Category Manager

BENCHMADE • Oregon City, OR

24d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Category Manager serves as the business and product leader for one or more assigned product categories. They own category strategy, customer understanding, product portfolio, commercialization, and category P&L while their team of engineers and designers. They balance strategic leadership with hands-on product management and determine what products Benchmade builds—and why. Category Managers are the company's foremost experts in their categories. They advocate for customers, translate insight into products, create demand for future technologies through innovation and prototyping, and are accountable for both business results and product execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required
• 5+ years in Product, Category, or Product Line Management.
• 2+ years of direct people leadership.
• Demonstrated P&L ownership, budgeting, forecasting, and executive presentation skills.

Nice To Haves

• MBA preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own long-term category strategy for one or more categories.
• Develop rolling 3-year category plans and product roadmaps.
• Own category P&L, budgets, forecasts, pricing, and investment priorities.
• Present category strategy and financial performance to leadership.
• Serve as the primary voice of the customer.
• Lead customer research, field engagement, and competitive analysis.
• Translate customer needs into product strategy and validated opportunities.
• Lead products from concept through end-of-life.
• Partner with Innovation and Advanced Prototyping to pull future technologies and capabilities into the category.
• Balance innovation, lifecycle management, and commercial performance.
• Directly lead their team of engineers and designers.
• Coach, develop, recruit, and evaluate team members.
• Create an accountable, collaborative, high-performing culture.
• Partner with Brand, Marketing, E-commerce, Sales, Operations, Finance, and Supply Chain.
• Ensure successful commercialization and launch execution.

Benefits

• Equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status, age, disability or genetics.
• Compliance with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.
• Policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, benefits, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.
• Reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in the application or hiring process.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior