Sales & Strategy Manager Spain

Job Description: Sales & Strategy Planning Manager Spain

1. Role Mission

Reporting to the Sales Director, the SSP Manager Spain is responsible for leading the company’s integrated commercial strategy in the Spanish market, ensuring an effective connection between the business vision, brand priorities, customer reality and commercial execution. Their main responsibility is to translate strategy into actionable, profitable and measurable plans, ensuring sustainable category growth, excellence in commercial planning and cross-functional coordination between Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain and Finance.

2. Main Responsibilities

Commercial strategy and business planning

• Define, together with General Management, Sales and Marketing, the annual and multi-year commercial strategy for Spain.
• Translate business, brand and category ambitions into clear commercial priorities by channel, customer and product family.
• Lead the business planning process, ensuring alignment between growth objectives, profitability, commercial investment and operational capacity.
• Anticipate market risks and opportunities, proposing action plans based on data, consumer, shopper and customer insights.

Category, channel and customer management

• Drive category development across the different channels, ensuring a competitive and relevant commercial proposition aligned with the brand strategy.
• Define priorities for assortment, promotion, visibility, innovation and point-of-sale activation.
• Support sales teams in building customer plans, providing strategic vision, analysis and commercial selling stories.
• Ensure appropriate customer and channel segmentation, prioritising resources and investments where they generate the greatest impact.
• Profitability.

Cross-functional coordination and execution excellence

• Act as a bridge between Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain and Finance, fostering an integrated view of the business.
• Ensure that launches, activations, promotions and commercial plans are executed with clear roles, timelines, resources and follow-up.
• Establish performance follow-up routines, identifying deviations and proposing corrective actions.
• Promote a culture of simplicity, prioritisation, accountability and data-based decision-making.

Team leadership and talent development

• Lead, develop and motivate the SSP team, (3 people) ensuring clarity of priorities, roles and responsibilities. The selected person will manage three Category Managers and one administrative support role.
• Build capabilities in analysis, category management, commercial planning, cross-functional influence and business orientation.
• Identify development, succession and organisational reinforcement needs within the area.
• Foster a collaborative, demanding and results-oriented leadership style, able to influence beyond the hierarchical line.

3. Required Profile

Education and experience

• University degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Economics, Engineering, Sales or similar.
• Postgraduate education or an MBA in sales management, marketing, strategy, finance or business management is valued.
• Solid experience in FMCG, preferably in food, beverages, FMCG or retail companies.
• Previous background in Sales Strategy, Trade Marketing, Category Management, Revenue Growth Management, Key Account Management, Marketing or Sales Management roles.
• Proven experience leading teams and/or working with multifunctional teams.

Technical knowledge

• Deep knowledge of the Spanish FMCG market, distribution channels, customer dynamics and shopper behaviour.
• Strong command of commercial planning, category analysis, promotional management, assortment, pricing and commercial profitability.
• Advanced data analysis capability, ability to read commercial and financial indicators and build actionable recommendations.
• Understanding of P&L, trade spend, margin, mix, forecast and the main levers of profitable growth.
• High proficiency in analytical and presentation tools: Excel, PowerPoint, BI tools and commercial performance dashboards.
• Native or equivalent Spanish and high level of English, required to interact with local teams (sales teams, customers, etc.) and global teams.
• Strategic vision: ability to connect market trends, brand priorities, customer needs and financial objectives.
• Results orientation: focus on growth, profitability, execution and continuous improvement.
• Cross-functional influence: ability to align teams with different interests and mobilise decisions without relying exclusively on hierarchical authority.
• Analytical capability: rigour in interpreting complex data, identifying insights and turning them into practical decisions.
• Collaborative leadership: a close, demanding and constructive style, able to develop talent and build trust.
• Prioritisation and simplicity: ability to distinguish what is essential, reduce complexity and focus the organisation on the highest-impact levers.
• Resilience and conflict management: ability to manage tensions between areas, negotiate priorities and remain focused on the overall business interest.
• Executive communication: clarity in building messages, selling stories and recommendations for management, commercial teams and international stakeholders.
• Sales growth, market share and penetration of priority categories.
• Improvement in commercial profitability, margin, mix and promotional efficiency.
• Quality and fulfilment of the annual commercial plan.
• Impact of launches, activations and customer plans.
• Level of alignment between Marketing, Sales, Supply Chain and Finance.
• Reliability of the commercial forecast and quality of planning.
• Development and engagement of the SSP team.
• Contribution to organisational simplification, clarity of priorities and decision-making.

6. Organisational Fit and Main Challenges

The SSP Manager Spain position is critical to ensuring that the commercial organisation works in an integrated, prioritised and impact-oriented way. It requires a person able to balance strategy and execution, customer vision and brand vision, growth ambition and profitability discipline. The main challenge will be to strengthen the business planning and anticipation capability, improve coordination between areas and turn SSP into a driver of clarity, influence and value generation for the organisation.