Category Executive

Dis-Chem Pharmacies; Gauteng; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Dis-Chem Pharmacies in Gauteng seeks a Category Executive to own the category strategy and drive growth, margin and market share in a competitive retail environment.

You will lead cross-functional teams of category managers, buyers and planners, align with commercial priorities and ensure governance and risk controls are followed to sustain performance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, commerce, economics or similar field.
• 10–12 years of experience in category management, merchandising, or commercial management.
• Proven track record in strategy development and P&L ownership.
• Experience managing cross-functional category teams.
• Leadership experience, including managing cross-functional category teams.

Responsibilities

• Define the end-to-end category strategy, including growth ambitions, customer value proposition, financial targets and competitive positioning.
• Set category assortment architecture, SKU rationalisation principles and portfolio balance.
• Develop category pricing and promotion principles within Commercial.
• Decision Intelligence (CoE) guardrails.
• Lead and influence cross-functional teams including category managers, buyers and planners.
• Communicate category strategies clearly and ensure shared understanding of priorities across execution teams.
• Provide strategic guidance to category teams to ensure execution accuracy and quality.
• Ensure all category decisions comply with commercial guardrails for margin, profitability and pricing architecture.
• Ensure category strategies comply with data, policy and financial governance standards.
• Identify and escalation risks related to commercial performance vulnerabilities.
• Strategic thinker able to integrate insights, customer behaviour and market trends
• Strong commercial and financial acumen
• Deep understanding of category management and retail operations

Skills

Category management

Merchandising

Commercial management

Strategy development

P&L ownership

Cross-functional leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business/commerce/economics

Job description

The Category Executive is the strategic owner of the category and provides commercial direction to the category ecosystem ensuring clear alignment to commercial priorities.

Minimum Requirements…

• Bachelor’s degree in business, commerce, economics or similar field OR
• Minimum 10-12 years of experience in category management, merchandising,
• or commercial management.
• Proven track record in strategy development and P&L ownership.
• Experience managing cross-functional category teams.
• Leadership experience, including managing cross-functional category teams.

Advantageous:

• N/A

Job Specification…

Strategy and value delivery

• Define the end-to-end category specific strategy, including growth ambitions, customer value proposition, financial targets and competitive positioning.
• Set category assortment architecture, SKU rationalisation principles and portfolio balance.
• Develop category pricing and promotion principles within Commercial
• Decision Intelligence (CoE) guardrails.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Lead and influence cross-functional teams including category managers, buyers and planners.
• Communicate category strategies clearly and ensure shared understanding of priorities across execution teams.
• Provide strategic guidance to category teams to ensure execution accuracy and quality.

Governance & Risk

• Ensure all category decisions comply with commercial guardrails for margin, profitability and pricing architecture.
• Ensure category strategies comply with data, policy and financial governance standards.
• Identify and escalation risks related to commercial performance Vulnerabilities.

Key Competencies

• Strategic thinker able to integrate insights, customer behaviour and market trends
• Strong commercial and financial acumen
• Deep understanding of category management and retail operations

Special conditions of employment:

Key performance indicators:

• Commercial performance – Category sales growth (%), gross margin (%) and market share growth (%).
• Portfolio performance – Assortment productivity (sales per SKU)
• Promotional and pricing effectiveness – Promotional ROI and pricing competitiveness.
• Improvement in team culture score.