Our Future Leaders Programme will ignite the leader in you. This unique programme is designed to develop Unilever’s Future Leaders (UFL) by providing challenging and purposeful opportunities that accelerate their readiness to take on business leadership roles.
Unilever Future Leaders Programme – Commercial – Netherlands
The Unilever Future Leaders Programme, or as we call it “UFLP”, is a 3-year traineeship programme that gives you the opportunity to develop yourself into an experienced future-fit professional. Bring your enthusiasm, curiosity and innovative ideas to the table and start your learning journey at Unilever as a UFLP.
Please find more information aboutthe application process, requirements and why you should apply on our UFLP Netherlands website: https://careers.unilever.com/NL-UFLPopens in a new window
About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world’s largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) businesses. We reach 2 billion consumers a day and we have 161.000 employees globally.
We make products that people love – and that make a difference. Nutritious foods. Household care essentials. Indulgent ice creams. Luxurious shampoos… and many more. Shoppers buy them in more than 190 countries. That means you’ll find at least one of our products in seven out of ten households on the planet. And we want every one of those products to make a positive impact on the lives of the people. That’s why our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace, and why sustainable, long-term growth is at the heart of our business model.
Requirements for application
- Eligibility to work in the Netherlands at the start of the programme (employment) per 1st March 2024.*
- You have obtained your master’s degree at the start date of the UFLP (per March 1, 2024)
- Intermediate level of Dutch is preferred but not required for our Commercial track.
- We recommend that you only apply with a maximum of 5 years of experience to get the best out of the traineeship.
- Our Discovery Center Days take place at our Rotterdam office and will be held between November 6 – 28. It is not possible to join this day online.
What will you be doing as a Commercial UFLP?
By joining the Unilever Future Leaders Commercial Programme, we want to show you the full range of our commercial departments, which can vary from job rotations in all parts of Sales (Key Account Management, Category Management, Field Sales, E-Commerce, and Fast Delivery) and Marketing (Brand Management, Brand Engagement, Innovations, Digital Marketing, Consumer Insights, and more). You will learn and build holistic experience in multiple aspects of the commercial part of our organization, such as the full process from consumer insight to impactful innovation and building true customer relationships. The limitless opportunities at Unilever allow you to broadly develop yourself as a (business) leader.
For example, in one job rotation, you could be building partnerships with a wide range of our customers, which may include supermarkets, convenience stores, drug stores, discounters, online retailers, ice cream parlors and even theme parks. You would work together closely with your customer to maximize a new product launch, recommending the right range of products, negotiating an annual business plan, or looking for new business opportunities. Within Sales the focus lays on maintaining a healthy relationship with your counterparts.
In another job rotation,you could be working on the launch of a new ice cream, improving brand communication, or creating a digital campaign for one of our brands together with our partners. You would collaborate with global marketing teams and agencies to make sure consumers choose our brands over competitors and would work on creating the right assets for brand activations in supermarkets to capture the consumer.
What do we look for?
It might come as a surprise, but you do not need a specific educational background – this is a programme in which your personality will set you apart. It takes a special blend of ambition, people skills and commercial acumen. You will need creative business thinking to succeed and get the best out of every situation.
You will need to be credible and confident in front of people, a critical mindset, and have a passion for growing businesses, coupled with the power to influence and negotiate.
It takes commercial talent, strong business skills and consumer love to actually make things happen. It takes logic, ambition, strong organizational skills, and an understanding of how businesses operate to succeed within this programme. You bring a digital mindset and will be tackling business challenges in an agile and disruptive mannerand you can expand your mind to think as a consumer. You have a passion for sustainability, and you believe that businesses with purpose last.
What will the programme involve?
The programme is designed to give you the ability to grow into a commercial manager, through hands-on learning alongside world-class experts. You will develop your individual leadership skills by working on real jobs from the start. You will have at least three rotations within the programme; these will give you a wide range of experiences in a broad range of dynamic and exciting areas of the business:
- The UFLP Commercial traineeship is a combination of rotations within our commercial teams, which will mainly consist of Sales (sales) and marketing elements.
- During the programme, you receive on-going development through a learning plan to build your personal skills and leadership but also functional learning opportunities through our sales and marketing academies. Next to this, each UFLP trainee is assigned a mentor to guide you through the 3-year programme.
- We sell millions of products to consumers every day. That is why every UFLP will start their career joining our Field Force team. You will learn all about our consumers and customers, in retail (Supermarkets), in Food Solutions (Chefs in Restaurants) and in Out of Home (all other outlets like gas stations & theme parks). It is a great opportunity to really get to know the other “Future Leaders”.
- During the 3 years of the programme, you will have real responsibilities and you will get the opportunity to make an impact. Your development is supported with a leadership journey of internal and external training focused on developing your leadership, marketing, and sales skills.
This programme will push you to achieve your potential and make a real business impact. Firsthand experience – it is the fastest way to learn.
Application Process
Our online application process runs from Sunday, October 1st – Sunday, October 22nd end of day.
You need to have finished all the digital stages including the Digital Interview stage by the end of the online application period (October 22, end of day) to be eligible for the Unilever Future Leaders Programme. It will take a few days to finish all online stages, so please finish all online stages as soon as possible, as we work on a first comes, first served base. In case of many good candidates, we may decide to close earlier. In that case, we will communicate this.
The entire selection process consists of
Stage 1: Online Application**Online
Stage 2: Digital assessment
(Personality/Profile assessment) Online
Stage 3: Digital Interview Online
Stage 4: Discovery Center Day***Physically at the Rotterdam office
Stage 5: Job Offer
*For non-EU, a search year / orientation year visa is accepted, but Unilever cannot support in the request for the Search Year visa in any form.
Non-EU candidates applying for the UFLP must have obtained a Search Year / a Orientation Year Visa or possess proper working permit in the Netherlands by March 1st, 2024, which marks the start of the employment.
Please be aware that, on average, the process of obtaining a one-year job search visa or endorsement sticker (VA sticker in Dutch) can take minimum of 90 days, depending on the speed of the procedure by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Department (IND).
**In the online application, there is a possibility to upload your CV to fill out your personal details. This is not part of the selection process.
**Our Discovery Center days take place at our Rotterdam office and will be held
between November 6th – November 28, 2023. It is not possible to join this day online.
Please note sometimes, correspondence may end up in your spam folder. Please regularly check your spam folder during the entire recruitment process.
Do you need any special requirements to complete the application process or the online assessments?
The application process consists of an online assessment and a digital interview, we automatically provide accessibility options such as decrease/increase font size, change font & colour, screen ruler, screen mask for everyone who would require support through a tool bar on the platform called ‘Recite Me’. If you would need another reasonable adjustment to complete any part of the application process, please let us know in the application form (stage 1 in the process). We will contact you.
Unilever is an organisation committed to diversity and inclusion to drive our business results and create a better future every day for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual and the talent they can bring. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment.