Lead, Category & Portfolio Strategy

Position Summary

This role leads enterprise ownership of Munchkin’s product portfolio and innovation roadmap across a 300–500 SKU portfolio.

The Lead, Category & Portfolio Strategy will oversee a team of Category Managers, Directors, and supporting team members, where Category Managers and Directors hold direct P&L accountability, and supporting team members drive key performance levers and execution. This leader defines what we build, why we build it, and when it comes to market, ensuring all innovation aligns with category strategy, consumer insight, and financial performance.

This role also oversees the enterprise approach to consumer and category insights, ensuring all portfolio decisions are grounded in credible, decision-grade data and consistent methodologies across the organization.

This is a highly strategic role with significant cross-functional visibility, partnering closely with Sales, Brand Marketing, the VP of eCommerce & Digital Growth, and the Executive Leadership Team to align product strategy with commercial objectives.

What You'll Do: 

Portfolio & Roadmap Leadership

• Own the enterprise product portfolio strategy and multi-year roadmap
• Define category priorities, investment allocation, and launch sequencing
• Lead SKU rationalization efforts to simplify the portfolio and improve productivity
• Ensure all innovation aligns with clear strategic and financial objectives

Innovation Governance

• Evaluate, approve, and prioritize product concepts based on:
• Strategic fit
• Portfolio role
• Financial return and margin expectations
• Establish and lead stage-gate processes to ensure disciplined decision-making
• Prevent low-value or duplicative product development
• Ensure all product concepts are supported by validated consumer and category insights prior to advancement

Insights, Analytics & Decision Governance

• Own and standardize the enterprise approach to consumer, category, and market insights
• Oversee and validate all insights work to ensure it is credible, decision-grade, and actionable
• Establish consistent methodologies, frameworks, and quality standards across teams
• Ensure all portfolio and product decisions are grounded in robust data and validated insights
• Eliminate reliance on inconsistent, anecdotal, or non-standardized data sources in decision-making
• Partner with internal teams and external partners to elevate the quality, rigor, and impact of insights and analytics
• Integrate insights directly into portfolio strategy, innovation pipelines, and stage-gate governance

Category Leadership

• Lead and develop a team of Category Owners (Managers and Directors) with full P&L accountability
• Drive a shift toward performance-based category management
• Establish clear KPIs across revenue, margin, and portfolio productivity

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with Sales, the VP of eCommerce & Digital Growth, and the C-suite to align category strategies with revenue and channel priorities
• Collaborate with Product Development to guide product direction and prioritization
• Work with CBO to ensure positioning and go-to-market strategies support category objectives
• Partner with PMO to ensure initiatives are effectively planned and delivered on time
• Support retail sell-in in partnership with Category Managers and Sales (strategy, pricing, planograms, decks), with Category Managers leading product strategy presentation in line reviews

Financial & Business Impact

• Drive margin expansion and profitable growth across categories
• Embed financial discipline into early-stage product decisions
• Improve return on innovation and overall portfolio performance

What You Bring:

• 10 years of experience in CPG category management or portfolio strategy
• Experience leading teams of Category Managers and Directors (8–10 )
• Experience managing a large-scale SKU portfolio (300 SKUs)
• Proven success in SKU rationalization and portfolio optimization
• Strong track record of margin expansion and profitable growth
• Deep P&L ownership experience
• Experience operating in omni-channel environments (retail digital)
• International experience is a plus
• Demonstrated ability to influence at the executive level

Who You Are:

• A strategic, enterprise thinker with strong business acumen
• Decisive and comfortable making trade-offs and prioritization calls
• Financially rigorous and results-oriented
• Skilled at influencing and aligning senior stakeholders across functions
• Experienced in driving organizational change and operating model evolution

We Got You Covered! 

As a Great Place to Work Certified™ company, we are committed to offering the best to our employees.  We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, vision, dental, prescription drug coverage, life insurance, wellness benefits, generous employer-matched 401(k) plan, Paid Childcare Leave, among other benefit plans.  Our total rewards are top of market and include competitive salary, bonus, and opportunities to earn equity.  We focus on supporting employee development and growth.  

We regularly hold social functions to foster a genuine camaraderie that enhances teamwork. At our company-wide award functions, we take time to recognize the talent and dedication of the people who make Munchkin the most loved baby lifestyle brand in the world. 

To learn more, visit us at www.munchkin.com. 

Salary range: $175,000 - $220,000

Munchkin welcomes and values what makes everyone unique.  We’re proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All hires for our team are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We recruit, employ, train, and promote regardless of race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, genetic characteristic, or any other protected status.  

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Salary : $175,000 - $220,000