Category Analyst

Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores•Oklahoma City, OK

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Category Analyst is a high‑impact, consultative analytics role embedded within the Merchandising, with a focus on driving category performance across pricing, promotion, assortment, testing, and optimization levers. This role combines strong analytical rigor with deep business partnership. Category Analysts are expected to actively shape strategy, influence decisions, and advocate for the execution of data‑driven solutions that improve revenue, profitability, and customer value.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred in a relevant quantitative or business field (e.g., mathematics, statistics, economics, finance, engineering, MIS, or MBA)
1–3+ years of experience preferred in retail, merchandising, pricing, marketing, or operations analytics
Exposure to retail pricing systems, promotional analysis, and pricing methodologies strongly preferred
Demonstrated experience troubleshooting analytical or business problems and driving issue resolution
Experience with Tableau, Power BI, SQL, Python, and R is a plus
Strong analytical mindset with the ability to structure ambiguous problems and develop insight‑driven solutions
Working understanding of statistical concepts and pricing fundamentals, including elasticity, promotional lift, cannibalization, and affinity analysis
Solid understanding of the retail business environment and how analytical decisions impact execution
Self‑starter who takes ownership and thrives in a fast‑moving, collaborative environment
Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to influence without authority
Customer‑ and business‑outcome‑oriented, not just task‑or analysis‑oriented
Proven ability to work effectively in cross‑functional, team‑based settings

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred in a relevant quantitative or business field (e.g., mathematics, statistics, economics, finance, engineering, MIS, or MBA)
Experience with Tableau, Power BI, SQL, Python, and R is a plus

Responsibilities

Develop deep fluency in Love’s business, including product categories, customer behavior, pricing strategy, and financial performance
Take an active role in development, execution, and continuous improvement of Love’s category strategies, including pricing, promotion, and other performance optimization levers
Leverage data science and advanced analytics tools to forecast outcomes and recommend actions aligned to business objectives
Act as the primary analytics partner to Category Management, aligning enterprise analytical capabilities with category-specific business needs to design decision frameworks, guardrails, and strategies supporting pricing, promotion, and broader category optimization strategies that support both tactical execution and long‑term category health
Lead pricing and promotion related analyses from problem framing through recommendation and execution, not just interpretation
Create and present clear, compelling narratives to guide Merchandising leaders and cross‑functional partners
Measure and evaluate the impact of implemented decisions, clearly communicating results, learnings, and next steps
Participate in or lead competitive benchmarking and market intelligence initiatives to inform pricing and assortment decisions
Lead or contribute to system implementations and process improvements related to pricing, promotion, testing, and analytics
Support ongoing and future reporting, analytical, and insight needs across Merchandising and Operations