Category Development Manager (Cincinnati)

Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Category Development Manager will report to the Vice President of Business Development and coordinate their work with the Director of Category Management. The role will work with Sales stakeholders to drive influence and results across Taylor Farms Retail and Deli categories at Kroger. The Category Development Manager performs a valuable role in building a strong partnership with the customer by developing and implementing insight-driven recommendations to grow their respective categories.

Key responsibilities include :

• This role requires a highly motivated, self-driven problem solver with a keen ability to develop infrastructure and insights to bring to life business opportunities and solutions.
• Proactively collaborate with the VP of Business Development and Customer Business Managers on key business opportunities and provide actionable recommendations.
• Serve as an objective category advisor. Build credibility with Kroger category managers and merchants by delivering retailer-first insights that improve total category sales, profit, household penetration, loyalty, and shopper experience, not solely company or brand performance.
• Turn data into actionable insights. Synthesize Kroger shopper and loyalty data, syndicated POS, household panel, market, assortment, space, digital, and internal shipment data to diagnose performance, identify root causes, and size growth opportunities.
• Lead category reviews and customer-facing storytelling. Own recurring category reviews, line reviews, joint business planning inputs, innovation presentations, and senior-level business updates. Create concise, persuasive selling stories that connect shopper insight to a specific retailer action and measurable outcome.
• Optimize assortment and innovation. Evaluate category roles, item productivity, incrementality, transferability, distribution gaps, pack/price architecture, and shopper demand to recommend productive assortments and support successful innovation launches and discontinuation decisions.
• Evaluate pricing and promotion. Assess everyday price, price gaps, elasticity, promotion frequency, depth, timing, lift, cannibalization, and ROI. Recommend pricing and promotional strategies that balance shopper value, category growth, and profitable execution.
• Monitor performance and communicate opportunities. Build scorecards and recurring reports that track sales, units, share, distribution, velocity, household penetration, repeat, in-stocks, promotional performance, and, where relevant for fresh/perishable categories, waste and shrink. Proactively flag risks and recommend corrective actions.
• Strengthen Category Management capabilities. Develop repeatable tools, analytical standards, and best practices; improve data quality and reporting efficiency; and share Kroger learning across the broader organization.
• Work with Marketing by providing category and consumer insights to support product innovation.
• Work with cross-functional team members on the long-term health of the portfolio and provide recommendations based on performance.
• Display strong communication and interpersonal abilities, effective problem-solving, conceptual thinking, quantitative, and analytical skills.

Qualifications

• Advanced proficiency with MS Office suite, especially Excel and PowerPoint.
• Experience with BI platforms (Power BI); visualization tools a plus.
• Experience leveraging Category Management principles, Circana POS & shopper panel data, Shopper/Consumer Insights, assortment management, and space management software.
• Experience with Kroger shopper/loyalty platforms such as 84.51° Stratum or Kroger-specific shopper behavior data.
• Ability to manage large data sets. High-level analytical capability.
• Educational background in an analytical field, such as data science, information technology, math, accounting, or business.
• Strong project management skills and demonstrated ability to manage multiple/concurrent projects within a rapidly evolving business environment.
• Strong time management, analytical, presentation, and communication skills.
• Ability to manage work independently with short deadlines and in a team environment.
• Self-motivated with a strong sense of urgency.
• Enjoy working in a fast-paced, evolving environment.

Travel

Potential for 25% domestic travel.

EOE