Director, Category Leadership

The J.M. Smucker Company; Orrville (OH); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

The J.M. Smucker Co. in Orrville, OH seeks a Director of Category Leadership to shape and advance Smucker’s category capability for SBA growth and stronger customer partnerships.

You will lead data-driven category strategy, shopper activation, and enterprise alignment across retailers, while developing talent and expanding leadership capability. Hybrid onsite (minimum 9 days/month) with responsibility for shaping long-range plans, annual sales priorities, and budget decisions across the Pet SBA

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in the CPG industry.
• 5+ years of shopper insights or category management experience.
• Proven experience leading teams of five or more direct reports.

Responsibilities

• Translate insights into enterprise category growth strategies.
• Define high-value customer and channel opportunities.
• Establish the Category Leadership vision, plan, and roadmap.
• Lead development of national category narratives for growth plans.
• Convert category strategy into retailer-specific growth agendas.
• Activate key retailer opportunities to advance joint business plans.

Skills

Strategy leadership

Category management

Cross-functional leadership

Data insights

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

NielsenIQ

SAS

Job description

Your Opportunity as the Director, Category Leadership

This position is accountable for shaping and advancing Smucker’s Category Leadership capabilities to deliver SBA growth, strengthen customer partnerships, and elevate commercial performance across the Pet portfolio. The Director will set the strategic vision for unlocking category growth through disciplined data, insights, and shopper activation across the category, Smucker, and key retailers. This leader will develop and steward current and long-range category strategies that optimize assortment, shelf space, aisle vision, and investment choices while fully leveraging consumer, shopper, retailer, and marketplace intelligence. As a strategic business partner, this role will influence annual sales planning, revenue growth management, NRO, innovation, long-range planning, brand planning, insight priorities, and budget decisions. The Director will also build future-ready organizational capabilities by setting clear expectations, developing talent, and elevating the team’s strategic impact across the Pet SBA and JMS Enterprise.

Location: Orrville, OH (Close proximity to Cleveland/Akron)

Work Arrangements: Hybrid - onsite a minimum of 9 days a month primarily during core weeks as determined by the Company; maybe more as business need requires

In this role, you will:

Champion the translation and synthesis of consumer, shopper, retailer, and marketplace insights into enterprise-level category growth strategies and priorities.

Define high-value customer and channel opportunities that strengthen joint business plans and shape long-term growth agendas.

Establish the Category Leadership vision, plan, and roadmap grounded in insight-led opportunities and enterprise priorities.

Lead the development and deployment of compelling national category narratives that can be translated into customized customer growth plans.

Convert category strategy into retailer-specific growth agendas, executive-level stories, and strategic initiatives that influence customer decision-making.

Prioritize and activate key retailer opportunities that advance joint business plans and unlock sustainable category growth.

Shape retailer category strategies through differentiated, account-specific insights, executive influence, and pragmatic commercial recommendations.

Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing Category Leadership team, setting clear expectations for strategic ownership, business impact, and enterprise collaboration.

Create meaningful growth opportunities that build leadership depth, strengthen succession readiness, and expand team capabilities.

Provide direct feedback, strategic direction, and coaching that accelerates individual performance and strengthens team effectiveness.

Partner with SBA leaders to drive a unified Category Leadership strategy, consistent language, and aligned ways of working across the enterprise.

Strengthen connectivity between field sales, strategy, insights, and portfolio priorities to ensure integrated execution and enterprise alignment.

Influence Insights priorities and budgets to ensure the organization is investing in the capabilities, data, and analytics required to support category growth.

Define, scale, and embed Category Leadership best practices that raise the standard for strategic customer engagement and commercial impact.

Maintain an enterprise-forward perspective on category trends, systems, capabilities, retailer needs, and marketplace dynamics to anticipate future growth requirements.

Evaluate the work required in the future-state organization and proactively build the capabilities, leadership competencies, and experiences needed to lead in a more integrated and broadly scoped environment.

Model Director-level expectations by demonstrating enterprise thinking and proactive ownership, decisive leadership, and the ability to set direction.

Key Leadership Expectations

Be proactive by setting direction and define priorities with PET SBA.

Elevate strategic thinking across the team by connecting category opportunities to broader business growth choices.

Lead with proactive ownership, sound judgment, and accountability in a more integrated and broadly scoped organization.

Build future-ready capabilities by developing talent, strengthening cross-functional influence, and raising the standard for Director-level leadership.

What we are looking for:

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in the CPG industry.
• 5+ years of shopper insights or category management experience.
• Proven experience leading teams of five or more direct reports, with a track record of setting vision, building capability, and inspiring a team to execute with excellence.
• Enterprise-minded strategic leader with the ability to envision future-state teams, processes, capabilities, and customer relationships.
• Executive presence and resonant leadership, with the ability to engage, inspire, and lead inclusively while creating clarity, confidence, and accountability.
• Strong ability to communicate, present, influence, and align senior leaders, cross-functional partners, executive stakeholders, and C-level audiences.
• Highly self-directed leader with the judgment, agility, and ownership required to lead through change, manage competing enterprise priorities, and deliver results.
• Exceptional executive communication skills, strong business acumen, and rigorous attention to detail.
• Ability to travel up to 25% of the work schedule.

#LI-CM1

The Right Place for You

We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.

Stay connected with us on LinkedIn.

We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.

We’re a community of passionate, talented professionals dedicated to creating food people and pets love—while supporting the communities in which we work and live.

We value what makes each person unique, champion growth and development, and foster collaboration that fuels productivity and drives our shared success.

Learn more about our Thrive Together purpose.

At Smucker, we're passionate about creating a workplace where you truly belong. With a culture rooted in our Basic Beliefs and a competitive Total Rewards program, we aim to support every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.

Learn more about working at Smucker.

Our culture is sustained and brought to life every day by the people of Smucker and our hiring process is designed to identify the right candidate for every position at our company.

Learn more about our hiring process.

The J.M. Smucker Co.(the “Company”) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. No person will be discriminated against in hiring or in any other aspect of their employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, transgender status, marital status, familial status, disability, genetic information, protected veteran/military status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.