Category Manager - Seasoning, Sauces and Marinades (SSM), Dairy and Desserts

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.

What will you bring:

- 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 decisisons 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.