Trade Investment Planning Manager

 
Danone Specialized Nutrition Malaysia is seeking for Category & Channel Development (CCD) Investment Planning Manager. With our global presence, brands and business and our mission of bringing health through food to as many people as possible; we believe that people growth is a key asset to reach a sustainable business performance.
To succeed in this journey, we're looking for the right talent and personalities eager to bring their energy and ideas to a meaningful project. Take this opportunity to GROW together and experience a culture that empowers you to express your ideas and share what you're passionate about!  

 

This role serves as the custodian of trade investment funds, ensuring that trade spend is effectively managed, optimized, and aligned with approved budgets and business objectives.

 

The position sits within the CCD (trade marketing) function and partners closely with Sales, CCD and Finance to provide visibility, governance, and commercial insights on trade spending performance. Beyond budget tracking and claims governance, the successful candidate will evaluate the effectiveness of trade investments, identify opportunities for optimization, and support better decision-making to maximize sales returns on trade spend.

 

Responsibilities:

 

Trade Spend Governance & Budget Stewardship

• Act as the custodian of Malaysia trade investment funds and ensure spending remains within approved budgets.
• Consolidate and monitor trade spend across channels, customers, and promotional activities.
• Track budget utilization against allocated activity buckets and provide visibility on available funds and spending commitments.
• Ensure trade claims are submitted, reconciled, and accounted for accurately in collaboration with Sales, Trade Marketing and Finance teams.
• Identify potential overspend, budget risks, and governance issues while ensuring compliance with internal controls and approval processes.

Commercial Performance Analysis

• Analyze trade investment effectiveness by evaluating the relationship between spend and sales performance.
• Assess whether trade promotions, discounts, and customer investments are generating expected business outcomes and incremental sales.
• Monitor spending trends and provide recommendations to improve return on trade investments.
• Investigate spending anomalies, inconsistencies, or performance gaps and recommend corrective actions.
• Translate data into actionable insights that support commercial decision-making.

Business Partnering

• Partner closely with Sales and Trade Marketing team to understand planned customer activities, promotional investments, and trade spend requirements.
• Collaborate with Finance to reconcile claims, validate spending, and maintain accurate financial reporting.
• Provide management with timely updates on budget utilization, spending performance, and funding availability.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to commercial stakeholders on trade fund allocation and investment decisions.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to streamline trade spend management processes and improve governance effectiveness.
• Enhance reporting capabilities, analytical frameworks, and decision-support tools.
• Support the evolution of the function from a transactional monitoring role toward a more strategic commercial planning capability.
• Drive greater visibility, efficiency, and value creation through improved trade investment management practices.

 

 

• 3-5 years of experience in Sales Operations, Trade Marketing Finance, Commercial Excellence, Trade Claims Management, or Trade Investment Governance within an FMCG environment, with proven experience in claims validation, budget tracking, pricing compliance, and cross-functional stakeholder management.
• Strong understanding of retailer operations, promotional mechanics, trade investment management, trade funding processes, and customer investment management within the FMCG industry.
• Experience analyzing sales performance, promotions, trade investments, customer profitability, or commercial effectiveness.
• Exposure to claims validation, budget management, and cross-functional stakeholder management is advantageous.
• Good commercial acumen and business judgment.
• Confident in challenging claims, spending requests, and assumptions when required.
• Analytical and investigative mindset with strong problem-solving skills.
• High attention to detail and financial discipline.
• Resilient and able to influence stakeholders across functions.
• Strong ownership, follow-through, and accountability.