Category Development Manager II

Salary Range is $116,450 to $145,555 per year

Position Summary

The Senior Category Development Manager plays a pivotal role in advancing Foster Farms’ category leadership across the portfolio—including Branded Retail, Foodservice, and Private Label products. This role serves as a senior strategic business partner to Sales, Marketing, Trade, Innovation, and Revenue Management by transforming complex data into actionable growth strategies that strengthen customer partnerships, influence business decisions, and guide long-term brand and portfolio strategy.

The ideal candidate is an experienced category leader and data-driven storyteller with deep command of syndicated, shopper, retailer, and receipt-level data who can shape internal strategy, influence senior stakeholders, and lead external sell-in conversations through clear, persuasive, insight-led narratives.

Essential Job Functions:

Category Leadership & Insights

• Develop 3–5 year category growth strategies across Foster Farms’ portfolio by leveraging Circana (IRI), 84.51°, Numerator, retailer platforms, and other sources to identify growth opportunities, consumer trends, competitive risks, and long-term strategic priorities.
• Develop and lead executive- and retailer-ready presentations that position Foster Farms as a trusted category thought leader and preferred strategic supplier.
• Own the identification and communication of category growth drivers, white-space opportunities, competitive performance, and business implications to shape portfolio, assortment, shelving, pricing, promotion, and innovation pipeline priorities.

Customer Leadership

• Serve as a strategic category advisor to major retailers, using fact-based sell-in stories to influence retailer category direction and demonstrate the growth value of Foster Farms’ portfolio.
• Partner with Sales leadership to shape strategic customer plans, joint business plans, and category recommendations tailored to each retailer’s objectives, shopper base, and growth opportunities.
• Lead annual business reviews, top-to-top meetings, line reviews, and strategic business reviews with clear, actionable recommendations that support category growth, customer priorities, and executive-level alignment.
• Build trusted, executive-level relationships with key customer stakeholders by consistently delivering category expertise, commercially grounded recommendations, and forward-looking growth opportunities.

Organizational Leadership

• Establish best practices, processes, and standards for category analytics, reporting, customer presentations, and strategic recommendation development.
• Drive alignment across Sales, Marketing, Finance, R&D, Innovation, Revenue Management, and Trade to ensure category insights translate into coordinated business action.

Business Ownership

• Recommend resource investments and business priorities by connecting category opportunity, customer strategy, business impact, and organizational capability.
• Influence pricing, promotional, portfolio, and assortment strategies by providing category, shopper, and competitive implications that support volume, share, profitability, and ROI decisions.
• Lead major business opportunities and risk mitigation plans by identifying emerging threats, quantifying impact, aligning stakeholders, and recommending clear actions for senior leadership.
• Partner with Innovation and R&D to shape pipeline priorities, prioritize new product opportunities with the greatest growth potential, and provide ongoing visibility to competitive launches, marketplace performance, and emerging consumer needs.

Analytics & Tools

• Lead advanced analytics and visualization efforts to distill complex data sets into clear insights, strategic implications, and impactful visuals for senior leaders and customers.
• Maintain expert working knowledge of Circana/IRI POS data, retailer-specific platforms (84.51°, Scintilla, and others), shopper panel data (Numerator), and internal business performance metrics.
• Continuously improve reporting, measurement, and insight-generation processes to increase accuracy, efficiency, scalability, and relevance for key stakeholders.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Economics, or related field (MBA preferred).
• 7–10 years of progressive experience in Category Management, Sales Strategy, Consumer Insights, or related CPG commercial roles.
• Must reside in PST, MST or CST time zones
• Demonstrated ability to translate data into strategic recommendations that influence retailer decisions, cross-functional priorities, and brand growth.
• Advanced proficiency in syndicated, shopper, and retailer data tools, including Circana/IRI, 84.51°, Numerator, Scintilla, and related analytics platforms.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, executive communication, and storytelling skills with the ability to simplify complex concepts for diverse audiences.
• Expertise in visualization and presentation tools, with the ability to build polished, executive-ready materials.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and influencing skills; able to counsel cross-functional partners, Sales leadership, and senior leaders with confidence and credibility.
• Experience leading high-visibility customer presentations, line reviews, category reviews, or strategic business reviews preferred.
• Highly organized self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, remote environment and can independently manage multiple priorities with limited direction.
• Demonstrates an entrepreneurial, roll-up-your-sleeves approach with the maturity to balance strategic thinking and hands-on execution.

Foster Farms ACTION Guiding Principles

• Accountability: Deliver on commitments.
• Collaboration: Achieve more by working as a team.
• Truth-Seeking: Be open-minded and act with humility.
• Initiative: Be proactive and lead with a growth mindset.
• Ownership: Take responsibility for results.
• Nimble: Operate with speed and agility.

Why Join Foster Farms?

This is a high-impact opportunity to shape the future of the ready-to-eat business at a leading food company, directly supporting our mission, vision, and values. You will play a critical role in delivering safe, high-quality food and great moments for millions of families.

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