Senior Manager, Category Growth & Innovation

IRB USA Inspire Resources; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Sonic Drive-In is seeking a Senior Manager, Category Management to develop and execute beverage, snack, and sides category strategies, packaging, and innovation to drive growth. You will translate insights into actionable category plans that improve sales, profitability, and brand differentiation.

You will lead the end-to-end innovation process, build and manage pipelines, and oversee launch readiness, market tests, and post-launch evaluation while collaborating with cross-functional teams and

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in a category or brand management position.
• Business acumen with understanding of market trends, consumers, competitors, and P&L fluency.
• Experience taking product ideas from ideation to execution.
• Strong strategic and creative thinking skills.
• Ability to collect, synthesize, and present information in an actionable manner to stakeholders.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, especially PowerPoint.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

Responsibilities

• Lead Category Strategy and Growth – develop short- and long-term category, product, and packaging strategies.
• Own Innovation Pipeline – end-to-end process from concept to launch across beverage, snack, and sides.
• Lead Market Testing and Launch Execution – oversee market tests and launch readiness activities.
• Own Category Performance and Insights – monitor performance and present data-driven recommendations to leadership.

Skills

Category management

Strategic thinking

Communication

Presentation skills

Project management

Cross-functional collaboration

Growth mindset

Education

4-year degree

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Word

PowerPoint

Job description

Sonic Drive-In is seeking a Senior Manager, Category Management to develop and execute beverage, snack, and sides category strategies, packaging, and innovation to drive growth. You will translate insights into actionable category plans that improve sales, profitability, and brand differentiation.

You will lead the end-to-end innovation process, build and manage pipelines, and oversee launch readiness, market tests, and post-launch evaluation while collaborating with cross-functional teams and