Senior Analyst, Category Management (Space Planning)

Cardinal Health•Dublin, OH

1d•$33 - $38•Hybrid

About The Position

The Consumer Health Space Planning team supports independent retail pharmacy customers by translating category strategy, product performance, shopper trends, and physical merchandising requirements into actionable planograms. The team connects data, assortment decisions, and retail execution to help customers use front-end shelf space effectively while supporting sales, profitability, inventory productivity, and a consistent customer experience. The Senior Analyst, Category Management (Space Planning) develops, maintains, analyzes, and distributes Consumer Health planograms that optimize front-end space for independent retail pharmacy customers. The role partners with Category Management, Planning and Analytics, Inventory Management, Marketing, Account Management, Internal Sales, and other stakeholders to execute the annual reset calendar, maintain planogram and item-data accuracy, and respond to changing business and customer needs. It applies category management, retail merchandising, and space-planning expertise to evaluate performance, develop recommendations, resolve technical and merchandising issues, and deliver accurate, executable solutions with sound judgment and independence. The role applies working knowledge of concepts, principles, and technical capabilities across varied tasks and projects of moderate scope and complexity. It identifies and resolves technical problems, exercises judgment within defined parameters, and works with general guidance; work is reviewed for sound reasoning and accuracy.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in business, merchandising, marketing, analytics, supply chain, retail management, or a related field, or equivalent work experience; preferred.
Two to four years of relevant experience in space planning, merchandising, category management, retail analytics, assortment planning, commercial operations, or a related role; preferred.
Ability to work with sales, item, inventory, customer, and market data; identify exceptions and trends; and translate findings into practical merchandising actions.
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
Understanding of planograms, shelf merchandising, assortment decisions, and shopper insights.
Strong attention to detail, organization, file management, and quality control, with the ability to manage recurring deadlines and multiple priorities.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to clarify business needs, provide proactive updates, document decisions, and collaborate across functions.

Nice To Haves

Experience creating, maintaining, validating, and publishing planograms using NIQ Spaceman, Blue Yonder/JDA, Apollo, or a comparable retail space-planning platform.
Experience with AI productivity tools, data-visualization solutions, or SQL querying.
Experience in Consumer Health, retail pharmacy, or retail merchandising.

Responsibilities

Create, revise, version, and publish planograms for assigned Consumer Health categories using the approved space-planning platform, accurately representing product placement, shelf fit, facings, adjacencies, and merchandising standards.
Perform quality assurance before publication, validating item placement, dimensions, facings, capacity, assortment, shelf fit, identifiers, images, versioning, and supporting documentation.
Manage assigned work against the annual category reset calendar, including strategy inputs, sample and image readiness, line-review decisions, and assortment changes.
Partner with Category Managers to translate assortment decisions, category strategies, shopper needs, market trends, and product priorities into executable shelf layouts.
Capture, validate, and maintain item dimensions, images, identifiers, descriptions, hierarchy, status, and other data required for planogram production and downstream reporting.
Analyze internal sales, inventory, item, customer, and syndicated market information to assess product productivity, space allocation, assortment opportunities, and potential planogram changes.
Review planogram item availability and inventory reporting, identify risks to planogram release or customer execution, and coordinate substitutions or corrective actions with relevant teams and suppliers.
Create and maintain standard operating procedures, templates, checklists, file structures, naming conventions, and controls to improve accuracy, cycle time, scalability, and team continuity.
Build working relationships across Category Management, Planning and Analytics, Marketing, Supply Chain, Account Management, and Internal Sales; clarify needs, communicate status, and follow through on deliverables.
Prepare planogram metrics, category or customer analyses, visual merchandising recommendations, and concise summaries of risks and opportunities for business reviews, initiatives, and leadership decisions.