What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Category Manager position at Market Performance Group?
Brief Description
SENIOR CATEGORY MANAGER
About MPG
Market Performance Group (MPG) is a leading end-to-end, strategy & services omnichannel commerce agency focused on creating the best PATH FORWARD — from market strategy to in-market reality — for today’s fastest-growing consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers. Over the years, we’ve built a strong reputation as a trusted partner and valuable resource to a broad range of companies, from Fortune 500 to Private Equity, in categories that include health & wellness, food & beverage, home and hardlines. We revel in the opportunity to guide our clients on their path forward, building and activating strategies that ensure success. Everything we do is driven by our unrelenting commitment to leverage our deep operational experience, unparalleled omnichannel expertise, and industry relationships to drive performance in today’s dynamic omnichannel marketplace.
At MPG, we value our people and their contributions; they are critical to building the MPG Brand. Our leadership team has significant experience driving topline revenue and bottom-line profit, having held senior operating roles at leading CPG manufacturers and retailers. Our highly regarded, seasoned team of 400 strategy and commercialization professionals brings strong operational experience and a collaborative approach. All team members are singularly focused on providing clients with pragmatic, real-world market approaches, built on the strong consumer, category and marketplace insights needed to create sustainable, profitable brand growth.
Position Overview
The Senior Category Manager, Grocery, leads the development of insights, category strategies, and business recommendations across the Grocery channel and assigned retailers. This role has direct accountability for retailer-facing category leadership, serves as the primary interface with client Category Development, and leads a team responsible for delivering consistent, high-quality insights. The Senior Manager drives thought leadership, elevates analytic capabilities, and ensures strong cross-functional collaboration.
Key Responsibilities
Category Insights & Reporting Leadership
MPG offers a generous package of health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, STD/LTD, paid maternity/paternity leave and life insurance. Our compensation program provides market industry base salary, bonuses, and 401K. In addition to paid holidays, we reward an employee’s extra efforts through unlimited paid time off.
Diversity and Inclusion
MPG provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
We are committed to ensuring that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI&B) are at the foundation of our culture. Through DEI&B, we embrace the beauty in all of the unique qualities of our employees, communities and clients. MPG’s DEI&B efforts empower us to collectively reach our full potential. by fueling innovation, connection, and growth. We recognize the value of having a diverse and engaged team. We are an organization driven by PEOPLE. Our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging was born from our core values. We believe that by leveraging the unique perspectives and experiences of our employees, MPG can unlock more comprehensive, innovative, and long-standing results for both our client and retailer partners. As our journey continues to evolve, we have made intentional commitments to further champion DEI&B. The foundation of our pledge starts with our promise to each other, our clients, and the community.
© 2025 Market Performance Group
All rights reserved
SENIOR CATEGORY MANAGER
About MPG
Market Performance Group (MPG) is a leading end-to-end, strategy & services omnichannel commerce agency focused on creating the best PATH FORWARD — from market strategy to in-market reality — for today’s fastest-growing consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers. Over the years, we’ve built a strong reputation as a trusted partner and valuable resource to a broad range of companies, from Fortune 500 to Private Equity, in categories that include health & wellness, food & beverage, home and hardlines. We revel in the opportunity to guide our clients on their path forward, building and activating strategies that ensure success. Everything we do is driven by our unrelenting commitment to leverage our deep operational experience, unparalleled omnichannel expertise, and industry relationships to drive performance in today’s dynamic omnichannel marketplace.
At MPG, we value our people and their contributions; they are critical to building the MPG Brand. Our leadership team has significant experience driving topline revenue and bottom-line profit, having held senior operating roles at leading CPG manufacturers and retailers. Our highly regarded, seasoned team of 400 strategy and commercialization professionals brings strong operational experience and a collaborative approach. All team members are singularly focused on providing clients with pragmatic, real-world market approaches, built on the strong consumer, category and marketplace insights needed to create sustainable, profitable brand growth.
Position Overview
The Senior Category Manager, Grocery, leads the development of insights, category strategies, and business recommendations across the Grocery channel and assigned retailers. This role has direct accountability for retailer-facing category leadership, serves as the primary interface with client Category Development, and leads a team responsible for delivering consistent, high-quality insights. The Senior Manager drives thought leadership, elevates analytic capabilities, and ensures strong cross-functional collaboration.
Key Responsibilities
Category Insights & Reporting Leadership
- Lead category, shopper, and performance insights across multiple retailers using syndicated, POS, panel, and marketplace sources.
- Oversee recurring reporting cycles, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and actionable storytelling across team outputs.
- Direct the development of category business reviews, line reviews, shopper insights, and category/segment deep dives.
- Present category reviews and recommendations to retailers and client leadership, connecting insights to clear business actions.
- Translate marketplace, shopper, and competitive trends into strategic implications for retailers and the client.
- Provide clear guidance on pricing, promotion, assortment, and placement fundamentals across categories.
- Serve as the primary day-to-day category leader for retailers, representing MPG and the client in category conversations.
- Act as the main strategic partner to client Category Development, aligning priorities, frameworks, and insights needs.
- Lead retailer-facing components of JBP and T2T meetings, including insights inputs, strategic recommendations, and action plans.
- Communicate category-relevant marketplace changes, shopper trends, and business implications routinely to client partners.
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing category and insights team; set expectations for quality and delivery.
- Provide coaching on advanced analytics, data interpretation, storytelling, and tool mastery.
- Allocate workload and ensure efficient team operations; maintain clear priorities across multiple workstreams.
- Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and analytical excellence across the team and broader organization.
- Support onboarding, skill development, and best-practice adoption for new and existing team members.
- Lead development of category assessments and insights frameworks that scale across retailers and internal teams.
- Own multiple tools, templates, or reporting processes that support team efficiency and insight consistency.
- Drive modernization of reporting tools and ways of working in partnership with sales and client teams.
- Integrate insights across multiple categories and channels to support broader strategic discussions.
- Contribute cross-functional thought leadership to shape future category insights and analytics capabilities.
- Bachelor’s degree required
- 15 years in Consumer Packaged-Goods industry (Business Analytics and Insights, Sales, or Category Management)
- 15 years of experience in consumer/retail data and analytics, ideally with expertise in retail POS portals (Circana, 84.51, 1010, etc.), Nielsen/NielsenIQ Scanning and Homescan Panel and proficiency in Circana/IRI Scanning, Numerator Panel, etc.
- Plus: Experience with Retailer Platforms (Dunnhumby, 84.51/Market 6, etc.), JDA/Space Management, Assortment Tools, Price & Promotion, or Media-Driven Analytics
- Full command of Microsoft tools - Excel, PowerPoint and Word for business reporting and insight generation
- Plus: Experience with Business Intelligence and Visualization tools such as Domo, Tableau and/or Microsoft Power BI and/or SQL/SAS/R
- Plus: previous direct experience leading and developing a team
- Ability to think critically about client partner goals, category/brand/retail/strategies, and how data and analytics can action those
- Demonstration of strong analytical skills and a creative/innovative approach to problem-solving
- Ability to deliver on client analytical needs and elevate insight discovery with high-quality deliverables
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-demand environment and effectively prioritize, multi-task, and deliver on time with quality accordingly
- Strong collaboration skills both within the team and with the customer/client
- Excellent communication skills both verbal and written, as well as advanced presentation skills, that allow for success in a virtual team environment
- You bring strong analytical depth and natural curiosity, enabling you to anticipate insights needs and connect disparate data sources into clear narratives.
- You are an expert storyteller trusted by client leadership, retailer audiences, and internal partners.
- You thrive in dynamic, retailer-facing environments and can navigate changing priorities with confidence and clarity.
- You build and develop teams, elevate capability, and set clear expectations for quality and consistency.
- You drive process improvements, tool enhancements, and scalable insights frameworks that elevate the entire organization.
- You influence strategic decisions through clear, insight-led perspectives grounded in data, trends, and shopper behavior.
MPG offers a generous package of health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, STD/LTD, paid maternity/paternity leave and life insurance. Our compensation program provides market industry base salary, bonuses, and 401K. In addition to paid holidays, we reward an employee’s extra efforts through unlimited paid time off.
Diversity and Inclusion
MPG provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
We are committed to ensuring that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI&B) are at the foundation of our culture. Through DEI&B, we embrace the beauty in all of the unique qualities of our employees, communities and clients. MPG’s DEI&B efforts empower us to collectively reach our full potential. by fueling innovation, connection, and growth. We recognize the value of having a diverse and engaged team. We are an organization driven by PEOPLE. Our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging was born from our core values. We believe that by leveraging the unique perspectives and experiences of our employees, MPG can unlock more comprehensive, innovative, and long-standing results for both our client and retailer partners. As our journey continues to evolve, we have made intentional commitments to further champion DEI&B. The foundation of our pledge starts with our promise to each other, our clients, and the community.
© 2025 Market Performance Group
All rights reserved
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