Category Manager - Pork/Chicken Category

Essential Functions:

Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop divisional replenishment buyers and regional category support teams to ensure strong execution of category strategies.

• Establish clear performance expectations, accountability measures, and development plans for direct reports.

• Provide strategic direction, guardrails, and decision-making support to divisional teams related to inventory, sourcing, and customer service priorities.

• Foster a high-performance, collaborative culture across category, replenishment, sales, and warehouse functions.

• Drive alignment between corporate category objectives and divisional execution plans.

• Support succession planning and talent development within the category and replenishment organization.

Vision & Planning

• Develop and own the annual strategic plan for assigned food categories, including sales, margin, volume, assortment, and sourcing goals.

• Build and execute long-term category strategies aligned with company growth, profitability, and customer needs.

• Own category P&L performance, including gross margin, cost targets, rebates, and inventory productivity.

• Lead assortment strategy, SKU rationalization, and product lifecycle planning for core and specialty items.

• Monitor commodity markets, industry trends, customer demand patterns, and competitive activity to inform strategic decisions.

• Establish pricing and cost-management strategies in partnership with Sales and leadership teams.

• Identify innovation opportunities, new product introductions, and assortment expansion plans.

Communication & Relationship Building

• Partner closely with Sales leadership to align category strategy with customer needs, pricing initiatives, and growth opportunities.

• Build and maintain strong cross-functional relationships with warehouse operations, divisional teams, finance, procurement, and executive leadership.

• Communicate category performance, risks, opportunities, and strategic initiatives to key stakeholders.

• Lead internal business reviews, strategy meetings, and supplier performance discussions.

• Influence cross-functional partners to drive alignment on sourcing, inventory, and assortment decisions.

• Support divisional teams with guidance on customer-specific opportunities, inventory risks, and supplier issues.

Category & Supplier Management

• Own strategic supplier relationships and lead national vendor negotiations for assigned categories.

• Negotiate contracts, pricing, rebates, freight terms, service expectations, and promotional support agreements.

• Develop and maintain supplier scorecards to measure performance in cost, service levels, quality, fill rates, and innovation.

• Monitor supplier performance and resolve service, quality, or availability issues.

• Lead cost-change recommendations and margin protection strategies based on commodity and market conditions.

• Approve supplier onboarding, contract deviations, and strategic sourcing changes.

• Manage category assortment standards and approve regional deviations where appropriate.

• Identify sourcing alternatives and risk mitigation strategies to ensure continuity of supply.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:

• Proven negotiation abilities, problem solving, and working knowledge of vendor communities required

• Strong financial and business acumen required

• Exceptional project management skills

• Proficient analytical skills to analyze and interpret data related to industry trends, supplier pricing, stakeholder needs, etc. 

• Ability to inject creativity, fresh thinking, and new perspectives and to generate new and imaginative ideas.

• Knowledge of continuous improvement, cost reduction approaches and practices

• Proficient leadership abilities, capable of motivating others and influencing direction without explicit authority.

• Proficient communication skills - both written and verbal - to communicate effectively with a broad-based team including diverse internal stakeholders and vendors.

• Positive attitude, problem-solver mentality, willingness to experiment and be creative.

• Exceptional organization skills and attention to detail 

Equipment / Tools / Technology:

• Desktop or Laptop computer

• Telephone with voicemail

• Networked copier/printer/facsimile

• Google Apps (Chrome, Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, etc...)

• Advanced knowledge of spreadsheets, word processing, presentation, e-mail, and internet software applications

• Advanced knowledge of business software applications

• Knowledge of Gordon Food Service mainframe and server systems preferred

• Knowledge of SAP Ariba Source-to-Pay platform preferred