Commercial Planning Manager - Dairy Nutrition Solutions

Position Snapshot
Location: Lahore, Pakistan
Job Type: Full Time, Permanent 
 
Position Summary 
To drive the growth of assigned brands and categories by translating business and brand strategies into actionable commercial plans. The Commercial Planning Manager plays a pivotal role in connecting Marketing, Sales and other cross-functional teams, ensuring effective business planning, efficient trade-spend management, strong distribution delivery and flawless marketplace execution.
The role uses category, shopper, channel and performance insights to identify growth opportunities, shape commercial interventions and deliver agreed business objectives.

Day in the life of a Commercial Planning Manager:
Join a team where you'll be empowered to bring your ideas to life in an environment that encourages innovation, collaboration, and continuous growth. Working alongside talented colleagues, you'll help drive business success, enhance our market-leading brands, and contribute to a healthier future for millions of consumers.

1.   Portfolio Growth & Performance Management
-    Drive growth and topline delivery for assigned brands/categories. 
-    Track performance across brand, SKU, channel and geography, identifying key opportunities and gaps. 
-    Translate performance insights into clear interventions and action plans with relevant stakeholders. 
-    Track initiatives to ensure delivery against agreed business priorities.

2.   Commercial Planning & Monthly Business Planning Delivery
-    Lead commercial planning for the assigned portfolio through the Monthly Business Planning (MBP) cycle. 
-    Translate brand/category priorities into clear, executable commercial plans. 
-    Surface business risks and opportunities early and recommend interventions to support delivery. 
-    Align commercial requirements, including stock-cover needs, through relevant planning cycles.

3.   Integrated Commercial Planning
-    Develop Integrated Commercial Planning (ICP) plans that translate brand strategy into channel, customer, geography and SKU priorities. 
-    Co-create winning Product, Price, Promotion and Placement plans with cross-functional teams. 
-    Ensure commercial plans are insight-led, executable and aligned across Marketing, Sales, Finance and Supply Chain. 
-    Drive timely alignment and sign-off of key ICP deliverables.

4.   Trade Spend & Investment Management
-    Plan and manage trade spend within the aligned TTS percentage of NNS for the assigned portfolio.
-    Ensure commercial investments are targeted toward clearly defined business and execution objectives.
-    Conduct pre- and post-evaluations of trade activities and commercial interventions.
-    Recommend optimization or reallocation of investments based on performance and changing business priorities.

5.   Distribution & Sales KPI Delivery
-    Plan and monitor numeric distribution and coverage by brand, SKU, channel, zone and geography.
-    Identify availability and distribution gaps and develop action plans with Sales teams.
-    Track Numeric Handling, Weighted Handling and other relevant Sales and Distribution indicators.
-    Partner with regional Sales teams to improve distribution depth and execution quality.
-    Monitor progress against agreed actions and recommend course-correction where required.

6.   Category, Shopper & Market Insights
-    Analyze category, shopper, channel, customer and competitive trends to identify growth opportunities.
-    Convert internal and external data into clear commercial insights and recommendations.
-    Assess portfolio, pack, price and promotional performance to support decision-making.
-    Support development of shopper-centric channel plans and execution priorities.
-    Monitor competitive activities and recommend appropriate commercial responses.

7. Innovation & Commercial Execution
-    Develop commercial rollout plans for brand activities, innovations and renovations.
-    Align channel-level volume, distribution and execution expectations with relevant stakeholders.
-    Ensure executional readiness, including stock availability, coverage, visibility and Sales communication.
-    Track implementation of agreed activities and identify execution gaps.
-    Conduct post-activity or post-launch analysis and recommend short-, medium- and long-term actions.

8. Cross-Functional Collaboration
-    Work closely with Marketing, Sales, Finance, Supply Chain and Sales Control to align commercial priorities.
-    Act as the commercial link between brand strategy and marketplace execution.
-    Equip Sales teams with clear execution priorities, performance insights and recommended actions.
-    Facilitate alignment on business priorities, commercial investments and execution requirements.

What Will Make You Successful? 

•    Bachelor’s/Master’s degree from an HEC-recognized institution, preferably in Business Administration, Marketing, Economics or a related discipline. 
•    5+ years of relevant experience in Sales, Commercial Development, Category Management, Trade Marketing or Marketing. 
•    Strong commercial acumen with an understanding of category, brand, channel and Sales performance drivers. 
•    Strong analytical capability with the ability to translate complex data into clear insights and actions. 
•    Understanding of commercial planning, MBP processes and Sales and Distribution fundamentals. 
•    Experience in trade-spend planning, activity evaluation and ROI analysis. 
•    Strong stakeholder-management, collaboration and influencing skills. 
•    Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver within demanding business timelines. 
•    Proactive, solution-oriented and comfortable working in a dynamic, cross-functional environment.