Your career path can be unique

We don’t believe in overly formal career routes as we don’t want career development to be restrictive.

But equally we all want the chance to achieve our career aspirations, however high they might be. The information below is a general view of the route your RB career might take in any one function, but it is not a prescription and is simply intended to give you an overview. Anything's possible at RB.

Roles

Entry Level Professional

This stage includes graduates. Expect to take on at least two roles at this level as you gain experience across your function.

Typical roles include

Finance analyst; sales representative; assistant brand manager; manufacturing supervisor; HR advisor; system analyst; R&D assistant.

Manager

Expect to gain more senior experience in at least two roles covering different areas of the function. You’ll also begin to build up strong people management experience.

Typical roles include

Key account manager; brand manager; finance accountant; purchasing manager; senior HR advisor; senior business analyst; R&D associate.

Middle Manager

At this level you will also need experience across roles. Cross functional and international experience can be important here.

Typical roles include

Trade marketing head; senior category manager; finance manager; senior manufacturing manager; HR manager; IS manager; R&D manager

Director

You’ll need an impressive regional and functional track record, as well as significant people management experience. International mobility is usually essential at this level.

Typical roles include

Sales director; global brand market manager; finance controller; plant manager; regional HR director; regional IS director; R&D director

Senior Director

You’ll now have a wealth of experience and knowledge of the business. At this level we’ll expect you to make an impact on a larger stage almost certainly have experience of at least two markets in your career.

Typical roles include

Global sales director; general manager (country); global category director; regional finance director; supply director; specialist global HR director; area IS director; category group director R&D.

Senior Executive

At this senior level the career path is fluid and reflects the level of business impact you could have anywhere in the world.

Typical roles include

SVP global sales; regional director; global category officer; SVP finance; SVP purchasing; SVP HR; SVP R&D.

Disciplines

Marketing

We’re a consumer-centric company and our marketing teams form the core of our future leadership. However, ‘pure marketing’ doesn’t fit with our strong commercial focus - a typical career path in marketing will always include some overlap with sales. This ensures that our country general managers of the future are well prepared to deliver on the full range of commercial challenges they will face.

A marketing-focused career will typically see you join as a commercial graduate trainee in a local business, moving between sales and marketing, from a brand manager up to category manager, then perhaps into a to global strategic role in head office (a global brand market manager for example). From one or two roles at this level, we would expect you to be able to prove yourself able to step up again to be a marketing director of a country and eventually, we’d hope, a country general manager.

Sales

A clear career path can take you from local roles in field sales, trade marketing and key account management, to global sales at head office, and then beyond. Longer-term your career will be heading for sales director, then a country general manager.

Supply chain

Your career will develop across five key areas: manufacturing, quality, supply services, engineering and purchasing. Expect to take on roles in more than one of these areas for each career stage. By the time you reach managerial roles, international exposure will be essential. This career path is designed to create high-potential senior managers with an understanding of the business that’s as broad as it is deep.

Research and Development

A typical career in R&D will see you start as either a graduate trainee, or perhaps an experienced analyst, stepping up to an associate position, then R&D manager with a team of direct reports and then a director level role. Though you may opt to focus on a specific technical area of expertise (such as electrical devices), we are more likely to see you progress along the more generalist route, which provides a broader scope of development across many learning areas and a greater number of career opportunities. Again with international mobility in mind, next steps from here could include global category R&D group director and, for the most successful, R&D senior vice president.

Finance

Like our other functions, a successful career in finance will involve delivering in a spread of generalist entry level positions, to broaden your fundamental skills and experience. Moving upwards from here, the most promising talent take on roles across sales, marketing, supply and financial accounting teams.

The career path is broad but still clear and once qualified you will have the opportunity to prove your capability in roles through manager, controller, country director, regional director and ultimately area director or senior vice president level. We encourage international mobility at all levels, and - like all career paths at RB - you’ll find it becomes more important the more senior you become.

Human Resources

A typical career might see you beginning as a trainee or associate, then broadening your skills to show how you can take on one or more HR manager roles, supporting manufacturing and commercial sites or even a specialist local function. Beyond this level your talents and international mobility will see you move into a more strategic role, heading the HR function for a small country or regional specialism.

From here, and depending on your leadership skill set, you could become HR director of a country, then of a region (eg Eastern Europe) or global function (eg sales) and eventually head of an Area (such as Europe) or specialism (eg Compensation & Benefits). The final and most senior step in the HR career path is the Executive Committee role of senior vice president of HR.

Information Systems

Building a career here involves exposure to different areas of the business but there are no set routes to obtain the skills and knowledge you’ll need. This means you can enjoy a highly flexible career path. At a fundamental level, your career path will be similar to that shown in the diagram above, taking into account the two key areas within IS - Systems Solutions and Production.