Category Manager

Company Overview

Do you enjoy brands like Arnold®, Brownberry®, Oroweat® bread, Thomas’® English muffins or bagels, or snack on Sara Lee®, Entenmann’s®, or Marinela® cakes and donuts? If so, you are familiar with Bimbo Bakeries USA, the largest baking company worldwide with over 20,000 associates working across bakeries, sales centers, offices, and sales routes to deliver fresh products to consumers.

We offer a competitive compensation package, a comprehensive benefits plan, an inclusive and safe workplace valuing diversity and authentic expression, as well as opportunities for growth and development.

Position Summary

The Category Manager role is a specialized position focused on expert knowledge in shelf arrangement, assortment analytics, and understanding consumer as well as category trends. Rooted in insight-driven decision-making, this role works closely within a diverse team to enhance category management tools through training, process development, and sharing best practices. It is a key position contributing to our Account Sales Team’s success by influencing shelf strategies to generate both short-term and long-term value for assigned retailers and for Bimbo Bakeries USA.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify and lead initiatives that promote category growth and increase Bimbo Bakeries USA's sales, market share, and profitability by analyzing shopper behavior and category trends, optimizing product assortment and placement to enhance category performance.
• Serve as the go-to expert and advisor in Category Management, guiding leadership by interpreting shelf space opportunities, analyzing business trends and category performance in the market.
• Lead and execute space management projects across all assigned customers.
• Collaborate proactively with Account Sales Team, Brands, Business Units, and Revenue Growth Management to explore assortment opportunities, addressing gaps, at-risk products, innovations, and core assortments.
• Develop and nurture strong long-term relationships with assigned retailers, utilizing insights to craft compelling, data-driven sales presentations based on customer and market intelligence.
• Maintain ongoing communication with internal and external stakeholders to share project progress, insights, and opportunities for both individual and team initiatives.
• Create and manage reports, and effectively communicate insights derived from them.
• Perform additional duties as required.

Behavioral Competencies

• Proactive identification of needs and opportunities and strategic planning to address them.
• Ability to design and implement effective programs related to one’s area of responsibility.
• Collaborative mindset with strong alignment skills among diverse stakeholders.
• Curious attitude to explore root causes behind performance results in the market.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Sales, Marketing, Business, or related fields is required; advanced degree is preferred.
• A minimum of 5 years of customer-facing experience in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector with a focus on Category Management; experience within Grocery and Mass channels is advantageous.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with experience translating data into effective actionable strategies.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with comfort in presenting to customers and senior executives.
• Self-motivated with robust project management abilities, able to juggle multiple tasks within complex organizational structures.
• Proficient in interpreting POS and Panel data, including engagement with retailer shopper card datasets.
• Experience supervising personnel, including developing teams and defining responsibilities.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office tools, particularly Excel and PowerPoint, along with expertise in space management software such as JDA or Apollo.
• Willingness to travel up to 20% of the time.

Additional Information

The role requires meeting certain physical and mental demands essential for performance; reasonable accommodations will be provided for qualified individuals with disabilities. Our company maintains an equal opportunity employment policy prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or other protected classifications.

Note: In Massachusetts, it is illegal to require or administer lie detector tests for employment purposes. Violating this law results in criminal and civil penalties.

Compensation

Salary range for this role is $94,300 to $122,600 annually with eligibility for annual bonuses, a 401k plan with company matching, and a comprehensive benefits package.