impact, not tenure.

How we work

Big ideas happen when great people work side by side, so we're office-first by design. Being together means faster collaboration, sharper decisions and stronger teams, and it's where the real learning happens. Some flexibility may be available depending on the role, location and business needs, but most roles are office-based.

Want to see what life at ZURU really looks like? Follow @LifeatZURU on Instagram or visit www.zuru.com.

ZURU – Reimagining tomorrow 🚀

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ZURU may use AI tools to help screen, assess or select applicants.