Senior Director - Category Development and Planning (Sales)

Freshpet; Bedminster Township (NJ); On-site; USD 205,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental and vision insurance

401(k) plan with company match

Paid parental leave

Tuition assistance

Job summary

Freshpet is seeking a Senior Director of Category Development & Planning located in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. The role involves driving the long-term category strategy and aligning various departments to enhance growth across channels. The ideal candidate will leverage consumer insights and develop collaborative strategies with major retailers, ensuring effective execution throughout the organization.

The position requires 10-15 years in consumer goods management with significant experience in category development. Freshpet offers a competitive salary range and an excellent benefits package.

Qualifications

• 10-15+ years of experience in consumer goods category management, category development, and/or trade strategy.
• Experience owning and managing P&Ls for top-tier strategic CPG customers.
• Strong partnership experience with Sales and Finance.

Responsibilities

• Shape long-term category strategy and drive cross-functional alignment.
• Lead development of strategic category insights and retail activation plans.
• Mentor and develop a high-performing category development team.

Skills

Consumer goods category management

Category development

Trade strategy

Financial insights

Analytical skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Education

10-15+ years of experience in consumer goods

Tools

Nielsen/IRI analytics suites

Space planning tools

Job description

Who We Are

At Freshpet, our goal is to change the way people nourish their pets forever. We strive to strengthen the bond between people and our pets so that we both live longer, healthier, and happier lives while being kind to the planet. We believe that if we can create fresh, real foods that pets love and help them live healthier lives, that their pet parents will also enjoy the many benefits of a rich life shared with a pet. IT’S AMAZING WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU START COMPLETELY FRESH!

What You Will Do

The Senior Director of Category Development & Planning is responsible for shaping the long-term category strategy, driving cross-functional alignment, and identifying opportunities to accelerate growth across customers, channels, and product lines. This role leads the development of strategic category insights, assortment optimization, and retail activation plans. The ideal candidate brings a combination of enterprise-level consumer goods experience demonstrating the ability to scale complex processes and partner with major retailers as well as start-up or high-growth experience, showing comfort with lean teams, rapid experimentation, and a bias toward action.

This leader oversees a team responsible for category analytics, assortment strategy, and retailer collaboration and acts as a critical partner to Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, and Executive Leadership.

How You Will Make an Impact

Category Strategy & Leadership

• Guide the multi-year retailer category vision, competitive strategy, and growth roadmap across key channels (e.g., mass, grocery, club, specialty, e-commerce).
• Leverage insights from consumer trends, shopper behavior, and market data to guide product portfolio and innovation strategy.
• Build scalable tools, frameworks, and processes that support data-driven decision-making, drawing on experience from large CPG companies.

Retailer & Customer Collaboration

• Partner on joint business planning with major retail partners; deliver compelling category narratives that influence retailer decisions on shelf, pricing, promotions, and assortment.
• Develop best-in-class category presentations, line reviews, and merchandising strategies.
• Ensure alignment between retailer expectations and internal product/supply capabilities.

Growth Planning & Cross-Functional Activation

• Lead the annual and quarterly sales planning process, ensuring category strategies, consumer insights, and demand forecasts are directly translated into customer-level targets and activation plans.
• Implement scalable sales planning tools and processes, drawing from best practices in large CPG organizations while adapting for speed, flexibility, and resource constraints common in start-up or high-growth environments.
• Enable the field and key account teams with clear, insight-driven playbooks, selling narratives, and category rationales that elevate customer conversations and secure incremental wins.

Planning, Forecasting & Operations

• Partner closely with Supply Chain and Finance to establish accurate demand plans and support S&OP processes.
• Improve forecasting models and planning tools, balancing enterprise discipline with the flexibility required in smaller, fast-changing organizations.
• Identify opportunities for process optimization and capability building within the planning function.

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing category development and planning team.
• Champion a culture that combines the strategic rigor of large CPGs with the entrepreneurial spirit of a start-up.
• Act as a strategic advisor to senior executives on category opportunities and marketplace risks.

What You Will Bring

• 10-15+ years of experience in consumer goods category management, category development, and/or trade strategy, including 5-7+ years of experience owning and managing P&Ls for top-tier, strategic CPG customers.
• Significant experience in a large consumer packaged goods company with exposure to structured planning processes, retailer engagement, and national-level category leadership.
• Strong partnership experience with Sales and Finance to deliver profitable joint business plans and achieve customer-level financial targets.
• Proven track record of using financial insights to influence internal stakeholders and retailer decisions.
• Experience in start-ups, emerging brands, or high-growth environments, demonstrating comfort with ambiguity, agility, and hands-on leadership.
• Deep experience with category management tools such as Nielsen/IRI analytics suites, space planning/planogram tools, and retailer-specific category development platforms.
• Proven track record of influencing major retail partners and driving measurable category results.
• Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and storytelling skills.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management abilities.

What We Offer

The range for this position is: $205,000 - $225,000.

At Freshpet, we offer a competitive salary and an excellent benefits package, including medical, dental and vision insurance, basic and optional life insurance, short- and long-term disability protection, flexible spending accounts, and a 401(k) plan with company match, paid parental leave, pet insurance, tuition assistance, a generous PTO plan and so much more!

Our Commitment to a Diverse Workforce:

Freshpet is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law (“protected characteristics”).

Disclaimers

The salary range provided above is the range of the wages that we will pay for the listed position. A final determination on the wages within this range is based on a number of non-discriminatory factors, including but not limited to the required work location, previous work experience, skill set, and wage rates for comparable positions.

Freshpet is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. Please, no phone calls or emails. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Freshpet via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Freshpet. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Freshpet as a result of the referral or through other means.

We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas.