Customer Category Manager

Absolute Executive Recruitment Pty Ltd; Sydney; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Absolute Executive Recruitment Pty Ltd is recruiting a Customer Category Manager in Sydney to own the category agenda across key non-major grocery channels. You will translate data into compelling category stories and commercial plans that resonate with buyers beyond Coles and Woolworths.

You will work directly with senior leaders, collaborating with cross-functional teams to build long-term category growth and drive influence with buyers, brand managers and other stakeholders in a

Qualifications

• Category or trade marketing experience and ability to build a data-driven category story.
• Commercial exposure and familiarity with P&L concepts.
• Experience in impulse, convenience, OOH, or food service channels.
• Ability to influence buyers and cross-functional partners without formal processes.

Skills

Category experience

Trade marketing

P&L exposure

Stakeholder influence

Job description

You've got category fundamentals. You can pull data apart, find the story, and build a case that gets people moving. But you're ready for more ownership and impact.

A major global FMCG business is looking for a Customer Category Manager to own the category agenda across some of it's most important channels outside of major grocery.

You'll drive the category agenda in building commercial plans that actually work for buyers who aren't Coles and Woolworths.

Some of those buyers are sophisticated and ready for strategic conversations. Others need convincing there's even an opportunity. You'll need to flex between the two - and bring internal stakeholders along with you.

This is one of three roles reporting directly to an exceptional Head of Category - respected, well-liked, and with a track record of building excellent category teams.

You'll have genuine access to senior leadership, be customer-facing regularly, and have the autonomy to shape how your channels grow. The business is privately owned, financially strong, and plans in decades rather than quarters, so there's a genuine appreciation for long-term thinking.

You'll need:

• Category or trade marketing experience - you understand how to build a category story from data.
• Commercial exposure - you've worked with or alongside a P&L, not just a slide deck.
• Time spent in impulse, convenience, OOH, or food service channels (or a genuine appetite to move into them).
• The ability to influence people who don't report to you - buyers, brand managers, customer directors - without waiting for a formal process to do it

This role will suit someone a step or two into their category career, or a salesperson with some category smarts, who wants breadth, autonomy, and the chance to build something from scratch in a business that will back them to do it.