Director, Category Strategy

Farmer's Fridge Careers•Chicago, IL

8d•$165,000 - $180,000

About The Position

Farmer’s Fridge makes fruits and vegetables accessible and approachable for everyone. We offer a variety of fresh, healthy, ready-to-eat meals and snacks through our fresh food vending machines, wholesale partners, and our office pantry solution — providing chef-curated meals to customers within seconds. Today, we operate a network of Fridges and partner with clients nationwide in high-foot-traffic areas, such as airports, hospitals, universities, and large office buildings — where there is limited accessibility to fresh, healthy, grab-n-go options. We care deeply about what we’re creating and aspire to make sure our customers feel that through every touchpoint. This shows up in many ways across the business. We are committed to prioritizing food safety, we are passionate about product quality, we value our employees, we champion the best idea no matter where it comes from, and we’re committed to making an overall positive impact as we scale. About this Role: We’re looking for a Director of Channel Strategy to own the medium- and long-term performance of the Fridge channel — setting where we play, how the portfolio evolves, and what “good” looks like economically over time. You’ll be accountable for the channel P&L, fridge lifecycle strategy, and product/category strategy within the Fridge and Retail channels. You’ll define the economic model and roadmap for the channel and partner closely with the Director of Channel Operations, who owns day-to-day execution, forecasting, and variance management. Your job is to set the guardrails, targets, and plays; their job is to make the numbers show up in the weekly plan. This is a highly cross-functional role at the intersection of Finance, Demand Planning, Channel Operations, Sales, Marketing, Category/Menu, and Product. You’ll combine data, experimentation, and commercial judgment to grow profitable revenue across 1,800+ fridges while improving the customer experience.

Requirements

8–12+ years of progressive experience in channel management, general management, category management, revenue growth, strategy, or P&L ownership roles in a multi-location, product-based business (CPG, retail, foodservice, or similar).
Proven track record owning or heavily influencing a P&L and making tradeoff decisions across pricing, assortment, programs, and operations to drive revenue and margin.
Strong analytical toolkit: comfortable working in Excel/Sheets and BI tools; able to partner effectively with Analytics/Rev Tech on SQL- and model-driven work, and to translate complex findings into straightforward decisions.
Experience designing and scaling test-and-learn programs (pricing, promotions, assortment, or lifecycle tactics) and turning experiments into durable playbooks.
Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with Operations, Supply Chain, Sales, Marketing, Product, and Finance — influencing without direct authority and driving alignment on tough tradeoffs.
Comfort operating in high-change, high-growth environments where you’re expected to build structure, clarify priorities, and focus the organization on the few things that move the P&L.

Nice To Haves

Experience with networked retail, vending, QSR, or last-mile / micro-fulfillment models.
Prior work in revenue growth management, category management, or GM-style roles in CPG/retail or food-tech.
Exposure to forecasting, demand planning, or customer LTV / LTR modeling (you don’t need to write the code, but you can frame the questions and use the outputs).