GLOBAL CATEGORY LEAD
This is a senior strategic planning role sitting at the centre of a major global media network's EMEA HQ. The Global Category Lead drives audience-first communications planning across global platforms, connecting category leadership, brand teams, agency partners, and local market leads.
The remit covers both Beverages and Foods for one of the world's most recognised consumer goods brands, applying scalable frameworks and best practices across both categories.
The role is evolving toward a broader multi-category leadership model, making it a pivotal moment to step in.
Purpose of the Role
- Anchor communications planning excellence at category level
- Translate global growth strategy into audience-led, channel-agnostic media frameworks
- Act as central orchestrator across strategy, activation, performance, measurement, and partner ecosystems within key programmes
- Enable markets with clear 'how to' guidance, not just high-level ambition
- Build consistency, quality, and efficiency across category planning while preserving local flexibility
Key Responsibilities
Global Category Strategy and Planning Leadership
- Lead end-to-end category-led campaign strategies for global platforms and priority initiatives (spanning major sports sponsorships, entertainment properties, and global beverage and food campaigns), covering audience design, channel roles, communications architecture, sufficiency frameworks, personalisation models, and measurement principles
- Own the global paid media guidance embedded within brand and category playbooks
- Shape category inputs into Annual Operating Plans (AOPs), including sufficiency tiers, channel weighting, and market maturity considerations
- Ensure global strategy is deployable, with clear intent and application guidance for local markets
Central Activation and Platform Enablement
- Partner with Global Enablement Teams to deliver central strategy and activation models for priority global platforms (e.g., major football and beverage programmes)
- Define the global strategic role of priority channels and platforms, including best practices and guardrails for local activation
Agency and Ecosystem Leadership
- Act as primary strategic counterpart to key agency partners across the client ecosystem, including strategic and activation agencies, performance teams, and PR/specialist partners
- Build and maintain trusted senior-level relationships to enable faster alignment and higher-quality outputs
Local Market Enablement and Knowledge Sharing
- Maintain strong relationships with anchor market and local planning leads
- Lead cross-market category learning cadences, synthesising insights to inform global optimisation and future planning
Leadership in Evolving Operating Models
- Contribute to the evolution of the global operating model across Beverages and Foods
- Help define how category-led thinking scales across multiple categories
Skills and Experience Required
- Deep expertise in communications planning and audience-first strategy
- Proven ability to translate strategy into scalable frameworks
- Experience working across matrixed global organisations
- Confidence operating as a senior partner to category leads, brand teams, agencies, and platform partners
- High emotional intelligence and the ability to influence without direct authority
- Comfort working in ambiguity while shaping future-state models
- 7+ years' experience in a senior planning or strategy role
- Multi-market exposure; UK planning and client-handling skills essential
- Experience with digital platforms (TikTok, Meta, Google) and offline
- CPG/FMCG brand experience and familiarity with global platform campaigns (sports/entertainment sponsorships) desirable