Category Manager

Job Duties:

As a Category Manager on the Wholesale Purchasing team, you will be responsible for procurement of merchandise along with implementation and development of pricing and promotion strategies. This position will use programs, tools, and technology to manage assigned categories which includes maintaining adequate stock levels and product quality.

Responsibilities:

• Select vendors, assess vendor capabilities, and evaluate vendor performance
• Negotiate cost, delivery, and payment terms
• Analyze data using statistics and data mining
• Oversight of purchase order management
• Continuously obtain new or improved lines of products by adding/discontinuing products to maintain a variety of selections and plan-o-gram compliance
• Communicate with store operations pricing information and the status of inventory to eliminate slow moving/out of date/overstocked products
• Manage vendor contracts to ensure timely receipt of rebates and promotional funding
• Manage promotional and marketing plans for assigned categories and vendors
• Continuously review vendor and category sales performance metrics
• Work directly with vendors to resolve supply chain issues and problematic inventory
• Perform market studies on a continuous basis
• Oversight of all essential information such as cost, size, UPC, etc.
• Work with support staff within in the team to achieve objectives
• Other duties as assigned

Skills and Requirements:

• Prioritize and manage multiple tasks while meeting established deadlines
• Demonstrate planning and organizational skills
• Utilize strong problem solving, reasoning, and decision-making skills
• Strong negotiation skills and techniques
• Strong skills within Microsoft Office 365 platforms
• Demonstrated aptitude for learning new technologies with analytical and problem-solving skills
• Communicate ideas in business-centric and user-friendly language to end users.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in business, marketing, supply chain, or related field
• 3-5 years of procurement and/or category management experience
• Experience with Circana and/or Nielsen syndicated data platforms
• Sales experience with a sales agency or CPG manufacturer

Location:

• This position will be located at the Fareway Corporate Headquarters in Johnston, IA
• This position after the training period has potential for a blend of on-site and remote working

*EOE