Category Management Assistant / Specialist
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Key skills for this role
Role Overview
Support category strategy, assortment optimization, supplier analysis, pricing, promotions, market research, sales analytics, and category-performance management.
Analyze sales, margins, market trends, customer behavior, supplier performance, inventory, pricing, and competitive activity to support category recommendations.
The role works across buying, merchandising, sourcing, sales, marketing, retail, e-commerce, planning, supply chain, finance, and commercial strategy.
Key Skills for This Role
Full Job Posting
Role Overview
Support category strategy, assortment optimization, supplier analysis, pricing, promotions, market research, sales analytics, and category-performance management.
Analyze sales, margins, market trends, customer behavior, supplier performance, inventory, pricing, and competitive activity to support category recommendations.
The role works across buying, merchandising, sourcing, sales, marketing, retail, e-commerce, planning, supply chain, finance, and commercial strategy.
Core Responsibilities
- Support category strategy development, category reviews, planning activities, calendars, action trackers, and management reporting.
- Analyze category size, growth, profitability, market share, customer relevance, competitive position, gaps, overlaps, and rationalization opportunities.
- Compare actual performance with budgets, forecasts, prior periods, and targets, then prepare insights and corrective-action recommendations.
- Analyze SKU productivity, best sellers, slow movers, product launches, lifecycle changes, assortment breadth, depth, and localized assortment needs.
- Evaluate new products using market demand, customer needs, pricing, margin, supplier capability, and competitive information.
- Monitor supplier pricing, quality, lead times, availability, service levels, commercial terms, and supplier-development opportunities.
- Support RFQs, RFPs, competitive bidding, proposal comparisons, supplier selection, savings, cost avoidance, and value-creation initiatives.
- Analyze pricing, price ladders, price points, competitor benchmarks, price elasticity, promotions, uplift, profitability, and customer response.
- Analyze gross margin, net margin, contribution, discounts, rebates, supplier funding, trade spend, and other commercial income.
- Monitor inventory levels, stock cover, sell-through, stockouts, excess and obsolete inventory, replenishment, allocation, and rebalancing.
Required Capabilities
- Strong analytical and numerical skills with ability to analyze SKU, category, supplier, customer, sales, and financial data.
- Strong understanding of retail, category-management, assortment, pricing, promotion, inventory, and supplier-management principles.
- Strong Microsoft Excel skills, including PivotTables, lookup functions, and data analysis.
- Strong market-research, competitor-analysis, presentation, communication, problem-solving, and critical-thinking capabilities.
- Ability to turn complex analysis into clear recommendations and work effectively with suppliers and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Good project-management and organizational skills, including management of multiple priorities and deadlines.
Candidate Profile
- Experience or strong academic exposure in category management, retail, merchandising, buying, procurement, assortment planning, sales analytics, commercial operations, or a related discipline.
- Relevant diploma or degree in business administration, retail management, marketing, merchandising, supply chain, procurement, economics, finance, or a related discipline.
- Experience in category management, retail, merchandising, buying, procurement, or commercial analysis is advantageous.
- Experience with ERP, retail, merchandise-planning, procurement, CRM, or category-management systems is advantageous.
- Experience with Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Python, or advanced analytics is advantageous.
- CIPS, CIM, CPIM, CSCP, or another relevant professional certification is advantageous.
- Knowledge of UAE or GCC retail markets and consumer behavior is advantageous.
- Arabic language proficiency is advantageous.
Preferred Working Style
- Strong commercial awareness and ability to transform market, customer, product, supplier, sales, and financial data into practical recommendations.
- Ability to work independently and effectively within a fully remote environment.
- Ability to support negotiations and collaborate with suppliers and cross-functional stakeholders.
Performance Indicators
Performance includes category sales growth, gross-margin performance, profitability, market share, SKU productivity, sales per SKU, and assortment productivity.
Performance includes inventory turnover, stock cover, sell-through, stockouts, excess and obsolete inventory, product availability, and new-product success.
Performance includes promotional uplift and profitability, price competitiveness and realization, supplier performance, service level, on-time delivery, quality, sourcing savings, and cost avoidance.
Performance includes supplier-funding realization, forecast accuracy and bias, category-plan accuracy, project and review completion, data accuracy, reporting timeliness, and stakeholder satisfaction.
Work Arrangement
- The role is fully remote and based in the United Arab Emirates.
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