Job Summary and Qualifications
The Category Manager develops the overall strategy for a product category by working closely with suppliers, regulatory, clinical and sales to determine the optimal product offering and supply and price positions through the analysis of sales trends, market conditions and competitive offerings. The category manager is responsible to provide ideas and feedback in the creation of effective promotional materials, as well as, support the successful launch or market exit of targeted products within assigned categories. He/She is a critical voice into the strategic direction of how their assigned categories impact the overall ROi/Regard® portfolio and go-to-market strategy, including but not limited to, forecasting, P & L, distribution and sales/clinical support. The individual must be capable of resolving escalated issues and willing to contribute at both a strategic and tactical level.
This is an opportunity to form the future of a growing brand, in a start-up environment, backed by nationally recognized healthcare systems. The category manager needs to be a highly motivated, self-starter interested to join a focused team dedicated to the mission of ensuring critical supplies to our healthcare customers
What you will do in this role includes:
- Has a deep knowledge and/or quickly learns assigned products and categories, including but not limited to, product function, use, specifications, pricing and competitive landscape.
- Develops overall strategy for assigned categories and researches new products to ensure our healthcare customers have the most appropriate products for use, delivered on time and in adequate supply.
- Understands, assesses and manages supplier capabilities, market intel, supply risks to define/improve ROi’s supply network at a local, regional and global level.
- Selects supplier sources by driving competitive sourcing activities, in cooperation with supporting departments, including but not limited to clinical, global sourcing, QRA, legal, finance and operations.
- Negotiates, operationalizes and supports supply contracts, including but not limited to, existing and new contracts, as well as, product additions/changes.
- Tracks and manages performance indicators related to supplier and category performance.
- Ensures appropriate business controls are in place to reduce risk and protect the company.
- Represents assigned categories to internal and external stakeholders.
- Identifies process-improvements opportunities and demonstrates the capability and willingness to drive functional change.
- Develops and maintains, in cooperation with marketing, clinical and sales, all category collateral and content used by customers, account management and sales, including but not limited to ecommerce and ecatalog information.
- Promotes or upsells certain products or services, within assigned category or overall portfolio, during customer engagements.
- Defines and generate reports that highlight the department’s performance against goals and opportunities for improvement.
- Addresses and resolves issues escalated by operations, customer service, sales and others.
What qualifications you will need:
- Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, finance, or business administration. Engineering degree and/or MBA a plus
- 5+ years of category management, supply chain management, and/or sourcing. Experience with a medical, multi-national preferred
- USA and international travel may be required; amount of travel will be depended on category maturity and supply origin; may be up to 50%
