Director, Category Insights and Analytics

Division Information

Spectrum Brands Global Pet Care is looking for an authentic leader with a passion for influencing strategy and building collaborative partnerships to join its Sales Strategy & Planning team. This role is based in St. Louis, MO and may be remote or hybrid.

We are a leading worldwide supplier of pet products of exceptional value and quality for dogs, cats, birds, fish, and small animals. Our vision is to be the world’s leading pet care products company trusted to enhance the lives of pets and those who care for them. Based on our core values of Trust, Accountability and Collaboration, our culture comes to life from the many voices, perspectives and daily actions of our people. We leverage programs, structure and technology to create an environment that supports our culture and inspires our people to do great things ... wherever they work!

Job Summary

The Director of Category Management is responsible for building a strong partnership with North America sales by leveraging data and insights to develop powerful selling stories that drive Spectrum Brands’ portfolio expansion and increase share of retailer items/shelf. As a leader in the organization, this individual must develop a high-performing team and drive strong cross-functional collaboration to build best practices in insights and category leadership.

This role reports to Senior Director of Sales Strategy and Planning and will lead strategy development, assortment recommendations, new item presentation, category business reviews, and all aspects of shelving and organizing products in a category friendly way online and offline. Utilizing category and customer insights, you will develop innovative solutions to deliver mutually beneficial business growth, all while leading a team and developing talent.  

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

• Establish category management defining strategies to provide the framework for customer/account specific plans focused against merchandising, product assortment, placement, pricing, and promotion online and offline
• Serve as the category expert internally, creating compelling, actionable & measurable category plans and working collaboratively with cross-functional teams including sales, marketing, revenue management and shopper
• Develop and present comprehensive, concise, and objective category reviews incorporating shopper, consumer, retailer, syndicated and loyalty data
• Maintain tracking and reporting of company and key customer assortments to monitor progress against goals, identify incremental opportunities to drive the business
• Present insights and provide strategic point of view in leadership and cross-functional meetings as well as ad hoc discussions as applicable
• Develop and deliver seamless data solution tools for Nielsen other external data sources
  
  

Other Duties

• Collaborate with eCommerce team to expand category leadership in omnichannel and digital solutions
• Coach and develop a team of talented colleagues supporting their growth using personal development plans, internal learning, and advanced category management training
• Bring intellectual curiosity and a forward-thinking mentality to maintain awareness of market trends and competitor strategies and adjust strategy accordingly
• Participates in the development of best practices in Category Management
• Pursues the knowledge needed to improve departmental capabilities and professional agility
  
  

Education and Experience Profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Management, Finance, Accounting, Data Analytics, or related field, MBA preferred
• A minimum of 8-10 years of progressive category management leadership experience
  
  

Required Skills

• Proven experience leading customer engagements in both space and assortment, pricing strategy, trade promotion strategy, and omnichannel solutions, building indispensable, collaborative partnerships with retail customers
• Demonstrated experience recruiting, developing, and exporting talent that thinks critically and leads with insights
• Ability to develop and deliver a strategic plan, measuring and monitoring results, and make recommendations to achieve growth targets through category leadership
• Ability to present and calibrate critical challenges at the executive level
• Expertise in the Category Management process and proficient in syndicated and panel data as well as familiarity with pricing, promotion and assortment optimization software knowledge and experience working with customer POS data systems.
• Ability to distill complex data into clear, compelling, actionable stories
• Advanced Microsoft Office Suite skills (Excel, Word and PowerPoint)
• Exceptional communication skills – verbal, written & presentation
• Strong planning/organizing skills; the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and create structure and process where it does not currently exist
• Strong understanding of industry and global/national category management and shopper insight trends, frameworks and best practices
• Extensive knowledge of retail merchandising and in store execution tactics
  
  

Nice To Have

• CPSA (Certified Professional Strategic Advisor) certification
• Strong working knowledge and application of data analytics
• Experience managing relationships with third party agencies including brokers and data and insight providers
• Experience in Sales and/or analytical sales support and driving face to face dialogue and initiatives with CPG retailers a plus
  
  

Work Environment

We foster a workplace culture of belonging and inclusion where the diverse experiences, backgrounds and cultures of our team are celebrated. Our high-performance work environment empowers forward-thinking talent to make an impact and help drive results.

At Spectrum Brands, you’ll also enjoy benefits focused on your needs, both professionally and personally.

• Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage (from day 1)
• 401k and company match
• Hybrid work environment
• Pet-friendly office
• Paid time off + 12 company holidays
• Paid volunteer time and parental leave
• Tuition reimbursement
• Employee assistance program
• Employee resource groups (focused on belonging and inclusion)
• Social engagement activities (we have fun at work!)