Manager, Market Insights and Category Management

MANN+HUMMEL•Gastonia, NC

About The Position

The Manager, Category Management & Market Intelligence leads category strategy, market intelligence, and category analytics across the Automotive Aftermarket business. The role transforms internal and external data into actionable category growth strategies, assortment recommendations, customer opportunities, and market insights that support Sales, Marketing, Product Management, and Executive Leadership. As the business lead for Category Management, this position develops and deploys scalable processes, tools, and analytical frameworks to improve decision-making, strengthen customer partnerships, and drive profitable growth. The role owns category management methodologies, market sizing initiatives, customer opportunity identification, and customer-facing strategic recommendations. It also uses advanced analytics, business intelligence platforms, automation, and AI-assisted workflows to increase organizational effectiveness and commercial impact.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Statistics, Economics, Psychology, Data Analytics, Engineering, or a related field.
At least 7 years of experience in Category Management, Analytics, Market Intelligence, or Strategic Marketing.
Significant Automotive Aftermarket experience.
Experience leading customer-facing strategy and teams.
Advanced Power BI and Excel skills.
Knowledge of category management methodologies, market sizing, and business case development.
Executive communication skills.
Strategic thinking, analytical problem solving, commercial acumen, execution excellence, influencing and collaboration, and customer orientation.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or MBA.
Experience with SQL, Power Query, Power Automate, Microsoft Fabric, Copilot, Circana, Epicor, and vehicle parc analytics.

Responsibilities

Develop category growth strategies for key customers, channels, and categories.
Identify assortment opportunities, category gaps, and whitespace opportunities.
Quantify opportunities through market sizing, vehicle parc analysis, and category demand trends.
Deliver customer-ready category presentations and business reviews.
Translate data into actionable revenue and profit growth recommendations.
Lead market sizing and market intelligence initiatives.
Integrate sales, POS, acquisition, vehicle parc, and third-party data.
Monitor category performance, competitive activity, and channel trends.
Support forecasting and strategic planning with data-driven insights.
Deliver executive-level reporting and recommendations.
Define business requirements for dashboards and reporting tools.
Partner with BI, Digital, and IT teams to develop analytical solutions.
Establish KPI frameworks and reporting standards.
Improve efficiency through AI implementation, automation, and workflow improvements.
Own business adoption and value realization of analytical tools.
Support strategic customer engagements through category insights.
Develop retailer, distributor, and traditional channel business cases.
Identify customer-specific growth opportunities with Sales teams.
Create scalable category management tools and processes.
Analyze channel customer performance.
Use POS, acquisition, and market demand data to identify opportunities.
Develop tools that help Sales prioritize growth opportunities.
Lead, coach, and develop team members.
Establish project roadmaps, milestones, and accountability.
Promote data-driven decision-making.