Category Manager

The Category Manager is responsible for developing and promoting a compelling assortment that drives sales, margin and differentiation in the industry. Specific responsibilities include vendor negotiation & relationship management, assortment strategy, sourcing and working closely with the pricing and marketing departments. This position reports to the Director of Category Management and is located at the company’s headquarters in Las Colinas.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategy and Planning.

• Partner with SMEs and suppliers in order to conduct industry and competitive analysis to understand customer needs and develop near and long-term strategies for assigned categories.
• Lead periodic, cross-functional line reviews that define assortment, marketing, sourcing, pricing, and supply strategies that drive sales and increase overall margins.
• Leverage sales trends, spend analytics, external market intelligence, and competitive information to enable fact-based decision making.

Product Lifecycle.

• Accountable for full lifecycle management.
• Be the industry expert in your category.
• Own the product category from cradle to grave, partnering with suppliers or internal resources to develop and produce innovative products and developing a competitive strategy.
• As necessary, travel to manufacturing facilities to understand supplier processes and capabilities.
• Engage with Marketing & Communications to ensure field sales force and end customers are aware of product offerings.

Supplier Management.

• Own relationships with suppliers, driving negotiations and partnership in order to optimize product offering in assigned categories.
• Ensure all legal documents are in place (i.e. NDA, supplier agreement, etc.)
• Lead the RFP process, bid analysis and review, negotiations, and supplier selection decision.
• Ensure suppliers are performing to contracted service levels.
• Minimize risk- identify and root cause supplier issues and directs recovery plans to resolve supply issues.

EDUCATION & TRAINING

Bachelor’s degree or 4 years of equivalent experience preferred

KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE

• 4 years of experience with category management including product line reviews, planning, and product specification across a series of categories (or) 4 years of experience in heavy-duty parts sales and/or management
• Ability to review and analyze data, business KPI’s and supplier performance reporting
• Experience integrating people and processes with systems including ERP and POS applications
• Facilitation of product pricing and marketing initiatives; ability to make fact-based decision making and naturally seek to leverage sales data, spend analytics, and competitive intelligence
• A flexible, dynamic, self-demanding and proactive individual; able to motivate him/herself and others; a natural bias for action and ability to work effectively in a dynamic environment

SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Possesses strong commercial acumen, negotiation skills, and track record for capturing value
• Ability to engage with suppliers to improve product line performance and plan for future product line expansion
• Ability to communicate across multiple departments in order to gain consensus on projects and goals
• Excellent communication skills, including written, verbal and presentation skills; comfortable and credible with executive audience, internal stakeholders, and external audiences
• Fluent with MS office tools (Excel, PowerPoint, BI, etc.) with analytical experience

WORK ENVIRONMENT

This position operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment as computers, phones, photocopiers, fax machines and filing cabinets. The performance of this position may require exposure to the warehouse areas where certain areas may require the use of personal protective equipment such as steel toed shoes and safety glasses. The primary environment is characterized by ambient room temperatures, lighting and traditional office equipment found in a typical office environment.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Reaching above shoulder heights, below the waist or lifting as required to file documents or store materials throughout the workday.
• Occasional lifting of items up to 25 pounds (files, samples, computer printouts, etc. on occasion)

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by this employee. He or she will be required to follow any other instructions and to perform any other duties requested by his or her supervisor.