Category Manager
About The Position
Joseph Gallo Farms is seeking a Category Manager to develop category strategies and customer recommendations that support growth across national and regional grocery accounts. Based in the West region, the role uses syndicated data, shopper insights, competitive intelligence, and retailer performance to identify opportunities in the cheese category. The Category Manager partners closely with the sales team and participates directly in customer sales calls, category reviews, and business planning meetings. The role translates analysis into practical recommendations for assortment, shelving, pricing, promotions, and distribution to support retailer category growth and Joseph Farms business objectives. The position is based in the West region and supports national and regional grocery customers. The ideal candidate is local to Atwater, California, though hybrid arrangements with at least one day per week onsite and fully remote arrangements may be considered for highly qualified candidates. Travel to customer meetings, sales calls, category reviews, and relevant store visits is required as business needs require.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, analytics, or a related field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
- Six or more years of relevant experience in grocery category management, category analytics, pricing, shopper insights, account management, or related CPG commercial roles.
- Experience developing category reviews, assortment recommendations, pricing analysis, or promotional plans for grocery retail.
- Experience with both NielsenIQ and Circana syndicated data platforms, including combining market data with retailer sales and shopper insights.
- Strong analytical skills, including interpretation of sales, volume, margin, market share, competitive pricing, and promotional effectiveness.
- Ability to translate complex analysis into clear presentations and practical recommendations for retail buyers, category leaders, and sales teams.
- Strong Excel and PowerPoint skills, with experience building recurring reports, dashboards, or customer presentations.
- Ability to manage multiple customer priorities, collaborate across functions, and participate confidently in customer sales meetings.
- Willingness to travel to customer meetings, sales calls, category reviews, and relevant store visits as business needs require.
Nice To Haves
- Experience spanning retailer category management or analytics and broker or manufacturer account management.
- Knowledge of cheese, dairy, refrigerated foods, or other grocery categories, including shopper preferences and merchandising considerations.
- Experience with Hispanic shopper insights, demographic segmentation, localized assortment, or store clustering.
- Experience evaluating trade investments, loyalty campaigns, and promotional return on investment.
- Familiarity with space planning or planogram tools, SQL, and business intelligence platforms such as QlikView or comparable tools.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain cheese category strategies using market trends, shopper behavior, competitive activity, and customer priorities, translating findings into actionable growth plans for national and regional grocery customers.
- Analyze syndicated data, retailer point-of-sale information, loyalty insights, and demographic trends to identify category opportunities and develop data-supported recommendations for local markets, store clusters, and customer needs.
- Evaluate item productivity, distribution gaps, assortment balance, and competitive placement; recommend product additions, assortment changes, and merchandising opportunities.
- Join sales calls and lead the category insights portion of customer meetings; present recommendations to buyers and category leaders, address analytical questions, and partner with sales on follow-up and execution.
- Evaluate competitive pricing, price positioning, promotional lift, volume, sales, and margin; recommend pricing and promotional approaches that balance shopper value, retailer profitability, and company growth objectives.
- Support customer business reviews and joint planning with account-specific insights; identify opportunities to increase distribution, improve merchandising, and strengthen category performance across customer banners and markets.
- Collaborate with sales, marketing, finance, and other relevant teams to align category recommendations with commercial priorities, product availability, and execution requirements; support brokers and account teams with consistent category guidance.
- Build category presentations, selling stories, dashboards, and category playbooks; communicate findings to customers and internal leadership and track the outcomes of adopted recommendations.
- Monitor competitors, emerging products, and unmet shopper needs; use market research and test-and-control analysis where feasible to evaluate programs and inform product, channel, and innovation decisions.
- Travel to customer meetings, sales calls, category reviews, and relevant store visits as business needs require.
Benefits
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match
- Health insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Educational reimbursement
- Paid time off, including vacation, sick time, and holidays
- Free cheese
- Life insurance
- Employee Assistance Program
- Competitive benefits package at a group rate for full-time employees and their dependents
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
