Manager, Category AFH

Job Description:

The Manager - Category Management in the Mars Snacking AFH business is accountable for the understanding and analysis of the category and providing objective, strategic, and tactical category insights and recommendations to AFH Foodservice and Vending/Unattended Retail partners. You will translate insights into actionable recommendations across assortment, shelving, merchandising and modular development to drive category performance. Serve as trusted advisor to the customer while partnering with internal stakeholders to provide strategic insights & analytics that support business growth and decision making.

You will be responsible for external communication with key AFH Foodservice and Unattended Retail partners, supporting ad hoc requests, ongoing reporting, strategy reviews, shelf planning and creation, and insight generation using current tools and other industry resources. You will report to the Director of Channel Strategy and Intelligence.

This role is remote, but travel (up to 30%) is required.

What are we looking for?Required Qualifications

• Post secondary education or work experience equivalent
• Minimum 5+ years CPG industry experience Category Management, Sales Strategy, Insights, or related commercial functions.
• Advanced analytical capabilities with experience leveraging syndicated, POS and customer, operator data sources to develop actionable business recommendations. Experience with Nielsen Discover, Circana (Supply Track, CREST, IRI), Excel, Power Point, etc.
• High level analytical capability. Assimilating and interpreting data from multiple disparate data sources into concise action-oriented recommendations.
• Demonstrated experience translating analytics into strategic insights that drive business growth and support decision-making.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to tailor complex information to audiences with varying levels of expertise.
• Strong ability to teach /consult business insight development through data analytics

Preferred Qualifications:

• Foodservice and Vending/ Unattended Retail experience.
• Experience with distributor and operator data platforms; Circana Supply Track ALR Distilr, Vistar Power BI, Sysco PGI, US Foods Shared Table, PFG Meal Ticket.
• Experience with foodservice-specific market research and insights platforms Technomic Ignite and Datassential.
• Experience with space planning software; JDA/Space Planning experience is a plus but not required.

What will be your key responsibilities?

• Customer Advisor and Category Leadership
• Lead insight-driven category growth strategies that create value for both customer and the organization.
• Act as a trusted category advisor to the customer merchants and category teams, providing data-backed recommendations on assortment, shelving, space allocation, merchandising,