Misfits Market - Director of Grocery Category Management

• Strategic Planning & Direction • Long-Term Strategy: Lead the creation and execution of long-term category strategies that align with the company’s overall business goals. • Long-Term Strategy: • Goal Setting: Set clear objectives for category growth, profitability, and market share while considering customer needs, market trends, and competitor actions. • Goal Setting: • Visionary Leadership: Define category vision and direction, ensuring all initiatives are integrated with broader organizational priorities. • Visionary Leadership: • Cross-functional Collaboration • Enterprise Alignment: Partner with senior leadership in Brand, Marketing, Inventory Planning, and Operations to ensure category strategies are integrated across the business. • Enterprise Alignment: • Private Label Strategy: Collaborate with the Private Label team to define strategies between Private Label and Branded products that can be cascaded to the entire Merchandising team. • Private Label Strategy: • Marketing & Strategy Planning: Lead communication with the Marketing team for campaigns and product launches. Work closely with Merch Strategy Planning on pricing strategies and profitability goals. • Marketing & Strategy Planning: • Product & Engineering: Partner with Product and Engineering to develop and oversee workflow improvements that enhance internal efficiency and the overall customer experience. • Product & Engineering: • Vendor Management • Vendor Management • Relationship Excellence: In this role, you will support the cultivation of strong vendor relationships and mentor Category Managers in relationship management, providing hands-on support and mentorship as needed. • Relationship Excellence: • Oversight: Review supplier performance and guide direct reports on vendor selection and long-term agreements. • Oversight: • Negotiation Authority: Sign off on high-impact negotiations regarding costing, margin, and inventory position, ensuring vendors are aligned with company growth goals. • Negotiation Authority: • Data Analysis & Industry Trends • Strategic Insights: Utilize internal and 3rd-party data to shape strategic decisions, optimize performance, and stay ahead of emerging trends (consumer behavior, new technologies, economic conditions). • Strategic Insights: • Market Analysis: Influence and set the total Merchandising strategy. Implement processes for Category Managers to conduct regular market analysis on the competitive landscape and consumer preferences. • Market Analysis: • Knowledge Sharing: Build relationships and manage contracts with 3rd-party data providers to drive information sharing across the company. • Knowledge Sharing: • People Management • People Management • Team Building: Responsible for building a cohesive, high-performing team. Balance strategic leadership with a willingness to be hands-on—especially as processes, tools, and structures continue to evolve. • Team Building: • Strategic Prioritization: Guide the team in navigating ambiguity and shifting business objectives through rigorous prioritization and the implementation of industry best practices. • Strategic Prioritization: • Mentorship: Set clear expectations, offer support, and foster a positive work culture that encourages professional growth and accountability. • Mentorship: • Core Values & Competencies • Misfits Prioritize Our Customer (Business Acumen): You possess a transformation level of influence over the business unit. You are sought out as a thought partner for challenging cross-functional tensions and gaining sponsorship for vision and resourcing needs. • Misfits Prioritize Our Customer (Business Acumen): • Misfits Respect One Another (Communication): Regarded as a top influencer and collaborator, you are a thought partner to peers and senior leaders. You build bridges across teams and are respected for your impact on business results. • Misfits Respect One Another (Communication): • Misfits Do More With Less (Project Management): You make appropriate trade-offs and contingency plans to ensure progress. You advocate for defensible resource requirements (budget and headcount) using data and specifics. • Misfits Do More With Less (Project Management): • Misfits Take Initiative & Deliver (Resilience): You factor in diverse perspectives from other functional leaders to translate vision into breakthrough, bold-but-realistic strategies. • Misfits Take Initiative & Deliver (Resilience): • Misfits Move Quickly and Deliberately (Digital Fluency): You invite diverse perspectives to arrive at widely supported decisions and translate vision into viable 6- and 12-month roadmaps. • Misfits Move Quickly and Deliberately (Digital Fluency): • Misfits Think Differently (Innovation): You are future-oriented, mapping out visions that include new opportunities and areas for improvement. You set aside resources for exploration and apply innovation in effective, business-building ways. • Misfits Think Differently (Innovation):