Category Insights Manager

Reports To: Associate Director, Retail & Consumer Insights

Travel Required: 20%

Employment Type: Temporary/Contract (3-6 months)

Workplace Type: Remote

Position Overview

Responsible for mining customer, market and consumer data across the Food, Drug, Mass, Club, Discount (FDMCD) channel to find the story behind the numbers and turn it into fact-based recommendations that support Sales & Marketing go-to-market strategy and execution. Informs development of strategy and tactics to achieve net sales, margin, profit and market share goals. Strong emphasis on translating data into a clear, compelling narrative and delivering it through storytelling in customer sales presentations. Expected to be the in-house category and consumer insights expert, identifying what's working, what's not, and where the opportunities are, then proposing solutions the Sales team can act on. Provides critical support of customer development, retail execution, insight activation and competitive response activities. Will measure and report market performance of Brand and category competition, draw fact-based conclusions and recommend actions to improve business results.

Function Related Activities/Key Responsibilities

• Key point of contact for Sales teams as source of in-market performance intelligence, insights and tactics; partner closely with Marketing, Shopper Marketing, and Revenue Growth Management.
• Mine customer-specific, market and shopper/consumer data to find the story behind the numbers and turn it into data-driven selling stories that support customer business plans, delivered through compelling, formal presentations for Sales, Marketing and Executive Management.
• Diagnose what's working and what's not across Brand and category performance; champion actionable strategies, plan adjustments, and course corrections to optimize performance. Influence decision-making.
• Builds annual category performance assessment to support development of Sales annual business plans.
• Find and quantify business opportunities for new business pitches and current top accounts by identifying ACV distribution and sales velocity trends, optimal assortment, pricing and promotional results/learning, and shelf layout/productivity opportunities; propose specific, actionable solutions to close the gaps and help Sales win the pitch.
• Possess capability to manage across multiple channels and product segments (ie. ground, whole bean, single serve, ready-to-drink, etc.).
• Run assortment "Fix the Mix" analyses to ensure we're selling the right items for the shopper at each retailer, comparing shelf distribution against category demand to identify gaps and recommend the items to add, drop or reposition.
• Assists with the development of customer category line reviews, select customers' monthly business reviews, and comprehensive mid-year and end-year business reviews.

Position Requirements

• Bachelor's in Business, Marketing, Finance, Economics, Mathematics or related field from a four-year college or university required. MBA preferred. Will consider experience in lieu of education.
• 3+ years of experience in CPG data analytics, insights, or category management, with hands-on experience using syndicated data (NIQ and/or Numerator, Household Panel), retailer portals (84.51, Madrid, Scintilla, or similar) and research tools (Mintel, Kantar, GfK, etc.).
• Experience with Community Coffee, even if unrelated, may fulfill experience requirements at the discretion of the hiring manager with approval from Human Resources
• Advanced Excel skills (Pivot Tables, Power Query, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP) and highly proficient in PowerPoint and Word; experience creating Power BI dashboards is a plus.
• Proficient using AI tools, preferably Claude, to accelerate data analysis, synthesis and presentation development.
• Experience presenting category insights to retailers and senior leadership.

What We're Looking For

• Must possess effective leadership, communication, collaboration and organization skills with work history showing initiative, attention to detail and results orientation.
• Must be able to grow organizational understanding and adoption through proactive, consultative teaching/coaching.
• Must have well developed presentation build, delivery and story-telling skills.
• Strong analytical ability
• Team oriented
• Customer focus

Physical Demands/Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to do the following:

• Frequently required to sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools or controls and talk or hear.
• Occasionally required to stand; walk, reach with hands and arms, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.
• Occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 lbs;
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
• Office Environment: Most of the duties of this position will be performed inside an office environment. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet

Compensation: Competitive salary and benefits package including health, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k), short- and long-term disability, paid time off and employee assistance program.