Associate Category Manager

Associate Category Manager

The Associate Category Manager supports category growth and Mizkan commercial performance across Mizkan's portfolio by transforming shopper, consumer, and market insights into actional business recommendations. Serving as a key partner to Sales, Marketing, Revenue Management, Product Development, and Supply Chain teams, this role delivers category expertise that strengthens customer strategies, enhances selling stories, and drives profitable growth.

The role has two primary areas of responsibility:

Category Management:
Leverage syndicated, shopper, consumer, and customer data to identify opportunities, develop fact-based recommendations, and support category growth initiatives across Grocery and other customer channels.

Sales Planning & Commercialization:
Lead cross-functional coordination and project management activities that support the successful commercialization of innovation, customer programs, and strategic initiatives from concept through execution.

As a subject matter expert in syndicated point-of-sale, shopper, household panel, and customer data, the Associate Category Manager develops and activates insights through monthly score carding, account line reviews, business analyses, customer presentations, and the annual learning agenda. This role collaborates closely with Commercial Leadership and serves as a trusted advisor to Sales and cross-functional teams. Success is measured by the quality and business impact of recommendations, achievement of customer and organizational objectives, effective commercialization of key initiatives, and contribution to sales growth, market share performance, and annual operating plan goals.

What You'll Do

• Serve as a subject matter expert in syndicated, shopper, consumer, household panel, customer point-of-sale, and market data, providing actionable insights that support commercial decision-making.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret category, shopper, consumer, and sales data using Circana, Numerator, customer point-of-sale systems, survey data, primary research, AI-enabled tools, and other relevant sources.
• Identify business opportunities and translate insights into clear recommendations that support category growth, improve customer performance, and strengthen customer relationships.
• Develop customer-specific category reviews, shelf analyses, assortment recommendations, pricing and promotional evaluations, merchandising strategies, and other category management solutions.
• Partner with Sales teams to create compelling, data-driven selling stories that influence customer plans and category strategies.
• Develop and maintain monthly scorecards, key account line reviews, and performance reporting tools that support customer planning and business reviews.
• Monitor category performance, shopper trends, competitive activity, and marketplace developments to identify emerging opportunities and risks.
• Track and evaluate key performance indicators, including sales, distribution, promotion, pricing, assortment effectiveness, shelf productivity, and market share.
• Contribute to the development and execution of the annual category and shopper learning agenda, identifying opportunities to build organizational knowledge and commercial capabilities.
• Lead and support cross-functional initiatives that advance Mizkan's commercial objectives and annual operating plan priorities.
• Partner with Marketing, Revenue Management, Supply Chain, Product Development, and Sales teams to ensure effective planning, execution, and commercialization of new products, programs, and business initiatives.
• Manage projects through the Stage-Gate process, ensuring deliverables are completed on time, within scope, and aligned with business objectives.
• Support commercialization efforts through the development of internal and customer-facing materials that enable successful launch execution.
• Partner with Revenue Management teams to support customer planning, trade strategy development, pricing decisions, and negotiation preparation through category and shopper insights.
• Provide Product Development and Innovation teams with customer, category, and shopper insights that influence product concepts, pack architecture, positioning, and packaging design.
• Develop and maintain tools, scorecards, processes, methodologies, and best-practice resources that improve commercial planning effectiveness and organizational capabilities.
• Prepare and deliver impactful presentations and recommendations to customers, Sales leadership, senior management, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Establish credibility as a trusted advisor and reliable expert through objective analysis, responsiveness, collaboration, and consistent delivery of high-quality work.
• Collaborate effectively across multiple teams, balancing competing priorities while maintaining accuracy, quality, and attention to detail.
• Share category, shopper, customer, and marketplace learnings across the organization to strengthen commercial decision-making and business…