Category Manager, Whole Foods

Who You Are: 

You have retail sales category management experience and are eager to thrive at a dynamic, rapidly evolving company. You live and breathe Whole Foods and have expertise about their stores and their shoppers. You’re well-versed in the 4 P’s and can easily run analyses covering any of them. You’re a strategic thinker who uses data to create insights and give recommendations that will drive category growth. You are curious, consistently reviewing the business of the category you own. You are equally as comfortable building tools in Excel as you are presenting high-impact insights to diverse audiences. You believe in our mission of advancing childhood nutrition.  

The Task At Hand:  

The Category Manager works onsite in Austin, Texas, at WHM HQ alongside Whole Foods Category Merchants, providing insight into strategic business questions, designing analyses to support category round reviews, and creating quarterly state-of-the-business category updates. Key accountabilities include recurring analysis on assortment, incrementality, shopper behavior, pricing & promotion, and leakage, and the presentation of these materials to Whole Foods category leadership. As well as attending business reviews, category round kick-offs, and ideation/innovation meetings. The goal of this position is to further strengthen Whole Foods’ position in its assigned categories. 

In This Role, You Will:

•   Provide insight analysis around strategic business questions the category merchants ask and provide deliverables in the form of a data-driven PowerPoint

•   Own quarterly state of the business category health analysis. The Category Manager provides an in-depth deep dive into shopper behavior dynamic metrics, and performance

•   Create monthly and quarterly scorecards and assortment performance tracking

•   Run bi-annual leakage, share of wallet, and demographics reporting

•   Go on store visits reviewing competitive sets and merchandising techniques

•   Consistently review the assigned business agnostically to provide insights and recommendations on an ad hoc basis

•   Provide category analytics to inform the Core planogram designed to meet the financial and assortment needs according to the category strategy

•   Work with Category Merchants, providing suggestions on how to improve the current most common POG

•   Leverage market structure insights to develop flow and adjacencies

•   Leverage velocity and incrementalities from assortment studies to maximize revenue volume for POG as well as limit cannibalization

•   Partner with category merchant in meetings with Merch Pres, presenting the approved most common POG

•   Engage in omni sales and omni shopper data/projects – understanding performance and behavior changes for online and in-store shopping

•   Ongoing Category Promotional Analytics Support

•   Support Exclusive Brands (private label) analytics with the approval of the category merchant

In This Role, You’ll Bring With You:

•   Able to work onsite at the Whole Foods Markets Corporate HQ, in Austin, Texas, 5 days a week

•   A bachelor’s degree in business or related fields

•   6-8+ years of experience within Consumer Packaged Goods Category Management

•   3+ years of experience with Whole Foods

•   Expert knowledge of WFM Nielsen portals

•   Expert knowledge of Microsoft Suite, Outlook, Slack, and other professional platforms

•   Experience with planogram drawing software

•   Experience with both scan and panel data

•   Exceptional organizational, communication, and time management skills

•   Extremely strong analytical skills

•   A growth mindset and flexibility to reprioritize projects as needed

•   A genuine passion for improving childhood nutrition for a healthier and happier planet

•   A desire to contribute to a dynamic, high-growth, purpose-driven work environment

•   A demonstrated ability to thrive in ambiguity while deeply understanding business needs

•   Previous exposure to cross-functional work between Sustainability and Sales preferred 

•   Must reside in/around Austin, TX to be considered for this position

•   Please note that visa sponsorship is not available for this position

Compensation:

•   Salaried, Full-Time, Exempt

•   The anticipated salary range for this position is $120,000.00 - $140,000.00. The actual salary offer will carefully consider a few factors, including your skills, qualifications, experience, and location. Certain positions are eligible for additional forms of compensation such as bonuses, stipends, equity, and role-specific perks.

Additional:

• Annual Bonus

• 401(k) program + 4% company match after three months

• New Hire Remote Life Stipend + annual Nourish and Nurture Allowance

• Monthly auto, cell, and internet stipend

• Quarterly Farm-to-Fridge home deliveries and Employee Discounts

• New Parents: Up to 18 weeks of paid Parental Leave, Baby Steps Back To Work, 3 months’ supply of Once Upon A Farm products, and breast milk shipping service and support for those who travel after birth for the duration of your breastfeeding journey

• Unlimited Paid Time Off

• Paid Volunteer Time

• Paid Time Off to fulfill civic responsibilities including jury duty and voting in local, state, and national elections

• Medical Insurance for the employee covered at 100% on select plans with additional plan options at a reduced cost to the employee

• Vision and Dental Insurance covered at 100% for the employee and dependents

• Life insurance

• Flexible spending account (Medical & Dependent Care) and Health savings accounts for applicable plans

• Employee assistance program (EAP)

• All other benefits, leaves, and insurance as required by law, based on your specific residence

• And so much more!