Sales & Marketing Head – Home & Personal Care

Job Title: Sales & Marketing Head – Home & Personal Care 
Location: Thika, Kenya
Reporting to: Group Chief Commercial Officer / Executive Director – Customer Response Team (CRT)
Direct Reports: Regional Sales Teams, Category Marketing Leads, Trade Marketing Lead, and Sales Ops
Role Summary
The Sales & Marketing Head – Home & Personal Care (CRT Head) will lead the commercial agenda for this fast-emerging category, owning the P&L and driving both growth and profitability.
This is a business-building role requiring a hands-on, entrepreneurial leader with strong grounding in sales execution, category development, and marketing strategy. The ideal candidate will expand our client market footprint, strengthen distribution, shape an innovation pipeline, and build a motivated team to scale the category sustainably.
Key Responsibilities
1. Business Development & Category Leadership
•    Define and execute the go-to-market strategy for the Home & Personal Care (HPC) category, aligned to our client growth and profitability goals.
•    Drive category expansion through market development, portfolio rationalization, and targeted innovation.
•    Identify and unlock new business opportunities, channels, and customer partnerships.
•    Own the category P&L — balancing growth, cost efficiency, and brand investment.
2. Route-to-Market & Sales Excellence
•    Lead and develop the sales organization to expand coverage in both General Trade (GT) and Modern Trade (MT).
•    Design and optimize RTM models suited for HPC products — including van sales, direct distribution, and digital ordering.
•    Strengthen distributor capability and alignment to category priorities.
•    Establish strong sales governance, forecasting accuracy, and performance visibility through digital tools and dashboards.
3. Brand & Marketing Development
•    Build the marketing roadmap for HPC brands — spanning detergents, soaps, and emerging categories.
•    Drive brand positioning, pricing, and communication strategies that resonate with consumers and trade.
•    Lead cross-functional innovation initiatives (NPDs, packaging, communication) with R&D, Production, and Supply Chain.
•    Champion digital marketing and e-commerce presence to build awareness and trial.
4. Trade Marketing & Channel Activation
•    Oversee trade marketing strategy — from price-pack architecture and visibility plans to promotional calendars.
•    Ensure consistent brand execution across channels with a focus on conversion and loyalty.
•    Track trade marketing ROI and continuously optimize spend allocation.
5. Cross-Functional Leadership & Collaboration
•    Partner with Production, Finance, and Transformation Office to ensure alignment between commercial plans and operational capacity.
•    Collaborate with Supply Chain for demand forecasting, inventory management, and service level improvement.
•    Influence across departments to accelerate decision-making and remove barriers to growth.
6. Team Leadership & Capability Building
•    Lead, coach, and inspire a young and ambitious sales & marketing team.
•    Instill a high-performance culture driven by accountability, speed, and collaboration.
•    Build commercial and digital capabilities within the team (CRM, BI tools, e-commerce).
Ideal Candidate Profile
Education:
•    Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or related field; MBA preferred.
Experience:
•    10–15 years of FMCG commercial experience, including at least 5 years in senior sales or marketing leadership.
•    Proven record in developing and scaling a new or emerging category — ideally in Home, Personal Care, or related FMCG sectors.
•    Strong exposure to both General Trade and Modern Trade, with understanding of Kenyan and East African markets.
•    Experience integrating marketing strategy with sales execution, and managing innovation pipelines.
•    Demonstrated success in business development, team building, and cross-functional influence.
Competencies:
•    Entrepreneurial mindset with strategic and executional agility.
•    Strong negotiation, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills.
•    Commercial and financial acumen, with data-driven decision-making.
•    Excellent leadership, communication, and influencing abilities.
•    Digital fluency — comfortable with BI dashboards, CRM tools, and online platforms.