Category Lead – Marketing (Beverages)

Role Overview

This is a senior marketing and category leadership position within a leading FMCG manufacturer, focused on a beverage portfolio that is growing quickly across Kenya and wider regional markets. You will own the full marketing cycle: setting category strategy, shaping brand identity, driving channel-specific activation, directing new-product development, and translating performance data into business decisions.

Your work matters because the beverage sector is intensely competitive and highly responsive to consumer trends. Getting portfolio balance, pricing, pack architecture, and retail visibility right directly affects volume, revenue, and long-term brand equity for the company.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and own the annual integrated marketing and category plan for beverages, linking commercial targets to concrete brand, channel, pricing, and portfolio actions.
• Define and evolve brand positioning, communication pillars, campaign messaging, and creative expression across advertising, packaging, digital assets, and point-of-sale materials.
• Deliver end-to-end campaign management spanning ATL, BTL, digital, influencer, and experiential channels—co-ordinating agency teams and ensuring consistent storytelling from brief to execution.
• Partner with sales, distributors, and key account customers to design trade activation and in-store merchandising plans that strengthen presence and shelf visibility across General Trade, Modern Trade, and HoReCa.
• Turn consumer and shopper insight into growth initiatives, particularly around health and wellness, on-the-go consumption, and pack or format innovation.
• Lead new product development projects from idea validation and business-case development through to launch; collaborate with R&D, supply chain, and sales while monitoring post-launch performance.
• Track market share, brand health, pricing, volumes, margins, and activation ROI using dashboards and research, then prepare recommendation-driven business reviews for senior leadership.
• Monitor competitor activity, category shifts, and retailer expectations to prioritise where the portfolio should expand—whether flavoured beverages, hydration, energy, or functional lines.

Requirements & Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or another relevant field is required; a CIM qualification or MBA is preferred.
• Five to eight years of FMCG marketing and category management experience, with a minimum of three spent directly on beverage categories such as juices, soft drinks, bottled water, or functional drinks.
• Demonstrable success in running both brand-building campaigns and trade marketing programmes in a fast-paced consumer goods environment.
• Strong practical knowledge of the Kenyan and East African retail landscape, including how General Trade, Modern Trade, and food-service channels differ in shopper behaviour and activation needs.
• Clear evidence of managing external creative, media, and activation agencies plus controlling marketing budgets in a disciplined way.
• Strong analytical ability with experience using sales-by-channel data, market research, brand health tracking, and BI tools to guide decision-making; familiarity with SAP S/4HANA or comparable ERP systems is a plus.
• Exposure to digital marketing, social and influencer-led campaigns, or experiential promotions is an advantage, given the focus on younger beverage consumers.
• Personal qualities must include cross-functional collaboration, agility, accountability, consistent execution, intellectual curiosity, and a willingness to take ownership of measurable commercial outcomes.

What We Offer / Why Join

The role offers the chance to lead a rapidly expanding beverage portfolio for a leading FMCG manufacturer and to make a visible impact across Kenya and adjacent regional markets. You will work at the intersection of brand strategy, sales execution, and product innovation, with clear accountability for portfolio performance and exposure to senior-level business decisions.