Customer Category Lead

Customer Category Lead

Location: Goodyear, AZ – Corporate Office
Department: Supply Chain
Classification: Exempt
Reports To: Director, Supply Chain

About the Role

Duncan Family Farms is seeking an experienced and highly analytical Customer Category Lead to support the performance and growth of our fresh produce categories.

In this role, you will serve as a key connection between our customers and internal teams, working closely with customer replenishment, procurement, and merchandising teams while partnering internally with Sales, Procurement, Operations, Supply Chain, Food Safety, Quality Assurance, and Finance.

The Customer Category Lead is responsible for aligning customer demand with available supply, improving forecast accuracy, monitoring inventory and category performance, and ensuring exceptional service execution.

This is an ideal opportunity for someone who understands the fast-paced nature of the fresh produce industry and enjoys combining data analysis, customer relationship management, forecasting, and cross-functional problem solving.

This position provides leadership and direction across cross-functional teams but does not have direct supervisory responsibilities.

What You'll Do

Customer & Category Management

• Serve as the primary day-to-day contact for customer replenishment, procurement, and category management teams.
• Build and maintain strong customer relationships through consistent communication, responsiveness, and proactive problem solving.
• Monitor category performance, sales trends, inventory movement, and customer demand.
• Support customer planning meetings, business reviews, seasonal reviews, and promotional planning.
• Identify opportunities to improve product availability, customer satisfaction, and overall category performance.

Demand Planning & Forecasting

• Develop and maintain demand forecasts for assigned fresh produce categories.
• Analyze historical sales, promotional activity, seasonality, weather impacts, and market conditions to improve forecast accuracy.
• Communicate anticipated volume changes to Procurement, Operations, and Supply Chain teams.
• Monitor forecast deviations and coordinate corrective actions to reduce service risks and inventory imbalances.
• Support allocation strategies during supply constraints, seasonal transitions, and market disruptions.

Supply, Inventory & Procurement Alignment

• Partner closely with Procurement to align customer demand with available supply.
• Monitor growing regions, production forecasts, seasonal transitions, and market conditions that may impact product availability.
• Communicate customer requirements, volume expectations, and service priorities to sourcing teams.
• Help balance customer commitments with inventory availability and procurement strategies.
• Proactively identify potential supply gaps and develop contingency plans to protect customer service.
• Monitor inventory levels, product aging, and service metrics to support efficient movement of fresh product.
• Partner with Operations and Logistics to support timely product availability and shipment execution.
• Support efforts to reduce shrink, improve inventory turns, and maximize product freshness.
• Investigate service failures, quality concerns, and inventory issues and coordinate appropriate corrective actions.
• Help ensure customer expectations for quality, availability, and order fulfillment are consistently met.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Coordinate priorities across Sales, Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, Food Safety, Quality Assurance, and Finance.
• Facilitate resolution of customer service issues, inventory challenges, and supply disruptions.
• Lead internal communication regarding customer priorities, supply changes, promotions, and seasonal opportunities.
• Drive execution through influence, communication, and collaboration across departments.
• Participate in continuous improvement initiatives focused on efficiency, customer service, and category performance.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

What We're Looking For

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Agriculture, Food Science, Economics, Finance, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• 3+ years of experience in fresh produce sales support, category management, procurement, replenishment, demand planning, supply chain, or account management.
• Strong understanding of fresh produce seasonality, supply dynamics, inventory management, and customer service expectations.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including reporting and data analysis.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and adapt quickly in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting Walmart or other major retail grocery customers .
• Experience working with replenishment systems, forecasting tools, or retail data platforms.
• Knowledge of fresh produce sourcing, commodity markets, and grower networks.
• Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or similar business intelligence platforms .
• Understanding of inventory control, logistics operations, and retail supply chain processes.

What Success Looks Like

The successful Customer Category Lead will be someone who can turn data into action, anticipate potential supply or service challenges, communicate effectively with customers and internal partners, and help teams respond quickly to the constantly changing conditions of the fresh produce industry.

You should be comfortable taking initiative, working through complex challenges, building trusted relationships, and influencing outcomes across multiple teams without direct supervisory authority.

Travel

Occasional travel to Duncan Family Farms locations, customer meetings, and company events may be required.

Physical Requirements

While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to sit, use hands to handle or feel, talk, and hear. The employee is frequently required to reach with hands and arms and may occasionally be required to stand, walk, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.

The employee must frequently be able to lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Join Duncan Family Farms

At Duncan Family Farms, we believe our responsibility goes beyond growing food. Our teams work together across farming, operations, supply chain, food safety, quality, and customer service to deliver fresh, high-quality products while continually improving how we serve our customers.

If you have experience in fresh produce, retail replenishment, category management, demand planning, or supply chain and enjoy working in a collaborative, fast-moving environment, we encourage you to apply.