Category Strategy Manager

Act as the hub for all Our Brands business matters for the respective category. Efficiently lead cross-functional teams through business plans, product development and category acceleration deep dives to deliver results. Communicate our private label vision, goals, and budget, as well as how they align with overall category merchandiser strategies and the customer first promise. Exhibit category expertise in business financials, category insights and the retail marketplace. Demonstrate the company's core values of respect, honesty, integrity, diversity, inclusion and safety.

Responsibilities

- Provide private label category financial performance insights and summary for executive review
- Deliver category acceleration deep dives, leading stage gate presentations and action plan share out
- Follow the Our Brands new product development process ensuring cross-functional team members are briefed with project rationale, attributes, financials and detailed timing prior to commercialization work.
- Prepare packaging design briefs for new product development; share out proposed designs for leadership and merchandising alignment
- Drive growth by applying knowledge of competitive set, consumer trends and business needs
- Partner with merchandising to build long and short-term strategic plans to drive category growth and profitability
- Articulate respective business plans, OB's category role(s) and new product development plans to senior leadership
- Lead the commercialization of projects as identified in business plans
- Provide guidance on vendor selection, product segmentation, and sales planning
- Provide input to other OB functional teams, such as innovation and branding, to ensure respective plans support business needs
- Remain current with food, cultural and ethnic, category and product trends
- Actively participate in the sensory phase of product development and approve reformulations, packaging, sourcing, and specification changes
- Monitor and optimize retail execution, conduct post-launch analysis against OB initiatives and make recommendations
- Travel to divisions and store locations to support OB initiatives
- Follow established programs, policies, practices to produce safe, quality foods that meet regulatory and company requirements
- Accountable to the Kroger Manufacturing Food Safety and Quality Principles
- Must be able to perform the essential job functions of this position with or without reasonable accommodation

Qualifications

Minimum
- Bachelor's Degree business, marketing, comparable work experience
- 2+ years of experience in retail, consumer packaged goods, sales or innovation - Excellent leadership/collaboration skills - Ability to set priorities, delegate effectively/communicate responsibilities, and manage execution across a multi-disciplinary team - Ability to manage complex and/or large portfolio of categories with some supervision - Highly motivated and self-directed - Ability to function in a fast-paced, retail/office environment - Proven ability to communicate to all levels of the organization via written and oral communication and presentations - Strong business analytical skills in sales, volume and profit forecasts - Proven ability to make critical decisions - Demonstrate initiative and willingness to take risks