Senior Category Advisor, Category Leadership

Job Description

Reporting to the Director, Category Leadership & Consumer Insights, the Senior Category Advisor is a strategic partner to our customers and commercial teams, responsible for identifying category growth opportunities and translating consumer, shopper, customer and market intelligence into actionable category strategies.

The role leads category thinking across assortment, shelving, merchandising and shopper activation, helping customers make better category decisions while strengthening Arterra Wines Canada's position as a trusted category leadership partner.

You are a commercially minded, analytically curious category professional who enjoys building data-backed stories and turning those stories into action.

You can move comfortably between detailed analysis and senior-level customer conversations, translating complex consumer, shopper and market dynamics into clear recommendations.

You are naturally curious, comfortable challenging assumptions, and confident influencing without authority.

You thrive in an environment where you have the autonomy to identify opportunities, build the analysis and proactively bring forward recommendations.

• Lead Category Strategy and Thought Leadership:
  Integrate consumer, shopper, customer, market and category intelligence to identify growth opportunities and develop forward-looking category strategies across assortment, shelving, merchandising and shopper activation.
• Build Strategic Customer Partnerships:
  Own Category Leadership for an assigned portfolio of customers and/or channels, acting as the primary category partner and developing a deep understanding of their shoppers, strategies and growth priorities.
• Build trusted relationships with key customer stakeholders across Liquor Boards, Grocery, Convenience, Private Retail and other channels, positioning Arterra as a valued source of objective category expertise.
• Turn Data into Decisions:
  Leverage syndicated, loyalty, shopper, sales and internal data to diagnose performance, uncover growth drivers and identify opportunities to grow penetration, frequency, basket and category value.
• Translate Insight into Action:
  Transform complex analysis into clear, persuasive category stories and actionable recommendations for customers and internal commercial partners.
• Shape Assortment and Merchandising:
  Develop evidence-based assortment, shelving, planogram and merchandising recommendations that improve the shopper experience and support sustainable category growth.
• Partner with Internal Stakeholders:
  Bring category, shopper and customer perspectives into innovation, portfolio strategy, joint business planning and new-product presentations.
• Conduct and lead targeted category, customer and channel analyses to identify business opportunities and inform strategic commercial decisions.
• Proactively Identify Opportunities:
  Anticipate emerging category, consumer, shopper and customer trends, identify their implications for Arterra and our customers, and proactively bring forward growth opportunities and recommendations.
• Build Organizational Capability:
  Share category knowledge, tools and best practices across Sales, Marketing, Innovation and other functions to strengthen category-led decision making.

5+ years of progressive experience in Category Management, Category Development, Shopper Insights, Customer Insights or a related CPG/commercial discipline.

University degree in Business, Marketing, Analytics, Economics or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.

Demonstrated experience translating complex data into compelling category recommendations and customer-facing stories.

Strong understanding of category management fundamentals including assortment, shelving, merchandising, shopper behaviour and category performance analysis.

Experience working directly with retail customers and influencing stakeholders through fact-based recommendations.

Strong commercial acumen and understanding of the relationship between consumer behaviour, shopper behaviour, customer strategy and business performance.

Advanced analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to synthesize multiple data sources and distinguish insight from information.

Strong presentation and communication skills, including experience communicating recommendations to senior stakeholders and customer partners.

Intellectual curiosity and a constructive challenger mindset, with the confidence to question assumptions, explore…