Manager, Category Leadership - Walmart Inc. (Sales Facing)

The J.M. Smucker Co.•Bentonville, AR

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager, Category Leadership is responsible for building trust and influence with Walmart and Sam’s retailers and supporting Smucker’s sales teams to drive brand penetration, growth, and development across designated categories and JMS Brand activation. The role leads customized development of category-specific retailer growth opportunities and diagnostics, using insight-driven activations informed by retailer, shopper, and category dynamics. It supports sales with insights for JBP, line reviews, and customer annual sales planning, identifying and executing category and JMS growth opportunities. The position serves as a go-to category expert, provides in-depth category, retail, consumer, and shopper expertise in support of sales initiatives, and serves as a liaison to the headquarters category leadership and strategy team. The role leads customer-specific category growth strategies and initiatives; owns shelving and assortment solutions while partnering cross-functionally on price and promotion; and provides thought leadership to strengthen Smucker’s influence with Walmart and Sam’s. It contributes category-first perspectives to customer reviews, assessments, Top to Top meetings, JBP, and QBR engagements. The manager uses account-specific insights, business analysis, and data-driven recommendations to influence retailer strategies and builds customer-ready stories, visuals, and tools for selling conversations. The position tracks results and promotional and innovation effectiveness, identifies category and JMS risks and opportunities, supports omni-channel activation, communicates insights to varied audiences, and collaborates with sales and internal teams to drive business execution. The manager partners with Sales, Marketing, Insights, Intelligence, Category Strategy, and other functions to identify opportunities and translate insights into execution. The position is an expert in customer business analytics and resources, identifies requirements for tool and data-system development, acts as a liaison to the JMS headquarters Category Leadership team, and provides input into customers’ long-term business strategies. The role is based in Bentonville, Arkansas, with a hybrid arrangement requiring onsite work at least two days per week and travel of up to 20–25%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree.
At least 6 years of experience in the Consumer-Packaged Goods industry.
At least 3 years of Category Management or Shopper Insights experience.
Proven success building relationships within customers or retailers.
Experience analyzing shopper- or consumer-based CPG information.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and storytelling skills.
Cross-functional collaboration skills, especially in customer- and sales-centric environments.
Excellent organizational, written, and verbal communication skills.
Proficiency leveraging Circana or Nielsen data, POS and panel data, shopper card, Scintilla, and Atlas.
Planogramming or planogram software experience, such as JDA ProSpace or EZPOG.
Ability to develop and translate insights into actions and tell stories effectively with data.
Strategic mindset to help build and execute effective plans.
Business and financial acumen.
Ability to travel up to 20–25%.

Nice To Haves

MBA.
Experience working cross-functionally in a headquarters environment.

Responsibilities

Lead development and delivery of customer-specific category growth drivers, strategies, initiatives, and customized content.
Lead 4P tactical solutions for assigned customers and categories, owning shelving and assortment and partnering with cross-functional teams on pricing and promotion.
Provide thought leadership to elevate Smucker’s voice and influence with Walmart and Sam’s.
Lead category-first approaches in customer category reviews and assessments, Top to Top meetings, JBP, and QBR engagements.
Influence retailer category strategies with account-specific insights, business analysis, and recommendations related to distribution, promotion, pricing, and shelf placement.
Build customer-ready stories, visuals, and tools for selling conversations, supported by insights and data-driven recommendations.
Anchor planning and execution in facts and performance; track results and promotional and innovation effectiveness, and surface risks and opportunities.
Identify opportunities and risks for the category and JMS, with a bias for action.
Use available data and customized consumer, shopper, and category insights to create fact-based strategic selling that drives implementation and activation at retail.
Support and drive omni activation and integration across category deliverables and workstreams.
Collaborate with category advisor teams and partner with sales to drive the business.
Understand the competitive marketplace in which JMS and its customers operate.
Communicate insights and learnings internally and externally to a wide variety of audiences.
Provide category and key customer business analytics and actively participate in retailer meetings.
Collaborate with and influence colleagues across the various SBAs.
Partner with Sales, Marketing, Insights, Intelligence, Category Strategy, and other functional teams to identify business opportunities and translate insights into execution.
Serve as an expert on customer business analytics and resources, including Circana, panel, and Scintilla.
Identify requirements for tool development and data-support systems that increase visibility and application of key category insights.
Act as a liaison to the JMS headquarters Category Leadership team.
Provide input into customer long-term business strategy.