Category Capabilities & Space Planning Manager

As the Category Capabilities & Space Manager, you’ll play a pivotal role in turning data into actionable insights that shape selling strategies and enhance shelf performance across channels—for both Everyday and Seasonal Confections.

You’ll leverage advanced analytics, syndicated data, and space planning tools to measure business health, assess the impact of planogram changes, and guide cross-functional teams with your data-driven recommendations.

In this role, you’ll also help elevate the team’s technical capabilities and contribute to building a best-in-class Category Management Center of Excellence. Your expertise will directly influence how we optimize space and drive growth in a dynamic, consumer-focused environment.

The position will be hybrid, based in our US headquarters in Parsippany, NJ and report to the Category Capabilities Sr. Manager.

• Responsibilities include developing and managing the shelving and assortment strategies for Ferrero’s Everyday and Seasonal Confections portfolio as well as future category expansion opportunities
• Develop and present data-driven recommendations that challenge conventional thinking, influence retailer strategies, and drive measurable business outcomes
• Leverage Blue Yonder Space Planning and syndicated data resources (Circana, Nielsen) to provide shelving and assortment recommendations and analysis across channels
• Proactively generate new analytical perspectives and space planning approaches, bringing forward independent thought leadership that challenges assumptions and uncovers untapped opportunities for growth
• Integrate independent thought leadership into presentations by translating complex datasets into innovative, actionable strategies that resonate with internal stakeholders and external partners
• Maintain the planogram database and reporting to support internal and field sales
• Support the standardized space and assortment planning process for consulting with key customers
• Support our planogram compliance process, integrating HQ and Field personnel into the space planning effort
• Coordinate big data integration with category management data sources
• Support and maintain “Category to Customer” tools to enable the field category management team to customize national category growth strategies for their accounts
• Coordinate category management technology needs with the commercial IT function
• Maintain and continually develop the category management training curriculum
• Work cross-functionally with sales and marketing teams on shopper insights and consumer research
• Enable field sales teams to meet KPIs by developing selling story materials and providing additional account support
• Develop and maintain a positive, productive relationship with trade marketing, field sales, and brand team stakeholders
• Support a high achieving Category Management team capable of sustaining the company’s profitability, goals, and vision
• Acting as a subject matter expert for key data tools (assortment, IRI, loyalty data), ensuring the organization maximizes the value of available analytics resources
• Ability to effectively lead, develop, and support a direct report to maximize their performance, engagement, and contributions to organizational success.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics, Statistics, Economics, Data Science, or related field
• Minimum 7 years of leading analytics and/or category management experience in CPG industry
• Advanced knowledge with syndicated data sources (IRI, Nielsen), including ability to independently pull, manipulate, and interpret large data
• Strong ability to interpret complex datasets, translate findings into actionable business recommendations, and measure the effectiveness of those recommendations
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills, applying analytical frameworks and innovative approaches to challenge conventional methods
• Minimum 3-5 years of experience with planogram software (Blue Yonder/JDA, Apollo, Spaceman) and ability to quantify impacts of space changes on sales
• Strong project management skills with proven ability to set measurable goals, track progress, and deliver outcomes on time
• Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills, including the ability to present data-driven insights, foster positive cross-functional relationships, and interact effectively with all levels of the organization in a variety of cultures
• Proficiency in advanced Excel (pivot tables, complex formulas, data modeling) and PowerPoint, with the ability to visualize insights clearly
• People management experience preferred

The base salary range for this position is $105,000 - $135,000 annually. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors permitted by law. This range represents the anticipated salary for this position at this time.

In addition to base salary, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and other benefits. Learn more about our benefits at https://www.ferrerocareers.com/us/en/our-benefits

Consumers, quality and care are at the heart of everything we do. So, to be successful at Ferrero, you’ll need to be just as consumer and product centric as we are - dedicated to crafting brilliant results for consumers around the world. 

Ferrero is a family-owned company with a truly progressive and global outlook and iconic brands such as Nutella®, Tic Tac®, Ferrero Rocher®, Raffaello®, Kinder Bueno® and Kinder Surprise®. As the love for our brands continues to grow, so too does our global reach. Represented in more than 50 countries, with products sold in more than 170, the Ferrero Group is loved by generations around the world. The secret to our global success? 40,000  dedicated employees who celebrate care and quality to craft a business, careers and brands we are proud of. Join us, and you could be one of them.

Ferrero is committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture in which all employees feel welcomed and appreciated and have the same opportunities. We believe all of our people are equally talented in their own way. In nurturing the curiosity and natural abilities of our employees, we provide them, generation after generation, the means to succeed personally and professionally, enabling them to craft their journey at Ferrero. The diversity of our talents is what makes our work environment multicultural, innovative and highly rewarding.

Ferrero N.A. provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics.