Senior Manager, Commercial Strategy - Commercial Strategy

Overview

Shearer’s Foods, founded in 1974 and headquartered in Massillon, OH, is a leading manufacturer of salty snacks, cookies, and crackers. Specializing in private label and co-manufacturing, Shearer’s is the largest supplier of private brand salty snacks and second-largest supplier of private brand cookies and crackers. 

With a strong focus on innovation, service, quality, and sustainability, Shearer’s has been awarded the food industry’s highest award for environmental sustainability, as well as multiple Supplier of the Year awards. 

Operating 16 locations across North America and employing more than 5000 team members, Shearer’s is driven by its core values of People, Grow, Impact and Win. The company mission is to deliver exceptional products and services that make snacking a time to celebrate for our customers, colleagues, and community. 

At Shearer’s Foods, we believe in a skills-first approach to recruitment and employment. This means focusing on what you can do and how you can grow, rather than traditional metrics alone. We are committed to adhering to anti-exclusion practices, removing barriers to access, and enhancing opportunities for all individuals based on merit and potential. Your skills, experience, and perspective are valuable—and we want to empower you to make your mark here with us. 

Responsibilities

Senior Manager, Commercial Strategy

Remote

The Senior Manager of Commercial Strategy plays a key role in shaping the future direction of the company by developing and executing the Cookies & Crackers business unit strategies that drive growth, profitability, and competitive advantage. This role leads execution of the Commercial strategic priorities within the Sales Channels and provides thought leadership on market dynamics, consumer behavior, and competitive landscapes.

Acting as a bridge between insights, innovation, sales, and execution, this leader ensures that strategies are grounded in data, aligned with customer needs, and positioned to capitalize on whitespace opportunities. The Senior Manager of Commercial Strategy is both a visionary strategist and a hands-on operator who influences key decisions at the customer and channel levels. Specific responsibilities include:

• Lead Channel and Customer execution of the Commercial strategic pillars, ensuring alignment with enterprise goals.
• Support development of the annual situational assessment and strategy plan, integrating market, consumer, and competitive insights.
• Build mid- and long-term business unit outlooks that anticipate regulatory, customer, and consumer trends, and translate them into actionable strategies.
• Drive development of channel and customer strategies to maximize growth and profitability through Customer Business Planning (CBP) processes and tools.
• Partner with Sales and Category Leadership to create Business Unit Plans that identify priorities, targets, and success measures.
• Lead customer strategy engagement, ensuring strategies translate into clear Joint Business Planning (JBP) inputs and outcomes.
• Identify whitespace opportunities by business unit across customers, channels, and categories, and develop strategies to capture them.
• Oversee sales drives and promotions, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and return on investment.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure strategies inform portfolio development, pricing, trade, and go-to-market priorities.
• Lead development and implementation of digital strategy and best practices.
• Conduct shopper research and surveys and utilize these insights to inform business unit strategy.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Economics, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in Commercial Strategy, Marketing, Category Strategy, or Sales Leadership within the CPG industry (food and beverage strongly preferred).
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills with the ability to synthesize data into clear, actionable insights.
• Experience with competitive assessments, whitespace identification, and long-term strategic planning.
• Skilled in cross-functional collaboration with Sales, Finance, Category Management, R&D, and Supply Chain.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.