Category Analyst - Lighters

BIC•Norwalk, OH

7d•$90,000 - $110,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Category Analyst supports U.S. category development initiatives in the Lighters category through data analysis, reporting, and execution tracking. The role provides analytical support for customer meetings, promotional planning, pricing strategy, and new item launches, while maintaining key trackers and performance dashboards. It helps ensure accurate data, actionable insights, and disciplined execution across customer initiatives, and works closely with the Category Development Manager to align data with the selling story and customer sell-in. The role sits within Commercial Strategy and reports to the Director, Business Development. The Analyst analyzes syndicated, retailer, and internal sales data; tracks promotional, pricing, distribution, SKU rationalization, and launch performance; monitors competitor activity; and prepares customer materials and monthly category trend recaps. The position requires collaboration, strong analytical and organizational skills, and the ability to handle multiple requests in a fast-paced environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Marketing, or a related field.
2–4 years of experience in CPG analytics, category management, sales analytics, or a related field.
Experience working with syndicated data platforms such as NielsenIQ or Circana.
Strong Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, and data modeling.
PowerPoint proficiency.
High attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
Ability to manage multiple requests in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

Serve as the category data expert on customer trends and market performance.
Prepare analytical materials and data summaries for customer meetings.
Support ad hoc customer analysis requests.
Assist in developing customer presentations with supporting data, charts, and storytelling.
Analyze promotional effectiveness, including lift, ROI, and post-event performance.
Evaluate pricing, elasticity, competitive gaps, and margin impact.
Maintain the promotional tracker to monitor planned versus actual activity.
Identify risks and opportunities related to promotional cadence and pricing strategies.
Track SKU rationalization execution and progress against plans.
Maintain distribution and void tracking.
Track key initiatives for sales compliance and progress.
Monitor competitor promotional activity and pricing shifts.
Summarize competitive trends, new item launches, and their business implications.
Create new item launch forecasts by channel to inform projections.
Maintain new item launch tracking, including distribution, velocity, and performance metrics.
Support post-launch reporting and performance scorecards.
Analyze syndicated data such as Circana, retailer POS, and internal sales data.
Publish a monthly category trends recap highlighting and explaining channel drivers.
Perform ad hoc shipment data pulls relevant to key initiatives and tracking.