Trade Marketing & Distribution Manager

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<strong>Position: Trade Marketing & Distribution Manager.<br><br></strong><strong>Location:</strong> Jebel Ali Freezone, Dubai, UAE.<br><br><strong>Reports to:</strong> Director of Global Sales & Commercial Growth.<br><br><strong>Travel:</strong> Frequent regional travel required.<br><br><strong>About The Role<br><br></strong>Are you an expert in trade marketing and distribution with a knack for designing smart Route-to-Market strategies? At GTI, you’ll lead the charge in expanding our market reach and elevating brand visibility across diverse channels. Your deep commercial insight and hands-on approach will ensure our products are available, visible, and competitively positioned in each market.<br><br><strong>Route-to-Market<br><br></strong><strong>What You Will Do:<br><br></strong><ul><li>Assess, design, and implement Route to Market (RTM) strategies tailored to each market’s regulatory, commercial, and logistical context.</li><li>Analyze and optimize existing distributor setups, suggesting alternative coverage models when needed.</li><li>Identify white space and design commercial approaches to expand GTI’s availability and reach.</li><li>Lead market visits and trade audits to validate distributor execution and provide structured feedback.<br><br></li></ul><strong>Trade Marketing & Visibility<br><br></strong><ul><li>Build and deploy GTI’s Trade Marketing Toolkit across priority markets covering product visibility, shelf standards, and brand guidelines.</li><li>Collaborate with distributors and internal teams to align on channel-specific execution plans, including merchandising, POSM deployment, and campaign activations.</li><li>Conduct regular in field audits to monitor compliance with GTI’s merchandising and planogram guidelines.</li><li>Define visibility metrics per channel and track them against target execution KPIs.<br><br></li></ul><strong>Pricing, Trade Support & Commercial Control<br><br></strong><ul><li>Design and manage price structures that captures the value chain while respecting trade margins and tax frameworks</li><li>Monitor price compliance across markets and flag deviation risks.</li><li>Develop, roll out, and evaluate trade support programs (e.g., incentive schemes, rebates, activations) in collaboration with Distributors.</li><li>Support annual distributor negotiations and define execution clauses for new partnerships.<br><br></li></ul><strong>Distribution KPIs & Performance Tracking<br><br></strong><ul><li>Define and track in-market distribution KPIs, including:</li><ul><li>Product availability.</li><li> Visibility standards.</li><li>Route-to-market coverage.</li><li>Trade support deployment.</li><li>Stock coverage & freshness.</li></ul><li>Build reporting templates with support from the Demand Analyst to review monthly performance per market/distributor.</li><li>Monitor competitor presence, pricing, and activities using structured retail intelligence and distributor feedback.<br></li></ul><strong>Forecasting Support & Cross-functional Collaboration<br><br></strong><ul><li>Collaborate with the Demand Planning Analyst to feed market-level intelligence and performance insights into forecast assumptions.</li><li>Contribute to the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) cycle by validating distributor pipeline, promotional plans, and field realities.</li><li>Align with Supply Chain, Sales, and Finance to maintain visibility across execution, inventory, and cost management.</li><li>Participate in the development of new market entry plans, advising on trade set-up, coverage potential, and resource needs.<br><br></li></ul><strong>Required Skills To Be Successful<br><br></strong><ul><li>Deep understanding of trade marketing execution and distribution frameworks, ideally across multiple emerging markets and Duty Free channel.</li><li>Strong commercial acumen with experience designing pricing structures and managing trade spend.</li><li>Proven ability to develop and enforce price compliance and execution standards.</li><li>Capable of building KPIs and measuring trade performance through dashboards and field insights.</li><li>Hands-on approach with the ability to work across structured and unstructured distributor environments.</li><li>Excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.<br><br></li></ul><strong>What We’re Looking For<br><br></strong><ul><li>7+ years in Trade Marketing, Distribution Management, or RTM execution — tobacco industry experience preferred.</li><li>Strong commercial acumen with proven pricing and trade spend management skills.</li><li>Ability to enforce price compliance and trade execution standards.</li><li>Expertise in KPI development and trade performance measurement.</li><li>Hands-on, proactive approach in distributor environments, structured and unstructured.</li><li>Excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship management skills.</li><li>Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, or Commercial Management.</li><li>Fluent English; additional languages a plus.</li></ul>

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