SUMMARY The Associate Category Manager is a highly collaborative role that supports and influences cross-functional teams. This role develops and executes category strategies and trade marketing plans that drive growth, enhance market share, and maximize profitability. This position owns the narrative for customer meetings and coaches the sales team, leveraging market trends, category performance, and trade activities to optimize performance and strengthen our position as a category leader. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned. - Category Management Leadership - Serves as a trusted partner to sales representatives, working to establish our position as a category leader within Specialty Cheese. - Analyzes market trends, consumer insights, and the competitive landscape to identify opportunities for category growth. - Builds and communicates selling narratives that align with overall business objectives. - Develops relationships with our retail customer category management or merchant teams. - Establishes, tracks, and communicates category performance metrics and adjusts strategies as needed. - Synthesizes syndicated and proprietary data (IRI, Nielsen, Numerator, 84.51, POS) to recommend assortment optimization, pricing architecture, and shelving solutions that maximize total brand and category performance. - Trade Marketing Strategist - Supports the Director of Sales Strategy in the evaluation and optimization of all trade promotions and recommends improvements. - Guides annual promotional planning process with the sales team. - Designs, tracks, and optimizes omnichannel trade initiatives that elevate brand visibility and deliver positive ROI. - Analytic Expertise - Demonstrates expertise in various analysis tools and interprets sales data into actionable strategies and tactics. - Builds dashboards and owns the delivery of insights related to brand, category, shopper, and trade marketing. - Provides actionable insights to leadership based on data findings. - Cross-Functional Collaboration - Collaborates with sales, marketing, supply chain, and finance teams to ensure work connects to the overall company objectives. - Coordinates with external partners, including retailers and distributors, to optimize product placement and promotions. - Builds an understanding of other departments, their roles, and their processes to support the broader organization with ideas and fact-based narratives. - AI and Innovation Advocate - Leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies to transform how we approach category management and trade marketing, pushing our organization forward—even into uncharted, potentially uncomfortable areas. - Champions a growth mindset, continually seeking ways to integrate, measure, and refine these new tools and approaches to drive sustainable growth and efficiency for Sartori. DIRECT REPORTS This position is not responsible for leading team members. QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE