Category Manager - Directs in Woking

Shape the categories that create crave, differentiation and incremental growth across the Yum! system. Seasonings, sauces, marinades, dairy and desserts sit at the intersection of customer love, menu innovation and restaurant economics. This is a highly commercial category role with the opportunity to unlock Yum!’s bold ambition for sauces, strengthen the strategic role of desserts, and build a more competitive and resilient approach to dairy and ingredient sourcing across Europe.

You will combine deep commercial and commodity understanding with supplier innovation and category strategy, working horizontally across brands, markets, Innovation, Marketing, FSQA, Operations, Finance, franchisees and suppliers. Yum! Europe is part of the One Yum! Supply Chain Centre of Excellence (COE), established to support KFC and Taco Bell with one supply chain, one purpose and one bold goal: unmatched profitability for every restaurant.

The COE works horizontally across brands, markets, functions, franchisees and suppliers to deliver safe, reliable and sustainable supply; improve restaurant economics; accelerate growth; and power brand strategies through world-class category management, strategic supplier partnerships, data, governance and innovation execution.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the Seasonings, Sauces and Marinades, Dairy & Desserts category strategy for KFC and Taco Bell across UK&I and Europe, combining commercial excellence, commodity insight, supplier capability and innovation to deliver competitive advantage, growth and stronger restaurant economics. A critical part of the role will be translating Yum!'s growth ambitions for sauces and desserts into a supplier, sourcing and commercial strategy capable of delivering at scale.

• Build and execute a 3–5-year category strategy that connects brand growth plans, consumer trends, menu innovation, commodity economics and supplier capability.
• Unlock the bold ambition for sauces, developing the supplier ecosystem, commercial models, capacity and innovation pipeline required to make sauces a stronger driver of customer choice, menu differentiation and profitable growth.
• Define the strategic role of desserts, identifying opportunities across product architecture, supplier capability, innovation, value and scale to support greater category growth.
• Bring strong commodity and market intelligence across dairy, oils, sugar, spices, seasonings and other key ingredient inputs, translating movements into commercial actions, sourcing strategies and forward-looking risk management.
• Build robust should-cost and cost-driver models to understand supplier economics, challenge pricing and identify opportunities beyond traditional tendering.
• Lead strategic sourcing, supplier selection, negotiations and commercial agreements, balancing price, total cost, innovation, quality, capacity and resilience.
• Develop strategic supplier partnerships that move beyond transactional sourcing towards joint value creation, innovation and competitive advantage.
• Use supplier capability, external innovation and market trends to proactively bring new products, formats, ingredients and technologies into the Yum! innovation pipeline.
• Identify opportunities to simplify specifications, harmonise demand, aggregate scale and leverage the broader One Yum! system.
• Manage commodity exposure, supplier performance, capacity, business continuity and category risk while maintaining strong commercial governance.
• Act as the category expert across Supply Chain, Marketing, Innovation, FSQA, Operations, Finance, Logistics, franchisees and suppliers.

What success looks like:

• A clear multi-year category strategy that turns sauces and desserts into stronger engines of customer love, differentiation and profitable growth.
• Improved restaurant economics through validated savings, cost avoidance, commodity management, specification optimisation and total-cost improvement.
• A stronger supplier ecosystem bringing innovation, insight, speed and commercial advantage, rather than simply responding to sourcing events.
• Improved visibility of commodity and ingredient economics, enabling the business to anticipate market movements and make better sourcing and pricing decisions.
• Greater leverage of Yum!’s European and global scale through specification alignment, demand aggregation and strategic supplier partnerships.
• Reliable supply, stronger supplier performance and clear mitigation plans across strategically important ingredients and finished products.

Qualifications

8+ years’ experience in procurement, category management, commercial, supply chain or strategic sourcing, ideally within ingredients, sauces, seasonings, dairy, desserts, food manufacturing, foodservice, FMCG, QSR or retail.

• A high degree of commercial acumen, with a track record of understanding supplier economics, challenging cost structures and translating market dynamics into commercial outcomes.
• Strong understanding of commodity and ingredient markets, ideally including dairy, oils, sugar, spices, seasonings or other food raw materials.
• Experience building category strategies and leading complex sourcing, negotiations and long-term supplier agreements.
• Strong experience working with suppliers on innovation and product commercialisation, connecting consumer and brand opportunities with technical and manufacturing capability.
• Ability to build and use should-cost models, commodity indices, benchmarks and market intelligence to inform decisions.
• Experience managing strategic supplier relationships and creating value beyond price through innovation, capacity, productivity, resilience and joint business planning.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to move between detailed ingredient economics and the broader commercial and brand opportunity.
• Confidence in partnering across Marketing, Innovation, FSQA, Operations, Finance, Logistics, markets and franchisees.
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity and shaping categories where the future opportunity is significantly greater than today's established model.

How you will work:

• Commercially sharp and externally curious - you understand what drives cost, where markets are moving and where new value can be created.
• Consumer and restaurant focused - you connect category decisions to customer love, menu differentiation and restaurant economics.
• Strategic but execution-oriented - you can define the long term destination and translate it into sourcing decisions, supplier actions and measurable delivery.
• Influential and collaborative - you bring brands, functions, markets, franchisees and suppliers together around a shared category agenda.

Working Pattern: Hybrid role based from Woking, with European market, restaurant and supplier travel as required.