Product Manager

Loblaw Companies Limited; Brampton; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading Canadian retail company is hiring a Senior Product Manager in Brampton who will drive brand strategy and product development. The role requires 5-7 years of relevant experience, exceptional analytical skills, and a strong business acumen. You will collaborate with various stakeholders, manage vendor relationships, and lead packaging projects. Join a firm committed to sustainability, inclusion, and professional growth.

Benefits

Progressive career opportunities

Comprehensive training

Flexibility in work schedule

Competitive benefits

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of related experience in a corporate environment.
• Exceptional analytical skills to assess and forecast performance.
• Strong organizational skills to handle multiple projects.
• Ability to influence stakeholders effectively.
• Experience in vendor management and negotiation.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a two-year category strategy.
• Deliver product lifecycle management for new product development.
• Manage relationships with multiple vendors and stakeholders.
• Coach and develop team members for high performance.
• Lead packaging projects with accountability for design quality.

Skills

Analytical skills

Self-discipline

Interpersonal skills

Negotiation skills

Vendor management

Creativity

Business acumen

Job description

Come make your difference in communities across Canada, where authenticity, trust and making connections is valued – as we shape the future of Canadian retail, together. Our unique position as one of the country's largest employers, coupled with our commitment to positively impact the lives of all Canadians, provides our colleagues a range of opportunities and experiences to help Canadians Live Life Well®.

At Loblaw Companies Limited, we succeed through collaboration and commitment and set a high bar for ourselves and those around us. Whether you are just starting your career, re-entering the workforce, or looking for a new job, this is where you belong.

The Senior Product Manager translates control brand strategies into category product plans, that deliver both innovation and base business growth to drive sales, profit, and customer loyalty. The PM is responsible for working across a wide eco‑system of stakeholders to build control brand programs that drive the business end to end from strategy to tactics, facilitating alignment across a director stakeholder team, including category directors and sourcing directors, while also managing and prioritizing the workflow across an extensive internal support team and external vendor stakeholders. The PM will also manage, coach, and develop their team and provide direction on day‑to‑day tasks.

What You Will Do:

• Strategic Planning and Execution: Builds and sets financial targets for a 2‑year control brand category strategy, while implementing against the strategy with excellence, achieving sales, margin and control brand penetration OKRs on an annual basis.
• Innovation: Deliver on Sales from New with end‑to‑end product lifecycle management. This includes: (i) developing strategic rationale and business cases for new product development (including financial feasibility assessment, supplier negotiation and selection, finalizing product and packaging features and developing sales projections), (ii) providing pricing, marketing, merchandising and promotions launch support recommendations; and (iii) leading the APM team in project management to deliver on time and on cost.
• Base Business Management to maintain CB penetration: Utilize internal and external financial metrics to compile, analyze and monitor sales results to recommend corrective actions and identify opportunities across total business to optimize sales, margin and availability. Execution of savings and supply initiatives to action recommendations identified via assessment process noted.
• Stakeholder Management across Director level peers: The PM will facilitate alignment across a director stakeholder team, including, but not limited to, the multiple category directors and sourcing directors that for each of the categories under the PM’s portfolio.
• Prioritization and Workflow Management across internal and external support: Managing and prioritizing the workflow across an extensive internal support team, including product development, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, packaging design agency, supply chain and marketing. Day‑to‑day management of all vendor relationships (can range from 30‑100 vendors per PM) to deliver on innovation and base business plans and ensure that vendors deliver on time and on cost within Loblaw Brand guidelines. This scope also includes facilitating forward‑looking innovation sessions with vendors to unlock future and first‑to‑market innovation.
• Team Management: Coaching and talent development for direct report(s).
• Packaging Excellence: From brief to agency, leadership of 20+ packaging projects per year, with accountability for best in class design and leadership approvals.
• Marketing Support and Briefing to drive customer acquisition: Brief marketing and support execution to ensure that go‑to‑market messaging is optimized for products under development across all marketing programs, including Insider’s.
• Other duties as assigned.

What You Will Bring:

• 5‑7 years' related experience (preferably in a corporate food, packaged goods environment).
• Exceptional analytical skills used to assess current Control Brand performance as well as forecast sales, penetration, etc.
• Naturally proactive with a high degree of self‑discipline and organization skills in order to manage numerous overlapping projects and deadlines.
• Superior interpersonal and formal presentation skills to influence suppliers, senior management, and colleagues to accept business recommendations.
• Lateral thinker who considers financial, technical, and marketing parameters in order to introduce innovative products to the marketplace.
• Experienced in vendor management determining vendor capabilities to handle capacity, volume, demand, quality issues etc.
• Creative and strong negotiation skills are required with increased knowledge of the market and financial analysis to support the claims.
• Strong business acumen, including PnL management, core understanding of financial metrics and business drivers.
• Ability to coach and mentor direct reports and team with a focus on people development.

Key Measures:

• Control brand sales, penetration, and margin
• Incremental profitability to the enterprise
• Brand Health
• Sales from New and associated in‑year product launch targets
• Insider’s delivery and growth
• Growth in market share
• Customer acquisition

Our commitment to Sustainability and Social Impact is an essential part of the way we do business, and we focus our attention on areas where we can have the greatest impact. Our approach to sustainability and social impact is based on three pillars – Environment, Sourcing and Community – and we are constantly looking for ways to demonstrate leadership in these important areas. Our CORE Values – Care, Ownership, Respect and Excellence – guide all our decision‑making and come to life through our Blue Culture. We offer our colleagues progressive careers, comprehensive training, flexibility, and other competitive benefits – these are some of the many reasons why we are one of Canada’s Top Employers, Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, Canada’s Greenest Employers & Canada’s Top Employers for Young People.

If you are unsure whether your experience matches every requirement above, we encourage you to apply anyway. We are looking for varied perspectives which include diverse experiences that we can add to our team. We have a long‑standing focus on diversity, equity and inclusion because we know it will make our company a better place to work and shop. We are committed to creating accessible environments for our colleagues, candidates and customers. Requests for accommodation due to a disability (which may be visible or invisible, temporary or permanent) can be made at any stage of application and employment. We encourage candidates to make their accommodation needs known so that we can provide equitable opportunities.

Please Note: Candidates who are 18 years or older are required to complete a criminal background check. Details will be provided through the application process.