Associate, Corporate Strategy - Chicago, IL

Let's be unstoppable together · At Circana, we are fueled by our passion for continuous learning and growth, we seek and share feedback freely, and we celebrate victories both big and small in an environment that is flexible and accommodating to our work and personal lives. We ha ...

Job description

Let's be unstoppable together
At Circana, we are fueled by our passion for continuous learning and growth, we seek and share feedback freely, and we celebrate victories both big and small in an environment that is flexible and accommodating to our work and personal lives. We have a global commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as we believe in the undeniable strength that diversity brings to our business, employees, clients, and communities. With us, you can always bring your full self to work. Join our inclusive, committed team to be a challenger, own outcomes, and stay curious together. Circana is proud to be Certified by Great Place To Work. This prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at Circana.

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What will you be doing?
We are seeking a highly analytical problem solver to join Circana's Corporate Strategy team and help to define and accelerate Circana's growth trajectory. You will play a critical role in the Corporate Strategy group by helping create and operationalize the strategies required to drive growth from both our existing business and new and emerging business models. Reporting to the Director, Corporate Strategy, you will be a key member of Circana's Strategy team and help lead global cross-functional teams on critical growth initiatives.

As a critical contributor within the Corporate Strategy team, you will evaluate market dynamics, build business cases, and develop presentations for key stakeholders to craft corporate, business unit and product strategy recommendations that can be implemented across the organization. The successful candidate will have strong analytical skills and the ability to structure complex, open-ended problems, along with strong communication skills to help craft presentations for senior leaders throughout Circana. The ideal candidate will operate at a high level of intellectual curiosity, exhibit superior analytical skills, demonstrate a strong work ethic, and bring a proven ability to work with and lead teams. This candidate must have a passion for understanding, driving value, and delivering growth for Circana's business and the customers we serve.

Job Responsibilities

• Strategy Design: Participate in the design and iteration of corporate strategy; support coordination of the strategic planning process, working closely with Circana's Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and relevant stakeholders during strategy formulation, development, and execution.
• Strategic Alignment: Collaborate with stakeholders across the business to ensure Circana's business unit, functional, and regional strategies are aligned to advance the goals of the overall business.
• Long Term Value Creation: Build business cases and market analyses to support portfolio strategy & optimization efforts to create competitive advantage and maximize value creation.
• Strategic Projects: Help coordinate critical company transformation initiatives, including prioritization of projects, development of business cases, supporting implementation plans, and coordinating with relevant business leaders.
• Corporate Development: Play a key role in corporate acquisitions, joint ventures, and divestiture efforts, providing support throughout the deal lifecycle including identification, assessment, diligence, planning, and execution.
• Business Case Development: Support multiple projects that require overall problem structuring, strategy formulation and quantitative / qualitative analysis (e.g., white space opportunity sizing, geographic expansion, portfolio analysis, competitive landscape).
• Board-Level Content Preparation: Responsible for working closely with the Strategy leadership team, coordinating, and developing Board presentations in support of key strategic outputs.

Requirements

• 2-3+ years of relevant work experience, which could include strategy, corporate development, analytics, operations, or finance experience.
• Bachelor's degree required (preferably in the areas of Business or Operations concentration, i.e., Finance, Engineering, Economics, etc.).
• Industry experience in the consumer products, consumer services, retail sectors, software, analytics or business intelligence sectors is desired.
• Strong financial acumen, Excel modeling skills and experience applying those skills to business development, operations, and other projects.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent communications skills. Must be able to communicate in writing effectively and succinctly and orally to executive management.
• Strong, results-oriented work ethic; proven ability to focus on learning, outcomes and high-quality work product.
• Demonstrate willingness to take initiative and increase level of autonomy and responsibility with the goal of eventually taking on greater project management roles and potentially client responsibilities.
• An entrepreneurial, creative thinker with an action-oriented approach characterized by speed and productivity.
• An ability to operate at the highest ethical levels and project this integrity to customers and employees.
• Ability to perform with high pressure and short timelines

Circana Behaviors
As well as the technical skills, experience and attributes that are required for the role, our shared behaviors sit at the core of our organization. Therefore, we always look for people who can continuously champion these behaviors throughout the business within their day-to-day role:

• Stay Curious: Being hungry to learn and grow, always asking the big questions.
• Seek Clarity: Embracing complexity to create clarity and inspire action.
• Own the Outcome: Being accountable for decisions and taking ownership of our choices.
• Center on the Client: Relentlessly adding value for our customers.
• Be a Challenger: Never complacent, always striving for continuous improvement.
• Champion Inclusivity: Fostering trust in relationships engaging with empathy, respect, and integrity.
• Commit to each other: Contributing to making Circana a great place to work for everyone.

Location
This position can be located in the following area(s): Chicago, Il or New York, NY.

The below range reflects the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue-based metrics, any collective bargaining agreements, and business or organizational needs. The salary range for this role is $80,000.00 to $95,000.00.
We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
You can apply for this role through methods such as our Careers website link and/or intranet site for internal candidates. This role is subject to AI-assisted screening. Circana uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assess resumes for alignment with job requirements by helping locate details in resumes that relate to the job description.
The anticipated application deadline for this position is Thursday, January 29, 2026.