Senior Director, Shopper Marketing

The Senior Director, Shopper Marketing is responsible for bringing brand and portfolio strategies to life at the point of purchase - across stores, shelves, and digital retail environments, with the clear objective of increasing basket/beverage incidence and driving shopper transactions. This role leads the development of end-to-end shopper engagement strategies grounded in a deep understanding of shopper behaviour science and high-quality, effective shopper communication.

With ownership across all categories and channels, the role defines how brands win with shoppers by translating insight into scalable, conversion-driving experiences. The Senior Director drives end-to-end shopper engagement, integrating in-store execution, retail media, and omnichannel touchpoints into a cohesive strategy.

Operating at the intersection of shopper insights and by-channel growth strategy including retailer priorities & retail media ecosystems, the Senior Director ensures shopper engagement strategies are continuously increasing incidence, driving quality transaction and optimized through efficient, data-driven investment decision to create value for both our business and our customers with measurable commercial impact.

Scope of Responsibility

• Markets: Japan

• Channels/Categories: All channels and categories.

• Coverage: Shopper marketing, Occasion based marketing, Channel strategy, Customer value creation, Retail media ecosystem, Segmented execution, Digital innovation.

• Stakeholders: TCCC global/OU functions, Coca-Cola Bottling partners in Japan, agencies and key customers.

Key Responsibilities

• Channel x Category Shopper Engagement Strategy: Own and define the shopper marketing strategy across all channels and categories. Bring brand strategies to life at the point of purchase across stores, shelves, and digital retail environments based on deep understanding of role of channels and each channel's growth strategy.

• Occasion Based Marketing Leadership: Defines the strategic framework for occasion-based marketing with deep understanding of how key occasions shape shopper needs, decision-making, and purchase behavior for core brands and how these occasions can be activated at the point of purchase to drive transaction and conversion with clear picture-of-success.

• Shopper Behavior Science & End-to-End shopper recruitment strategy: Increase W+ shoppers for our brands by establishing End-to-End shopper journey framework across pre shopping - in store - after shopping using a scientific approach with 1st, 2nd, 3rd party data (Coke-ON, ID-POS, POS, Shopper panel data) to build effective and efficient shopper recruitment.

• Retailer Insights, Strategy & Executive Partnerships: Serve as the senior strategic marketing counterpart to top retail partners. Lead the development of retailer-specific growth strategies grounded in deep shopper and retailer insights. Shape and influence Joint Business Plans (JBPs) through shopper-led growth opportunities to support customer-leads to create value.

• Quality Content Development & Management & Agency Leadership: Oversee the development of quality contents to deliver right message at point of purchase. Create modular, scalable content systems for all the relevant touch points. Lead and optimize the shopper agency ecosystem, including creative, production, retail media, and insights partners with budget governance. Drive innovation in content formats, personalization, and dynamic retail execution.

• Leadership & Capability Building: Build, lead, and inspire a high-performing shopper marketing team. Develop future-ready capabilities in shopper science, retail media, analytics, and omnichannel execution. Act as a thought leader and internal educator on shopper marketing and retail dynamics. Foster strong cross-functional collaboration across Marketing, RGMx, Channels and Finance.

Qualifications & Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration or related field required

• 10+ years' progressive experience in marketing, shopper marketing, commercial strategy, customer and channel management within the FMCG/CPG industry. Experience in the beverage industry is strongly preferred.

• Strong in strategy development and thought leadership

• Advanced analytical skills to turn insights into actionable plans and experience with syndicated and proprietary shopper data.

• Rich experience in brand contents creation and agency management

• Understanding of franchise-model economics, retail/customer operations and financials, and the Coca-Cola system.

• Ability to lead large-scale, cross-functional projects within a matrix organization and influence stakeholders at senior levels.

• Strong influencing leadership, negotiation and relationship management skills.

• Fluency in English and Japanese (business level for both).