Manager, Category AFH

Mars; United States; Remote; USD 108,000 - 149,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) plan

Health, dental, vision insurance

Paid parental leave

Vacation and holidays

Sick time

Job summary

Mars is seeking a Manager of Category Management for the AFH Foodservice and Unattended Retail sectors. This remote role requires up to 30% travel and focuses on delivering data-backed category insights to drive growth across assortment, shelving, merchandising, and modular development.

You will translate analytics into strategic recommendations, communicate with AFH partners, and collaborate with internal stakeholders to enable business growth and decision making.

Qualifications

• Post secondary education or work experience equivalent.
• Minimum 5+ years CPG industry experience in Category Management, Category Strategy, Insights, or related commercial functions.
• Advanced analytical capabilities leveraging syndicated, POS and customer data to develop actionable recommendations.
• Experience with Nielsen Discover, Circana (Supply Track, CREST, IRI), Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

Responsibilities

• Lead insight-driven category growth strategies that create value for customer and organization.
• Act as trusted category advisor to customer merchants and category teams, providing data-backed recommendations on assortment, shelving, and space allocation.
• Lead annual and ongoing category planning by identifying growth opportunities and developing strategic action plans.
• Leverage distributor, operator, consumer, and syndicated data to uncover insights and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
• Create and deliver compelling, insight-led presentations for customer meetings and reviews.
• Champion best practices in category management, analytics, reporting, and storytelling.
• Partner with Sales and customers to identify growth opportunities and support Joint Business Planning.

Skills

Category Management

Advanced analytics

Syndicated data

Excel

PowerPoint

Data integration

Communication

Presentation skills

Education

Post secondary education or work experience equivalent

Tools

Nielsen Discover

Circana

Excel

PowerPoint

JDA/Space Planning

Job description

Job Description:

The Manager - Category Management in the Mars Snacking AFH business is accountable for the understanding and analysis of the category and providing objective, strategic, and tactical category insights and recommendations to AFH Foodservice and Vending/Unattended Retail partners. You will translate insights into actionable recommendations across assortment, shelving, merchandising and modular development to drive category performance. Serve as trusted advisor to the customer while partnering with internal stakeholders to provide strategic insights & analytics that support business growth and decision making. You will be responsible for external communication with key AFH Foodservice and Unattended Retail partners, supporting ad hoc requests, ongoing reporting, strategy reviews, shelf planning and creation, and insight generation using current tools and other industry resources. You will report to the Director of Channel Strategy and Intelligence. This role is remote, but travel (up to 30%) is required.

What are we looking for?

Required Qualifications

• Post secondary education or work experience equivalent
• Minimum 5+ years CPG industry experience Category Management, Category Strategy, Insights, or related commercial functions.
• Advanced analytical capabilities with experience leveraging syndicated, POS and customer, operator data sources to develop actionable business recommendations.
• Experience with Nielsen Discover, Circana (Supply Track, CREST, IRI), Excel, Power Point, etc.
• High level analytical capability.
• Assimilating and interpreting data from multiple disparate data sources into concise action-oriented recommendations.
• Demonstrated experience translating analytics into strategic insights that drive business growth and support decision-making.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to tailor complex information to audiences with varying levels of expertise.
• Strong ability to teach /consult business insight development through data analytics

Preferred Qualifications

• Foodservice and Vending/ Unattended Retail experience.
• Experience with distributor and operator data platforms; Circana Supply Track ALR Distilr, Vistar Power BI, Sysco PGI, US Foods Shared Table, PFG Meal Ticket.
• Experience with foodservice-specific market research and insights platforms Technomic Ignite and Datassential.
• Experience with space planning software; JDA/Space Planning experience is a plus but not required.

What will be your key responsibilities?

Customer Advisor and Category Leadership

Lead insight-driven category growth strategies that create value for both customer and the organization.

Act as a trusted category advisor to the customer merchants and category teams, providing data-backed recommendations on assortment, shelving, space allocation, merchandising, Lead annual and ongoing category planning by identifying growth opportunities, sizing potential impacts, and developing strategic action plans aligned with customer objectives.

Leverage distributor, operator, consumer, and syndicated data to uncover insights, identify performance drivers, and translate findings into clear business recommendations.

Create and deliver compelling, insight-led presentations for customer meetings, category reviews, business reviews, turning complex data into clear and actionable business opportunities.

Champion best practices in category management, analytics, reporting, and storytelling to elevate category capabilities and drive continuous improvement.

Partner with Sales and customers to identify growth opportunities, support Joint Business Planning, and establish Mars as a trusted category advisor.

Collaborates with internal teams to develop insights and opportunities that fuel category growth and commercial success.

Conduct ad hoc analyses to evaluate business performance and unveil opportunities.

The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is between the below range, however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including but not limited to, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, if eligible, including variable pay & general allowances (depending on the position and employee’s work schedule).

Subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable policies and plans then in effect, and depending on the position offered and the employee’s work schedule (i.e., part-time schedule), eligible employees are automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan, as well as participate in Company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance plans for the employee and the employee’s eligible dependents, and may be eligible to take up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave.

Employees will also receive the following paid-time off (which may be prorated based on start date and the employee’s work schedule): 120 hours of vacation per year, paid sick time for eligible Associates of 100% pay continuation for a maximum of 40 hours per calendar year, and 12 paid holidays throughout the calendar year that include both fixed and flexible holidays.

USD 108,160.00 - USD 148,720.00

Mars is a family-owned business with more than $35 billion in global sales. We produce some of the world’s best-loved brands: M&M’s®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, MILKY WAY®, DOVE®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, WHISKAS®, EXTRA®, ORBIT®, 5™, SKITTLES®, BEN’S ORIGINAL®, and COCOAVIA®. Alongside our consumer brands, we proudly take care of half of the world’s pets through our nutrition, health and services businesses such as Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, AniCura, VCA™ and Pet Partners™. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars operates in more than 80 countries. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our 140,000 Associates into taking action every day towards creating the world we want tomorrow.