Category Management Analyst II

The Category Management Analyst II will leverage fact-based analytics and customer research to develop consumer-relevant retail assortments and planograms. Improving the store model is pillar of Ace’s long-term retail strategy, and developing the most efficient, productive and differentiated assortments/planograms for our Retailers is a critical element for success.

• Category Scope: Category Management Analyst II will have responsibility over smaller volume & less complex categories.

What you’ll do

• Data Analysis- Support category line reviews & store model initiatives by conducting thorough analysis of sales data, market trends, product line structures and consumer decision trees to identify opportunities for category growth, space, and inventory optimization.

• Assortment Planning- Develop best in class assortments with the Merchant to grow top line sales, lower cost of goods, and maximize profitability while simplifying the shopping experience for category resets. Manage all aspects of assortment and planograms, from analytics and recommendations of the mix, optimal placement and depth on shelf to cross-functional alignment and execution.

• Cross Functional Collaboration- Lead cross functional teams throughout line review process to ensure that assortments are “retail ready,” and all best practices are implemented for flawless execution at retail. (e.g., Merchandising, Space Planning, Retail Pricing, Store Environment, Retail Analytics, Field Operations, Inventory, etc.).

• Category Performance Monitoring & Insights- Proactively monitor category KPI’s to identify opportunities to make assortment and/or space/planogram changes to improve category performance and to understand impact of prior changes made. Work with management to align on key actions to take based on results and work with cross-functional category team to act as needed.

• Servicing our Retailers- Provide direct customer service to retailers as needed.  Return phone calls and emails promptly exhibiting the willingness and expertise to answer questions and resolve issues as presented.

•  Continuous Improvement- Proactively identify opportunities to enhance category management processes and methodologies, driving efficiency and effectiveness within the organization.

• Complete special projects/requests as assigned by management team.

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What you need to succeed

Experience and Technical Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in engineering or business related field

• 3-5 years retail or consumer packaged goods experience

• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills

• High degree of curiosity and structured problem solving skills

• Ability to analyze, evaluate and interpret complex data

• Confident presenting in larger groups across multiple levels of the organization

• Ability to communicate effectively verbally and written to various levels of corporate and retail management (e.g., manager through VP and store associate through owner)

• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications (e.g., Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word)

• PowerBI and SQL experience preferred although not required

• Knowledge of standard Category Management process and principles a plus

• Must be able to lift 30lbs

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Compensation Details:

$74000 - $93600 Per Year

Why should you join our team?

We live our values - W.E.L.I.G.H.T (Winning, Excellence, Love, Integrity, Gratitude, Humility, and Teamwork). Gratitude. Humility. Love. You don’t often see values like these in most corporate statements, but Ace is different. These things are important to us. They represent our commitment to the company, our employees, to Ace retailers and to the Ace brand.

In addition to providing our employees a great culture, Ace also offers competitive benefits* that address life’s necessities and perks, many of which expand and improve year after year, including:

• Incentive opportunities, based on role/grade level (rapid company growth over the past 5 years resulted in incentives being paid out at an average of 122% of your target opportunity!)