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For more than 115 years, Ferrara has created sugar confections that enable moments of sweetness, celebration, and connection for candy lovers of all generations. Today, the company is the #1 sugar confectioner in the United States. Ferrara boasts a passionate team of nearly 9,000 employees creating and delivering hundreds of products sold under 20 popular brands like Brach’s®, NERDS®, SweeTARTS®, Laffy Taffy®, and Trolli® to more than 66 million U.S. households annually and popular Dori snacking products under brands such as Dori, Gomets, Pettiz, and Yogurte 100 in Brazil. Additionally, Jelly Belly, known world-wide for its confections, was acquired in November of 2023.

Manager, Category Leadership COE

Job Location: ​Chicago​

Want to make an impact?

The primary role of the Category Leadership Manager is to perform strategic analyses to develop critical insights, solutions, and strategic category action plans for the organization. Reporting directly to the Director of Category Leadership COE, this individual will triangulate data from multiple sources, tools and shopper insights and build persuasive and cohesive communications resulting in activations by internal and external stakeholders. The Category Leadership team is responsible for developing and sharing (internal and external) actionable insights and understanding key dynamics of our categories, retailers, marketplace and overall industry.  The role is key to driving our business forward in a data-driven world.
We are looking for someone who is motivated by innovative uses of technology to help drive action for the business and gets excited about curating stories with data and bringing new ideas or applications of existing models/analyses to our team.
 

Ways you will make a difference

  • Provide in-depth category analysis to uncover key drivers of performance, offering strategic recommendations for distribution/assortment, shelving and category growth.
  • Collaborate with internal teams and external partners on cross-functional projects, providing category insights to inform broader commercial strategies
  • Develop and leverage BIC planograms to strategize on product placement, including strategies for space measurement, shelving, and cross-category opportunities
  • Advance our analytics capabilities from mere data collection to generating insightful, actionable business strategies, employing a holistic “What, So What, Now What” approach
  • Maintain a mindset of continuous improvement in techniques, and identifies new tools and technologies to increase effectiveness
  • Ability to devise an effective solution in unstructured situations and navigate through ambiguity 
     

Skills that will make you successful

  • Insatiably and intellectually curious – motivated to dig into data, inspired to deliver accurate and actionable insights
  • Ability to learn quickly, and then act with agility
  • Strong creative and problem-solving ability
  • Collaborative, able to work with several internal and external stakeholders and present data in a professional and organized fashion.
  • Strong oral/written communication and storytelling skills
  • Having an ownership mentality with a drive to be a partner to the business
  • Comfort working independently and through ambiguity
  • Bias for action and passion for delivering results
     

Experiences that will support your success

  • Bachelor's degree with 4-7 years of experience in consumer goods, preferably in food or other high velocity impulse categories (FMCG)
  • Exceptional project management abilities, capable of prioritizing multiple projects simultaneously under tight deadlines.
  • High proficiency in syndicated data sources (Circana, Nielsen, etc) - POS and Panel data platforms
  • High Proficiency in MS Office tools, specifically Excel navigation and Powerpoint
  • Proficient/Expert in planogram/Space Management software (JDA preferred) with experience creating or reviewing planograms, and using them to strategize on product placement
  • Proficient/Expert in Data analytics tools
  • Knowledge/Experience with retailer loyalty platforms and shipment data 
     

Ideal candidate will also have

  • Experience with Tableau, Power BI or other data visualization packages
  • Ability to understand and leverage additional syndicated sources such as Numerator, Mintel, Kantar
     

Ferrara’s success in industry-leading innovation has been driven by deep consumer insights, strong retailer co-creation and partnerships, and a dedication to diversity of thought, experience, and people. A privately held company, Ferrara has its global headquarters in Chicago and an operational network of more than 27 locations in North America, Brazil, and China that includes manufacturing, distribution, sales, and R&D facilities. Ferrara is a privately held Ferrero related company. Learn more at www.ferrara.com or www.linkedin.com/company/ferrara-.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. In order to provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees, employment decisions and opportunities at Ferrara will be based on merit, qualifications, and abilities, without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital or civil union status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, military or veteran status, disability, handicap, genetic information, pregnancy (childbirth or related medical condition), or on any other basis prohibited by law. This policy governs all aspects of employment, including selection, job assignment, compensation, discipline, termination, and access to benefits and training.

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