Category Analyst

Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores; Oklahoma City (OK); On-site; USD 65,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company funded tuition assistance

Paid Time Off

401(k) – 100% Match up to 5%

Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance after 30 days

Career Development

Job summary

Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores in Oklahoma City is seeking a Category Analyst to drive category performance through data-driven solutions in merchandising. This high-impact role requires a bachelor's degree, strong analytical skills, and 1-3 years of experience in analytics. Responsibilities include developing pricing strategies, measuring impacts, and collaborating with cross-functional teams. Love's offers competitive pay, career development opportunities, and a supportive work environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred in a relevant quantitative or business field.
• 1–3+ years of experience in retail, merchandising, pricing, marketing, or operations analytics.
• Exposure to retail pricing systems and promotional analysis preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop deep fluency in Love’s business and pricing strategy.
• Lead pricing and promotion related analyses from problem framing through recommendation.
• Measure and evaluate the impact of implemented decisions.

Skills

Analytical mindset

Communication skills

Ownership

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant quantitative or business field

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

Tableau

Power BI

SQL

Python

R

Job description

Benefits:

• Fuel Your Growth with Love's - company funded tuition assistance
• Paid Time Off
• 401(k) – 100% Match up to 5%
• Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance after 30 days
• Competitive Pay
• Career Development

Welcome to Love's:

The Category Analyst is a high‑impact, consultative analytics role embedded within the Merchandising, with a focus on driving category performance across pricing, promotion, assortment, testing, and optimization levers. This role combines strong analytical rigor with deep business partnership. Category Analysts are expected to actively shape strategy, influence decisions, and advocate for the execution of data‑driven solutions that improve revenue, profitability, and customer value.

Job Functions:

• Develop deep fluency in Love’s business, including product categories, customer behavior, pricing strategy, and financial performance
• Take an active role in development, execution, and continuous improvement of Love’s category strategies, including pricing, promotion, and other performance optimization levers
• Leverage data science and advanced analytics tools to forecast outcomes and recommend actions aligned to business objectives
• Act as the primary analytics partner to Category Management, aligning enterprise analytical capabilities with category‑specific business needs to design decision frameworks, guardrails, and strategies supporting pricing, promotion, and broader category optimization strategies that support both tactical execution and long‑term category health
• Lead pricing and promotion related analyses from problem framing through recommendation and execution, not just interpretation
• Create and present clear, compelling narratives to guide Merchandising leaders and cross‑functional partners
• Measure and evaluate the impact of implemented decisions, clearly communicating results, learnings, and next steps
• Participate in or lead competitive benchmarking and market intelligence initiatives to inform pricing and assortment decisions
• Lead or contribute to system implementations and process improvements related to pricing, promotion, testing, and analytics
• Support ongoing and future reporting, analytical, and insight needs across Merchandising and Operations

Experience and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred in a relevant quantitative or business field (e.g., mathematics, statistics, economics, finance, engineering, MIS, or MBA)
• 1–3+ years of experience preferred in retail, merchandising, pricing, marketing, or operations analytics
• Exposure to retail pricing systems, promotional analysis, and pricing methodologies strongly preferred
• Demonstrated experience troubleshooting analytical or business problems and driving issue resolution
• Experience with Tableau, Power BI, SQL, Python, and R is a plus

Skills and Physical Demands:

• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to structure ambiguous problems and develop insight‑driven solutions
• Working understanding of statistical concepts and pricing fundamentals, including elasticity, promotional lift, cannibalization, and affinity analysis
• Solid understanding of the retail business environment and how analytical decisions impact execution
• Self‑starter who takes ownership and thrives in a fast‑moving, collaborative environment
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to influence without authority
• Customer‑ and business‑outcome‑oriented, not just task‑or analysis‑oriented
• Proven ability to work effectively in cross‑functional, team‑based settings

Love's is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Veterans encouraged to apply.

EOE-Protected Veterans/Disability