Director, Category Leadership - Dollar General

The Coca-Cola Company•Nashville, TN

17h•Remote

About The Position

The Director, Category Leadership - Dollar General serves as a strategic thought leader and trusted advisor to Dollar General’s merchandising teams, shaping category strategies that unlock growth, improve productivity, and strengthen shopper loyalty while aligning with Dollar General’s unique value and store formats. This role requires employing total channel and beverage category strategic thinking by leveraging unique insights from a variety of internal and industry sources. The Director will actively influence customer and system decision making with fact-based and category-centric thought leadership, delivering best-in-class segmentation recommendations, advanced analytics, and shopper insights.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree
8+ years in CPG industry and retail customer experience (manufacturer, retailer, or distributor)
Proficiency in at least one of the following areas: Category / Space Management, Shopper Insights
Proven expertise in segmentation, advanced analytics, and insight generation, including syndicated data (e.g., Circana, Nielsen)
Advanced Microsoft Office Suite, PowerBI and/or Tableau experience
Proven oral and written communication, storytelling, and influencing skills
Ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects and assignments
Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis and must not require The Coca-Cola Company's sponsorship to continue to work legally in the United States.

Nice To Haves

MBA or other Masters
10+ years in CPG industry and retail customer experience (manufacturer, retailer, or distributor)
Proficiency in at least one of the following areas: Category / Space Management, Shopper Insights
Proven expertise in segmentation, advanced analytics, and insight generation, including syndicated data (e.g., Circana, Nielsen) and customer data (1010data)
Advanced Microsoft Office Suite, PowerBI, and Tableau experience
Ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects and assignments
Ability to link category leadership strategies to customer strategies
Deep experience working with Dollar General or value-focused retail channels strongly preferred
Strong strategic storytelling and executive presentation skills
Demonstrated ability to influence without authority and build senior-level customer relationships

Responsibilities

Be the industry, channel & category subject matter expert to facilitate retailers’ choice to select Coca-Cola as their key strategic partner.
Provide leadership & continued stewardship for retailer’s beverage categories.
Recommend space opportunities and risks for the beverage category.
Identify and articulate opportunities as part of the annual customer category situation assessment process.
Serve as a strategic advisor to Dollar General merchant leadership, building credibility through deep customer understanding and consistent value creation.
Focus on retailer category development while also partnering closely with Sales to support development on sales strategy which will win in the marketplace.
Deliver impartial and objective total store and beverage solutions for the retailer by providing differentiated, timely, relevant, and actionable insights.
Lead the development of category growth strategies rooted in shopper needs, missions, and behavioral segmentation tailored to Dollar General’s shopper base.
Prepare and deliver high-impact presentations to internal and external audiences that include market and industry trends, SWOT, competitive review, assortment, and category reviews.
Lead delivery of shopper insights & recommend action to improve shopper satisfaction.
Influence key system resources (Bottler, Sales and Category) to deploy Coca-Cola collaborative business planning practices effectively.
Design and deploy shopper, store, and occasion-based segmentation models to support strategic priorities.
Leverage advanced analytics, predictive modeling, APT testing, and syndicated/first party data to identify growth drivers, whitespace opportunities, and risk areas.
Partner with data science and analytics teams to evolve analytic capabilities and storytelling effectiveness.
Establish best practices for category leadership processes, tools, and performance measurement.