Purpose

The Category Advisor is to support the Walmart business (Retailer). Lead, enhance and grow the relationship with our Merchant partners by being a thought-leader and “go-to” resource for category shopper and consumer trends and merchandising solutions. This team-member will support with analysis and insight development; by providing innovative solutions for driving growth in our product categories. They will develop persuasive analysis and presentations using available data and consumer research tools to drive sales fundamentals, category, and growth at Walmart.

Essential Duties

• Collaboration and Alignment with Key Stakeholders – interaction with Walmart buyers
  • Work with Walmart personnel and cross-functional teams to leverage available data (POS, syndicated, primary research) and shopper insights to drive value for Bumble Bee Seafoods through assortment, shelf, merchandising and pricing initiatives.
  • Support in business planning and evaluation process with Walmart team
  • Develop and collaborate on Walmart centric projects/tools that support national sales stories and general strategy planning.
• Build and maintain Advisor relationship with the Customer.  Manage all functions and necessary fire-walls to maintain confidential category data and to facilitate unbiased recommendations to drive category growth.
• Proactively identify and quantify cluster and modular-specific opportunities, leveraging advanced analytics, shopper insights, and Customer indices to maximize productivity.
• Lead modular drawing process, including Customer strategy development, merchandising layout, adjacencies, assortment optimization, pack-out compliance, and versioning of set sizes.
• Effectively manage DC slots for critical mass and on-shelf inventory requirements for pack and a half.
• Leverage Industry Trends: Assesses industry trends and competitive actions to develop alternative promotional offerings to maintain and improve competitive position with key customers.
• Category Management Technical Expertise: Employ Category Management tools, principals, and business processes in the appropriate situations to grow distribution, space and optimized assortment: IRI, JDA, ProSpace, Assortment Optimization tools, and custom and proprietary consumer studies.
  • Lead in the development of Walmart planograms and yearly reset planning, process, and schedule
• Applies good judgment in selecting methods/criteria for analyzing data and making recommendations while working closely with Walmart to influence strategic execution and decision making. Provides input into the overall Category business planning process.
• Partners with internal departments, including Sales, Broker Partners, and Customer Marketing to evaluate distribution, merchandising and shelf initiatives to customer decision makers through utilization of technology and customer knowledge.

Education/Experience/Skills Required

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Finance, Marketing, or related field preferred. MBA is an asset
• 3-5+ years CPG experience (Walmart or Sam’s Club Advisor experience required), including high level analytical experience (Category Management, Retail Management or selling experience preferred).
• Previous experience working within the mass and/or grocery class of trade
• In-depth understanding of Category Management Principles
• Strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills required: The ability to analyze multiple sources of data to make action-based recommendations to internal Bumble Bee Seafoods Departments and to our Retail Customers.
• Project Management & Organization Skills: The ability to manage multiple competing priorities while supporting multiple retail customers.
• Verbal & Written Communication Skills: The ability to clearly and accurately present complex data while being able to persuasively make recommendations to internal stake holders and customer.
• Ability to manage tasks and to exercise independent judgment without supervision required.
• Advanced PC skills required, including Excel, Word, Database applications (i.e. Access), and PowerPoint.
• Experience with syndicated (NPD, IRI, or Nielsen) data interpretation and analysis and using this data to provide actionable insights to customer and sales personnel. Panel, frequent shopper card, JDA, ProSpace experience required.
• Ability to maintain positive work atmosphere by communicating effectively with customers, management, and peers.
• Demonstrates ability to work independently and with teams.
• This position is a remote position but may require travel within designated Customer base (minimum 20% travel)

Compensation and Benefits

The health, satisfaction and security of our team members and their families are important to us and an important part of reaching our organization’s goals. We offer a total rewards package that includes valuable and competitive compensation and benefit plans. These programs reflect our commitment to attracting and retaining top talent. The compensation for this role includes base salary and eligibility for an annual bonus based on company performance. All incentive plans are subject to change.

The pay range for this role is $140,000 – $160,000 annually.

*The compensation will be commensurate with the level of knowledge, education, skills, and experience applicable to the position.

We understand that each team member’s situation is unique, and so it is our intent to offer an overall benefits package that can be shaped and molded by each team member to fit their family’s needs. Our current benefits package, which is available to all full-time team members and their eligible dependents, includes:

• medical insurance
• dental insurance
• vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• HSA & FSA
• life insurance and disability insurance
• and other voluntary benefits

We also offer time-off benefits including:

• paid time-off
• sick-flex time
• 12 company paid holidays