Director, Category Leadership, Walmart

Director, Category Leadership

Role is located in Rogers, Arkansas and will report to the Senior Director, Category Leadership, Walmart & Sam's Club.

The Coca-Cola Category Leadership team is seeking a highly skilled, strategic category advisor to support the Walmart business. This role is responsible for building trusted merchant relationships, translating complex data into clear recommendations, and leading category strategies that strengthen assortment, space, modular execution, and shopper-focused decision-making. As a Director, Category Leadership, you will combine technical capability, customer partnership, people leadership, and objective category expertise to help Walmart merchants identify growth opportunities and make informed decisions across the beverage category.

Key Responsibilities:

• Technical Analysis and Reporting:
  Utilize Power BI, Alteryx, AI-enabled capabilities, Excel, and other analytics tools to analyze complex data sets, build dashboards, automate recurring reporting, and deliver clear visuals for customer-facing stakeholders.
• Data Management and Category Tools:
  Collect, clean, combine, and maintain data to ensure accuracy and reliability across reporting and analysis. Leverage Walmart Scintilla, Nielsen, Numerator, shopper/panel data, internal data sources, and other relevant tools to identify category opportunities and support merchant recommendations.
• Customer Engagement and Advisor Partnership:
  Serve as a trusted category advisor and primary point of contact for Walmart merchants, understanding both tactical and strategic needs to deliver tailored recommendations, support strategic planning conversations, and influence decisions through objective, fact-based category expertise.
• Insights, Strategy, and Storytelling:
  Develop fact-based insights that connect category trends, shopper behavior, consumer dynamics, competitive activity, innovation, and performance results into cohesive assortment and space recommendations. Translate complex analysis into clear, compelling stories that drive action with merchants and senior stakeholders.
• Cross-Functional and Omnichannel
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Partner closely with internal teams across space, shopper insights, advanced analytics, and omnichannel to align category strategies, support Walmart merchant priorities, and ensure recommendations are connected across store and digital shopping experiences.
• Continuous Improvement and Capability Building:
  Stay current on industry trends, Walmart tools, category management best practices, automation, AI-enabled analytics, and data visualization approaches to improve processes, reporting, datasets, and decision support capabilities.
• Assortment, Space, and Modular Execution:
  Lead assortment and modular reset recommendations, including SKU optimization, space-to-sales analysis, regionality, aisle flow, adjacency strategy, white-space discovery, planograms, and post-reset performance tracking.
• Advisor Integrity and Confidentiality:
  Maintain objectivity, confidentiality, and high ethical standards when handling customer, competitive, supplier, and category-sensitive information. Ensure recommendations are unbiased, category-first, and aligned with Walmart's expectations for trusted category advisorship.

Qualifications:

Minimum

Required:

• 5+ years of experience in CPG, retail, category management, shopper insights, business analytics, or related field
• Experience developing customer-facing category recommendations for a major retailer, with Walmart experience strongly preferred
• Strong knowledge of category management principles, space management, assortment strategy, shopper behavior, and analytic techniques
• Experience translating data into customer-facing recommendations, presentations, and category stories

Preferred Level:

• 7+ years of experience in CPG, retail, category management, shopper insights, business analytics, or related field
• Experience serving in or directly supporting a Walmart category advisor role
• Experience using Walmart Scintilla or similar customer data platforms to develop category recommendations
• Experience across multiple disciplines beyond category management, such as shopper insights, space planning, advanced analytics, customer strategy, or omnichannel

Education:

Minimum

Required:

Bachelor's Degree;
Preferred: MBA or other graduate degree

Skills:

• Analytics & Automation:
  Proficiency in Power BI, Alteryx, Excel, and AI-enabled analytics is essential. Experience with SQL or scalable data automation is a plus.
• Walmart and Category Data Platforms:
  Strong familiarity with Walmart Scintilla, Nielsen, Circana, Numerator, shopper/panel data, data hierarchies, and the nuances of using multiple data sources to develop category recommendations.
• Analytical
  
  Skills:
  
  Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret complex data, identify patterns, and translate insights into practical actions.
• Storytelling and Influence:
  Excellent verbal, written, and visual communication skills with the ability to simplify complex…