Category Manager - Walmart (based in AR) - Premier Nutrition

Here's what all the hype is about: Premier Nutrition Company (PNC) is one of the fastest-growing companies in the convenient nutrition space showing clear leadership in the category of protein shakes and protein powders. We make the brands Premier Protein, Dymatize, and PowerBar, which is sold internationally, and we are part of our holding company, BellRing Brands (NYSE: BRBR).

We have a simple, yet powerful, formula for our success, which we’ve been nailing for over 15 years. We start off with an organization powered by our company purpose—Changing Lives with Good Energy. Then our purpose-driven people are given the support and autonomy to develop and grow. Next, we are super-intentional about designing a culture where everyone feels like they truly connect and belong, which is one of our five company core values. Purpose-driven, connected employees who are consistently mastering new skills deliver amazing business results. And winning companies with amazing people and thriving cultures attract and retain top talent, so the cycle becomes self-reinforcing or what we call our regenerative culture.

We don’t mind sharing our formula since, as people who we believe in the power of changing lives with good energy, we think the world would be a better place if more workplaces treated adults like adults and gave them the platform to do the best work of their lives—alongside some truly amazing colleagues. Why don’t more companies do this? It takes deep-in-your-bones conviction to your people, products, and purpose to pull it off. It also takes resisting the urge to try to control people, and instead trusting them to make the right decisions. The results of our vibrant culture speaks for themselves: We were certified as a Great Place to Work™ for the 8^th year-running in 2024. And we currently rank #2 on Fortune Magazine’s Best Workplaces in our category, and in the top 12 for each of the last 5 years.

We have a long list of ways we take care of our people, but here are some crowd-pleasers that our employees often say they love most: Year-round ½ day Fridays, in-office massages, free lunches & snacks, dogs in the office, month-long cultural and diversity celebrations, monthly over-the-top in-office events like bring your kids to work day, 6% 401k match after 1 year, as-needed sick leave, generous paid family leave regardless of gender, all positions bonus-eligible, company-wide volunteer days, company-matched charitable donations, no employee handbook, no dress code, coaching conversations instead of performance reviews, walking meetings, free exercise classes, and company-paid gym membership for Emeryville-based employees.

PNC seeks individuals who will flourish in this type of work environment and will add to our culture and help build this high-growth company for the next phase in our amazing journey. Does this sound like you? Then read on…#LI-hybrid

The role you’re interested in…

The primary responsibilities of this position are to drive the performance of the Premier Nutrition Corp, PNC, brands. The position will be focused against creating and delivering the “Go-To-Market” strategies to ensure the achievement of PNC’s volume and EBITDA targets at Walmart (strategy, development and analysis of the 4Ps (product assortment, pricing, promotion and placement), new product introductions and planning across all Customers). They will facilitate collaborative communication between the Internal HQ category Teams and Walmart Sales Teams.

You will responsible for building strong relationships with Walmart Buyers as a vendor Partner and drive continuous improvement in total category performance for the customer.

The work environment…

This position will be based remotely (working out of the Bentonville, AR area) and each remote employee comes to our Emeryville, California headquarters at least quarterly for various meetings, such as annual departmental team building and planning meetings, annual plan kick-off all-hands meeting, quarterly state-of-the-company updates, or other large cross-functional meetings. The expected pay scale for this role is $130k to $140k, which may vary based on relevant experience, qualifications, geographic area (if applicable), and internal equity for the role.

You’re excited about this opportunity because your time will be filled with…

Analytics & Reporting: 40% of Time

• Build and maintain Advisor relationship with Walmart. Manage all functions and necessary firewalls to maintain confidential category data and to facilitate unbiased recommendations to drive category growth. Maintain confidentiality of Walmart category and competitive data
• Synthesize multiple data sources including POS, Household Panel, consumer studies to craft actionable recommendations across assortment, merchandising, pricing and shelving.
• Lead the creation of compelling category insights for everyday needs, ad hoc business questions, and mod processes.
• Customer and Category Development: 30%
• Lead modular drawing process, including Customer strategy development, merchandising layout, adjacencies, assortment optimization, pack-out compliance, and versioning of set sizes. Quantify cluster and modular-specific opportunities.
• Track Pre and Post Modular Performance

Sales Strategy and Planning: 30% of Time

• Support business planning process within Walmart Sales team across RTD and Powders
• Advise on development of critical initiatives to include Omnichannel engagement and expanding category adjacencies.
• Leverage Industry Trends: Assesses industry trends and competitive actions to develop alternative promotional offerings to maintain and improve competitive position.
• Monitor Competitive activity and share back with Headquarter teams.
• Category Management Technical Expertise: Employ Category Management tools, principles, 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 scheduling
• 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.
• Plan, test, monitor store level testing to improve shopper engagement

What are we looking for?

• 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. Advanced PC skills required, including Excel, Word, Database visualization software (i.e. Tableau/Power BI), and PowerPoint.
• Experience with Luminate Charter, 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.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, Marketing, or related field preferred.
• 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).

Experience:

• Experience using Luminate
• Knowledge of Walmart’s Modular process
• Familiarity with JDA or other Planogram software and data
• Previous experience in a Category Advisor or Captain role

Skills and mindset:

• Builder Mindset and ability to build foundational documents.
• 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 customers.
• Ability to manage tasks and to exercise independent judgment without supervision required.
• Demonstrates ability to work independently and with teams.

So, if after reading through this long list you’re thinking—I’m not sure I meet 100% of these requirements, should I still apply? YES—if you embody a growth mindset, see challenges as opportunities to develop, and find innovative ways to get the real work that matters done, you sound like our kind of candidate!

The 5 capabilities or mindsets most relevant to this role:

• Foster an environment where everyone can connect and truly belong
• Be a builder by creating for the future
• Embody a strategic mindset
• Challenge ideas respectfully by sharing your real opinion with conviction; disagree in a way people feel heard
• Play to win—exceed stretch goals and have fun doing it along the way
• Emotional intelligence— awareness and regulation of emotional impact on others

You will thrive here and may just do the best work of your life if…

• You want to be an integral part of shaping an amazing work culture and being a culture-add
• You can be flexible in your approach and abandon past practices if they don’t make sense
• You are comfortable being natural, casual, open, and even a bit playful at work
• You don’t have a big ego and give credit and praise freely
• You like to get sh*t, I mean—stuff done

This may not be your ideal next career move if…

• You like a lot of structure, rules, and uniformity
• You like hierarchy, and command and control management
• You like a “big company” impersonal, cog-in-the-machine vibe—that ain’t us
• You like things to not change much (we suggest the elevator business for that)
• Dealing with ambiguity or experimentation is not your jam

Here’s the deal with our not-so-standard, um…standard interview process because we know you are the curious type, which is why you’re still reading this…

• Quick 30 min phone chat with a high energy member of our Talent Acquisition team to do a quick overview of your background and answer any burning questions you have
• Team interviews are kept to a minimum to foster a more efficient, candidate-friendly process (too many interviewers yields little value and drags out the process for you—and who wants that, right?):
• A short series of in-person or video interviews in a 1:1 setting; these are usually with the hiring manager, one or two other team members, and a person from another team to get broader perspectives (note: we don’t do panel interviews because they don’t give interviewers a chance to ask you unique questions, and we assign interviewers different roles so we’re probing different capabilities)
• A case study or job task to simulate what you’d actually be doing in the role (since your job is not actually to be interviewed for a living, why is that the thing companies rely on so much?) Yes, there will be a small panel for this one so you don’t have to do it more than once, and yes, they might ask you some kind yet probing questions at the end after the raucous applause stops.
• Once your interview concludes, the team will meet for an in-depth consultative process to ensure we are hiring the right person for the right job.
  • Interviewers must come in with a strong yes or no vote beforehand to avoid group thinking with supporting reasons.
  • The collective thoughts on your candidacy will be discussed in an environment of safety to challenge ideas respectfully, debate. and be open to all important qualifications of the candidates.
  • A trained, disinterested bias blocker will be present to help mitigate bias so the team can make a sound hiring decision.
  • The moment of truth arrives when the hiring manager makes the big decision.
  • If you nailed the interviews and the case study was brilliant, guess what? The offer is all yours! And the ball is in your court.
  • Will you accept? We sure hope so because this place is the real deal, and don’t just believe us—just ask the 93% of our people who said this is a great place to work in our most recent employee survey.

We strive to create an equitable and inclusive environment to contribute to the success of our organization. Premier Nutrition provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, status as a covered veteran and any other category protected under applicable federal, state, provincial and local laws.