Buying/Marketing

Associate Category Manager ( 2 positions available)

Job Description:

This position reports to the Director of Category Management providing support to Category Management (Category Managers and Category Management Directors) through analysis, project support, and category management responsibilities.

Minimum requirements:

Candidates must have a Bachelor's degree (B.A.) from a four-year college or university, or equivalent combination of education and experience. Typically 4 or more years prior related buying/sales/market/financial experience is required. A working knowledge of the supply chain tools/systems is preferred.

Specific duties include, but are not limited to:

• Assists Category Management on departmental initiatives and projects.
• Extracts and analyzes internal and external data, interprets results and makes recommendations/decisions to management based on this analysis.
• Assists Category Management on promotional & seasonal forecasts, analysis, distribution quantities, and sell through.
• Assists Replenishment Buyers in managing inventory turns, service level, order cycles, deal implementation and general supply chain practices.
• Responsible for Category Management in the sales, net contribution, and other objectives of a given category including:
• Negotiates with vendors for cost of goods, promotional dollars, rebates, delivery terms, payment terms and growth incentives within corporate guidelines.
• Maintains awareness in market trends and analyzes market data from IRI, Nielsen and other reliable sources.
• Stays updated on all competitive situations for key items and reacts when necessary.
• Interviews vendors for new product presentations and makes decision on new items.
• Determines what products will be advertised and promoted in the stores.
• Budgets and monitors sales and margin plans of assigned categories in accordance with personal and company overall goals.
• Directs merchandising and pricing departments to maximize sales and profits in assigned categories.

Skills:

• Strong communication skills both written and verbal.
• Proficiency in Excel (spreadsheet) Power Point, Word.
• Must be able to develop, manipulate, format and share spreadsheets for purposes of analysis.
• Knowledge of Access or a similar relational database is desirable.
• Ability to meet deadlines.
• High attention to detail.