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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.

Sr. Category Manager, Walmart

Work Location: ​Rogers, AR​

Due to the highly interactive and team-based nature of this role, in-person attendance for most of the workweek (i.e., 3 days or more) is essential for: effective communication including during in-person meetings, strong supervision, real-time problem-solving, and participation in cross-functional initiatives.

Want to make an impact?

Working closely with internal and external resources, the Sr. Category Manager is responsible for developing critical insights, solutions, and strategic and tactical category action plans to assigned customers.  The Sr. Category Manager is the primary representative to the customer for all category management activities.  This position addresses complex business opportunities by leveraging multiple data sources, tools and analytics, shopper insights and solutions into persuasive communications.

This role requires being in our office in Rogers, AR 3 days per week.  

Ways you will make a difference

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.

  • Use and understand Scintilla, Walmart Retaillink and Circana/Nielsen to generate actionable insights that will help drive category insights with retail and distributor partners, address issues, or capitalize on opportunities to drive sales growth.
  • Consolidate macro trends, insights, and fundamentals into succinct storytelling resulting in retailer activations
  • Prepare and present strategic insights to customers to support selling initiatives and secure alignment of strategic and tactical plans at multiple levels of the organization
  • Deliver impartial and objective solutions to the customer by providing differentiated, timely, relevant, and actionable insights
  • Strong ability to leverage data to make planogram assortment recommendations and provide rationale for recommendations to customer
  • High competency in JDA software to build/modify modulars and utilize the tables within to dissect the results
  • Optimize communications across cross-functional teams; oversees distribution and organization of tools and critical business materials
  • Cultivate and manage relationships with retailers
  • Provide leadership to the customer team across cross-functional teams to create dialogue via fact based insights and actionable business analytics
  • Collaborate with other Ferrara Candy company departments (Sales, Marketing, Research & Development, Purchasing, Trade and Market Development, Planning & Development, etc.) to identify sales growth opportunities and develop strategic and tactical plans
  • Develop and manage project timelines

#LI-HYBRID

Skills that will make you successful

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. 

  • Analytical
  • Collaborative/Team Oriented
  • Organized with strong planning skills
  • High tolerance for ambiguity
  • Business Acumen
  • Innovative, agile, and creative
  • Action-oriented
  • Ownership mindset; Entrepreneurial by nature 

Experiences that will support your success

  • Bachelor’s Degree, MBA preferred
  • 7-10 years of experience in category management in consumer goods, preferably in confections or other high velocity impulse categories (FMCG)
  • Demonstrated success in developing, implementing, and executing category management activities
  • Strong project management abilities.  Capable of prioritizing and handling multiple projects simultaneously under tight time constraints and within budget parameters
  • Solid knowledge of syndicated data sources (e.g. Circana, Nielsen, Mintel, Numerator, Kantar etc.)
  • High proficiency in MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and JDA
  • Demonstrated success working in a matrixed-organization
  • Strong knowledge of chain sales, retail and distributor operations.
  • Solid experience in presenting ideas and concepts to varying seniority levels within an organization
  • Proven track record of tangible impact to top/bottom line

What We Offer

At Ferrara, we're proud to support our employees with comprehensive benefits that enhance health, financial wellness, and include paid time off (PTO).  Eligible employees may also receive an annual bonus based on company performance. Learn more about our benefits at https://flimp.live/Ferrara-Candy-2025-OE-QR

Compensation

The salary range for this position is $123,000 - $170,000 annually.

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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