Category Strategist Walmart

The Hershey Company•Mississauga, ON

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Category Strategist, Walmart serves as the primary category thought leader and vendor advisor for Walmart Canada, responsible for developing and delivering fact-based category growth strategies across everyday and seasonal confectionery. This role translates shopper, category, and performance data into clear recommendations on assortment, space, merchandising, and omni fundamentals, partnering closely with Walmart and internal cross-functional teams to drive sustainable category growth and flawless in-store execution. This role is accountable for delivering category leadership for Walmart Canada by identifying growth opportunities, building retailer-ready strategies, and enabling execution through clear insights and recommendations. The Category Strategist partners with the Walmart customer team and cross-functional stakeholders to influence decisions on assortment, space, merchandising, seasonal activation, and omni performance.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent of education and experience
A minimum of 6+ years experience in business/sales/insights (CPG preferred).

Nice To Haves

Category leadership & commercial acumen: understands category dynamics, retailer economics, and growth levers.
Analytical problem solving: frames questions, triangulates data, and builds fact-based recommendations.
Influence without authority: builds trust and alignment across a matrix and with senior customer stakeholders.
Executive communication: strong storytelling, presentation, and facilitation skills.
Project leadership: prioritizes effectively and delivers quality outputs under tight timelines.
People leadership & coaching: develops talent through feedback, standards, and capability building.

Responsibilities

Lead category growth strategy for Walmart Canada by developing insight-led, shopper- and consumer-driven strategies that grow the total category and support Hershey priorities.
Serve as the primary vendor advisor to Walmart category/merchandising teams, providing fact-based recommendations on assortment, space, shelving, seasonal strategy, and emerging format opportunities.
Own annual and in-year category planning, including category diagnostics, opportunity sizing, strategic roadmaps, and activation plans aligned to Walmart’s business goals and calendar.
Translate data into decisions by integrating multiple sources (e.g., retailer tools, syndicated, shopper research, internal shipment/financials) to diagnose drivers, quantify opportunities, and recommend actions.
Drive shelf and space optimization through modular analysis, item productivity work, planogram recommendations, and post-implementation measurement.
Lead seasonal category strategies for key moments (e.g., Easter, Halloween, Holiday), ensuring space protection, promotional readiness, and executional risk mitigation.
Enable omni fundamentals by partnering with internal omni/eComm resources and Walmart teams to strengthen discoverability, content, and online shelf performance.
Deliver high-impact storytelling through customer-facing and internal presentations (e.g., category reviews, line reviews, seasonal deep dives, business reviews) that simplify complexity into clear choices.
Coach and develop capability across the category team (direct and indirect), setting standards for outputs, ways of working, and best practices.
Collaborate cross-functionally with Sales, Sales Strategy, Marketing, SRGM, Supply Chain, Finance, and Analytics to ensure recommendations are aligned, executable, and measurable.