Senior Retail Supply Chain Manager - Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Jobs

Title: Operations Category Manager

Reports to: Senior Director, EMEA Entertainment & Devices Channel Operations

Purpose
Establish and maintain the appropriate category architecture - right product, right tier, right price and right customer across multiple channels. Assist Business Groups in developing profitable pricing strategies for category products. This position will work across various Entertainment & Devices (E&D) groups to develop the operational framework to support category management.

Responsibilities

Strategy - Lead development of category strategy; ensure alignment with supply chain strategy. Provide input and coordinate on relevant new products, to include working with operations, sales and marketing. Take part in supply chain strategy sessions, analysis of varying solutions, proposed process definition and documentation, project management, benchmarking industry, and staying abreast of key retail trends. Develop strategic solutions to achieve identified objectives by utilizing tools and processes such as item optimization, customized marketing, shelf space optimization/utilization, in-store merchandising, pricing and promotion planning.

Assortment Planning - work with Sales and Marketing organizations to define assortment by class of trade and channel. Identify and prioritize activities that drive profitable growth. Develop strategic category plans which attain customer objectives while also meeting E&D profitability objectives Provide on-going analysis of assortment performance and identification of opportunities to maximize opportunities across accounts and channels.

Product Transitions - work with Supply Chain Operations, Sales and Marketing to develop product transition plans that minimize inventory risk and maximize revenue opportunity. Work with local account teams to execute transition plans to agreed goals. Communicate status and escalate appropriately to senior management team in Operations, Sales and Marketing.

Stock-keeping units (SKU) Plan Optimization - Lead quarterly initiative to evaluate current sku plan against long-range opportunities to ensure overall portfolio is aligned against target portfolio. Work with category marketing, sales, business groups and finance to gain broad consensus.

Retail Category Management Subject Matter Expert - Serve as the functional retail category management expert. Through participation in cross group teams, industry consortiums and self-driven research, help influence future changes to the supply retail supply chain.

Develop the success measures for all category leadership initiatives for the account /geography. Primary responsibility for understanding and driving the following metrics
In-stock / Consumer Availability
Revenue per sq metre
GMROII - Gross Margin Return on Inventory Investment

Requirements:
15+ years relevant business experience working for a dynamic, growing, fast-paced retail company that is a Fortune 500 company or that partners with Fortune 500 companies preferred
6+ years of Category Management experience with an understanding of the category management process. Expert in category management business models for fast moving consumer products.
Strategic understanding of syndicated data (AC Nielsen and/or IRI) functionality.
Experience with Plan-o-gram Software such as SpacePlanning or Apollo
Strategic skills working within the Category Management Process
Must possess the initiative and drive to gain a broader knowledge of the overall supply chain and ultimately lead other parts of the supply chain
Demonstrated ability to write, speak and present information effectively and persuasively across all levels of an organization
Ability to travel-35%

Education:
MBA in business or supply chain preferred

Competencies
Customer Focus
Organizational Agility
Developing People
Cross Group Collaboration
Dealing with Ambiguity
Decision Making
Representing Microsoft

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