Associate Category Manager

Heartland Food Products Group; Indianapolis (IN); On-site; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Heartland Food Products Group, based in Carmel, Indiana, seeks an Associate Category Manager to uncover insights and guide business decisions. You will build data-based stories to drive distribution and support sales with category knowledge.

As a Category Expert, you will work with Consumer Insights, IT, and Sales to create category decks, analyze performance, and plan strategies for future growth. This role is 100% in-office at our Carmel headquarters.

Qualifications

• Strong analytical skills essential to translate data into insights.
• Proficient in Excel, Power Pivot, and Power Query.
• Experience with Nielsen/IRI data tools (NITRO & Answers on Demand).
• Ability to manage multiple projects and meet deadlines.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills.

Responsibilities

• Be the Category Expert on the business and competitive dynamics, supporting retail and internal customers with actionable insights.
• Analyze in-market performance of existing items, new items, and promotions.
• Create insight-based POS tools for Field Sales to increase knowledge base.
• Create reports to inform trends and opportunities.
• Collaborate with Marketing to build plans for future brand growth.
• Manage and distribute Sales communications (BU updates, weekly/monthly reports).
• Plan in-store research experiences for HQ and Field Teams.
• Build strong relationships with internal and external customers.

Skills

Analytical skills

Excel/Power Pivot/Power Query

VBA

Problem solving

Nielsen/IRI tools (NITRO, Answers on 3

POS data tools (Retail Link, 84.51/MC,

Tableau

Power BI

Data management in Excel

Communication & relationship building

Project management

Tools

Nielsen/IRI tools

Tableau

Power BI

Retail Link

84.51/Market 6

Amazon Vendor Central

Job description

Heartland Food Products Group is a Carmel, Indiana–based consumer packaged goods company focused on sugar reduction, better-for-you beverages, and wellness-oriented food products. The company develops, manufactures, and markets low- and no-calorie sweeteners, liquid water enhancers, coffee products, creamers, beverage concentrates, nutritional beverages, and related private-label offerings.

Our best-known brand is Splenda®, and our portfolio also includes Java House® cold brew coffee and SlimFast®. Heartland serves retail, foodservice, e-commerce, business-to-business, contract-manufacturing, and private-label channels, with products distributed internationally across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

In May 2026, Heartland announced a definitive agreement to acquire Whole Earth Brands’ Americas business, which includes the Equal®, Whole Earth®, Swerve®, and Chuker® brands. The acquisition expands Heartland’s sweetener and wellness portfolio across North America and Latin America.

We are seeking an ASSOCIATE CATEGORY MANAGER position to help us build our portfolio of Heartland brands.

As we grow our portfolio of offerings, we are looking for a talented Associate Category Manager to help us uncover insights, guide business decisions, and build compelling data-based stories to drive distribution. Heartland Food Products Group is a dynamic, fast-growing organization committed to making a positive impact in the world. We are passionate about building brands and foster a results-driven culture that provides opportunities to learn and develop your career.

SCOPE

The successful candidate will support internal and external (field sales) customers by delivering key data and actionable insights that will help grow our business and arm our sales team with category knowledge that will make them an invaluable resource to their customers.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Be the Category Expert on the business and the competitive dynamics. Be a Valued Resource helping Heartland reach its objectives by Supporting our retail and internal customers by supplying actionable insights/data and helping them find opportunities and solve problems through Insights, Data, and Tools.

• Work with Consumer Insights, IT, Sales Managers and Directors with responsibility for Grocery, Club, Drug, and other channels to create Category Review Decks and other Sales materials that help drive business results.
• Analyze in-market performance of existing items (ours and competitors’), new items, and promotions
• Create insight-based POS tools for Field Sales that will increase their knowledge base, making them & Heartland an invaluable resource to their customer
• Create various reports that help inform and uncover trends and opportunities
• Collaborate with Marketing teams to build plans and strategies for future brand growth
• Manage and distribute Sales communications
• Examples: Business Unit updates, weekly sales reports, Monthly Sales/Marketing updates
• Help plan in-store research experiences for the HQ and Field Teams
• Build strong and trusted relationships with the internal and external customers

SKILLS

• Very strong analytical skills are a must – people without strong analytical skills should not apply
• Advanced experience with Microsoft Office programs including Excel, Power Point, Power Pivot and Power Query,
• Experience with VBA a plus
• Strong problem-solving skills with ability to take complex data and put into easy-to-digest formats that we’d be proud to show to our largest customers
• Strong experience with syndicated data resources including Nielsen tools such as NITRO and/or Answers on Demand, Assortment and Space Optimization, Homescan Panel, and Spectra or IRI Unify
• Experience with other Point of Sale data tools: Retail Link, 84.51/Market 6, Amazon Vendor Central and other account-specific data portals is a plus
• Strong user of data management tools within Excel
• Experience with other CPG 3rd party data sources (e.g. Numerator, Mintel) to gather data/insights
• Strong communication, organization, and relationship developing skills
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and deliver results on time

QUALIFICATIONS

• Category Management or Sales Analytics experience preferred
• Strong technical skills (Microsoft Excel, Nielsen/IRI, Tableau, Power BI)
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• Adept communication, organization, and relationship developing skills
• Experience working both independently and within a team-oriented, collaborative environment

This role is located at our Carmel, Indiana corporate office and is 100% in office.