Category Advisor - Bayer Corporation

At Bayer we’re visionaries, driven to solve the world’s toughest challenges and striving for a world where 'Health for all Hunger for none’ is no longer a dream, but a real possibility. We’re doing it with energy, curiosity and sheer dedication, always learning from unique perspectives of those around us, expanding our thinking, growing our capabilities and redefining ‘impossible’. There are so many reasons to join us. If you’re hungry to build a varied and meaningful career in a community of brilliant and diverse minds to make a real difference, there’s only one choice.

Category Advisor  

The Assoc. Manager of Shopper Based Design (Category Advisor) works cross-functionally and in collaboration with the Shopper Based Design Manger, aI Business Manager, and the Category team to automate and optimize traditional category management workstreams and accelerate category growth by leveraging proprietary Bayer capabilities and first party customer data. The work will focus on building capabilities to automate mining and Assessing customer first party category data and other customer data to deliver actionable assortment and shelf (instore and .com) insights and recommendations for the key categories with speed and accuracy all while improving category results - shopper satisfaction, category growth, and profitability. Additional work will focus on supporting the Shopper Based Design Manager with new shopper insights to support strategies, to win at the shelf through intellectual curiosity and new capabilities to mine first party data with speed. This role will accelerate the transformation of category management in the field to shopper-based design thinking and capabilities.

YOUR TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The primary responsibilities of this role, Category Advisor, are to:

• Leads insight development utilizing customer data, syndicated data, and industry information for new opportunities and in support of existing initiatives/actions;
• Supports and/or conducts 2 category reviews annually with a focus on automating reporting and improving analysis using aI for improved decision making and bringing objective non-biased thinking forward to the customer. Automates the monitoring and tracking of competitive activity, new item performance, and shopper engagement;
• Create and communicates fact-based stories to drive insight into action and utilize presentation skills to articulate the data to internal and external stakeholders, with Category Advisor's oversight;
• Identifies category and brand business opportunities based upon retailer and shopper insights and supports category teams in bringing forward internally and externally;
• With limited guidance, creates and communicates fact-based category stories to drive insight into action and utilize presentation skills to articulate the data to internal and external stakeholders to unlock joint value;
• Maintain strong business relationships with key customer contacts through frequent contact, delivering actionable objective insights and sharing of best practices and is seen as a contact for specific category questions/initiatives.

WHO YOU ARE

Bayer seeks an incumbent who possesses the following:

Required Qualifications:

• BS and BA degree required;
• Strong working knowledge of the category management process for both the customer and internally as well as ability to turn insights into action;
• Critical Competencies:
  • Passion for driving for category management and being a part of its evolution in retail.
  • Ability to provide actionable insights based on analysis of syndicated data and/or customer specification data, current issues, and expertise within category that influences decisions and contributes to attainment of category objectives, strategies and tactics.
  • Effective communication, specifically written and the ability to manage a multi-project-based workload.
  • Must drive for results, be customer and shopper focused, demonstrate planning skills, and be able to work effectively in a team environment;
  • Must have a valid driver’s license.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 5+ years of overall CPG experience of which two to four years of experience must be in category management/analytical activities

• Direct experience with Retail link, Luminate, JDA, IRI /Nielsen and shelf IQ are all strongly preferred, but not required provided there is sufficient experience in drawing insights from proprietary customer data.
• Experience with data automation