Director – Omnichannel Planning & Activation

Description

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At Lactalis in the USA, we’re committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive—whether you’re just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed.

As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we’re proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together.

In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani® Italian cheeses and ricotta, Président® specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft® natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone’s® cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel®, Black Diamond® cheddar, and Parmalat® milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi’s®, Stonyfield Organic®, Brown Cow™, Oui®, Yoplait®, Go-Gurt®, :ratio®, Green Mountain Creamery®, and Mountain High®, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun®, Gopi®, and Arz®.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values—Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone’s unique background and ideas are valued.

Even if you don’t meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy. 

From your PASSION to ours

Lactalis USA, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Director, Omnichannel Planning & Activation. This position is located in Chicago, IL. 

The Director, Omnichannel Planning & Activation is responsible for leading the strategic planning, investment management, and execution of omnichannel marketing programs across Lactalis Heritage Dairy's portfolio and customer base. This role leads the Omnichannel Planning and Activation teams, ensuring integration between brand strategy, customer priorities, retail media investments, shopper marketing programs, ecommerce activation, and customer-level execution. 

As the leader of these functions, the Director serves as the primary connector between Brand Marketing, Sales, Finance, Agency partners, and Omnichannel Enablement. This role establishes the omnichannel growth strategy, manages trade marketing and retail media investments, drives organizational capability development, and ensures activation excellence across all channels and retailers. 

The Director is accountable for translating business objectives into scalable marketing strategies that accelerate sales growth, digital commerce performance, and retailer partnership development while building a strong performing omnichannel organization.

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

Omnichannel Strategy & Organizational Leadership

• Lead the Planning and Activation pillars of the Omnichannel organization, establishing annual objectives, priorities, operating rhythms, and performance expectations.
• Develop and oversee omnichannel growth strategies aligned with enterprise, brand, category, and customer goals.
• Establish annual omnichannel planning frameworks and investment strategies that balance short-term business objectives with long-term capability development.
• Lead talent development, succession planning, coaching, and performance management across Planning and Activation teams.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning.

Strategic Planning & Portfolio Management

• Lead development of annual omnichannel business plans across brands, categories, customers, and channels.
• Ensure omnichannel strategies are integrated into Joint Business Planning processes and customer growth plans.
• Partner with Brand Marketing to translate brand strategies into customer-specific and channel-specific activation plans.
• Drive marketplace and emerging commerce channel strategies, including Instacart, DoorDash, Amazon, and future growth platforms.
• Oversee national activation programs, shopper marketing initiatives, and retailer-specific omnichannel strategies.

Budget Strategy, Investment Governance & Financial Management

• Lead omnichannel budget planning, deployment, forecasting, and financial governance across all customer and brand investments.
• Manage annual trade marketing budget including retail media, shopper marketing, and consumer activation investment strategies.
• Establish investment allocation principles, measurement expectations, and optimization frameworks.
• Lead quarterly and annual investment reviews to ensure alignment with business priorities and performance objectives.
• Partner with Finance to manage month-end actualization, forecasting, risks, opportunities, and financial reporting.
• Provide executive leadership with investment recommendations and performance-based decision-making support.

Agency & External Partner Leadership

• Own strategic relationships with retail media agency partner.
• Lead annual agency planning, briefing, business reviews, and performance evaluations.
• Establish agency scope of work, success metrics, and accountability standards.
• Represent Lactalis in strategic discussions with key retailer media networks, consumer activation partners, and industry organizations.

Activation Excellence & Commercial Execution

• Ensure flawless execution of omnichannel programs across retailers, channels, and customer teams.
• Oversee customer activation priorities, retailer engagement strategies, and channel performance management.
• Drive consistency in activation processes, reporting, optimization, and post-program learnings.
• Partner with Sales leadership to develop customer-facing omnichannel growth plans and retailer presentations.
• Support key customer business reviews, joint business planning meetings, and senior retailer engagements.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the primary omnichannel liaison to Brand, Sales, Category Leadership and Finance
• Align omnichannel priorities with broader business objectives and growth initiatives.
• Build strong partnerships with Omnichannel Enablement to ensure insights, measurement, content, and digital shelf capabilities effectively support planning and activation efforts.
• Drive organizational adoption of omnichannel best practices and capabilities.

Performance Management & Business Analytics

• Establish omnichannel KPI frameworks and business performance reviews.
• Lead Quarterly Brand Activations including retailer performance, and omnichannel activation reviews.
• Champion data-driven decision-making through performance measurement, insights, and optimization.
• Communicate performance trends, risks, and opportunities to senior leadership.

Requirements

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Sales, or related field required, MBA preferred. 
• 10+ years of experience in omnichannel marketing, shopper marketing, ecommerce, retail media, brand/category marketing, sales, or related commercial roles.
• 10+ years of leadership experience managing teams and cross-functional organizations.
• 5+ years of working with a media agency.
• Experience managing multi-million-dollar marketing or trade investment budgets.
• Strong understanding of omnichannel marketing, retail media, shopper marketing, ecommerce, and digital commerce.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing complex budgets and investment strategies.
• Proven ability to lead strategic planning and large-scale organizational initiatives.
• Experience influencing senior executives, customer leadership teams, and external partners.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Proven ability to build and develop high-performing teams.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity, organizational change, and business transformation.

At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options. We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one. We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities. Further, any division of the Company that is an Affirmative Action Employer will comply with all related legal obligations.