Category Manager, Walmart Seasonal

Category Manager, Walmart SeasonalFor more than 115 years, Ferrara has created sugar confections that enable moments of sweetness, celebration, and connection for candy lovers of all generations. Today, the company is the #1 sugar confectioner in the United States. Ferrara boasts a passionate team of nearly 9,000 employees creating and delivering hundreds of products sold under 20 popular brands like Brach's, NERDS, SweeTARTS, Laffy Taffy, and Trolli to more than 66 million U.S. households annually and popular Dori snacking products under brands such as Dori, Gomets, Pettiz, and Yogurte 100 in Brazil. Additionally, Jelly Belly, known world-wide for its confections, was acquired in November of 2023.Work Location: RogersDue to the highly interactive and team-based nature of this role, in-person attendance for most of the workweek (i.e., 3 days or more) is essential for: effective communication including during in-person meetings, strong supervision, real-time problem-solving, and participation in cross-functional initiatives.Want To Make An Impact?Working closely with internal and external resources, the Category Manager is responsible for developing critical insights, solutions, and strategic and tactical category action plans to assigned customers. The Category Manager is the primary representative to the customer for all category management activities. This position addresses complex business opportunities by leveraging multiple data sources, tools and analytics, shopper insights and solutions into persuasive communications.Ways You Will Make A DifferenceUse and understand data RL specific/Luminate and IRI/Nielsen - to generate actionable insights that will help drive category insights with retail and distributor partners, address issues, or capitalize on opportunities to drive sales growth.Consolidate macro trends, insights, and fundamentals into succinct storytelling resulting in retailer activationsPrepare and present strategic insights to customers to support selling initiatives and secure alignment of strategic and tactical plans at multiple levels of the organizationDeliver impartial and objective solutions to the customer by providing differentiated, timely, relevant, and actionable insightsStrong ability to leverage data to make planogram assortment recommendations and provide rationale for recommendations to customerOptimize communications across cross-functional teams; oversees distribution and organization of tools and critical business materialsCultivate and manage relationships with retailersProvide leadership to the customer team across cross-functional teams to create dialogue via fact based insights and actionable business analyticsCollaborate with other Ferrara Candy company departments (Sales, Marketing, Research & Development, Purchasing, Trade and Market Development, Planning & Development, etc.) to identify sales growth opportunities and develop strategic and tactical plansDevelop and manage project timelinesSkills That Will Make You SuccessfulCollaborative/Team OrientedOrganized with strong planning skillsHigh tolerance for ambiguityBusiness AcumenInnovative, agile, and creativeAction-oriented with an ownership mindsetEntrepreneurial by natureExperiences That Will Support Your SuccessBachelor's Degree, MBA preferred, with 4-7 years of experience in category management in consumer goods, preferably in confections or other high velocity impulse categories (FMCG)Demonstrated success in developing, implementing, and executing category management activitiesStrong project management abilities. Capable of prioritizing and handling multiple projects simultaneously under tight time constraints and within budget parametersSolid knowledge of syndicated data sources (e.g. IRI, Nielsen, etc.)High proficiency in MS Excel, MS PowerPoint + JDA planogram softwareDemonstrated success working in a matrixed-organization.Strong knowledge of chain sales, retail and distributor operations.Solid experience in presenting ideas and concepts to varying seniority levels within an organizationProven track record of tangible impact to top/bottom lineWhat We OfferAt Ferrara, we're proud to support our employees with comprehensive benefits that enhance health, financial wellness, and include paid time off (PTO). Eligible employees may also receive an annual bonus based on company performance. Learn more about our benefits at https://flimp.live/Ferrara-Candy-2025-OE-QR.CompensationThe salary range for this position is $99,600 - $139,400 annually.