Position Summary:
The Director of Category Management is a high-impact leadership role responsible for defining and executing long-term strategic category plans across a portfolio of key product categories. This individual will serve as a trusted partner to Sales, Integrated Site Leadership, IT, Sourcing, and Supply Chain, with a mandate to optimize gross margin performance, drive profitable growth, build strategic supplier relationships, and align Vallen’s category strategies with evolving customer needs and market dynamics. Responsible for the end-to-end economics and performance for their aligned categories under management.
Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities:
- Assortment Optimization: Coaches product department team to define core vs. extended product assortment strategies using data-driven analysis of customer demand, market trends, and supplier performance with a focus on the customer.
- Strategic Planning: Leads the development of multi-year strategic category plans across the Director’s aligned portfolio leaders including customer segmentation, pricing strategy, competitive positioning, and value proposition development.
- Supplier Strategy: Develops and maintain top-to-top strategic supplier relationships; identify consolidation and partnership opportunities to improve profitability, service, and innovation.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Key, executive partner with Sales, Sourcing, Marketing, and Operations to ensure category strategy execution aligns with enterprise objectives.
- Innovation Pipeline: Challenges category leaders to identify emerging trends and new product opportunities; champion innovation in collaboration with suppliers and internal stakeholders.
- Financial Performance Management: Owns product department-level P&L and working capital performance, including margin optimization initiatives, cost management, and supplier program execution. Responsible for building department-level forecasts and budgets.
- Perform staff management duties for a team of 10 – 30 associates. Staff management responsibilities include but are not limited to interviewing, selecting, hiring, coaching, counseling, and disciplining associates while enforcing company policies, procedures, and productivity standards.
- Assess current team and determine path to a Winning Team.
- Establish and execute criteria in support of Vallen’s business goals and objectives and evaluate vendor performance and compliance when considering contract renewals.
- Provide input into and/or formulate short term and long-term strategic marketing and communications plans.
- Other duties as assigned.
Staff Management Responsibilities:
Direct management of a department, section, unit or group involving responsibility for results in terms of cost, methods and personnel. Full accountability for hiring, discipline, discharge, performance appraisals, salary administration, etc.
Preferred Qualifications
Job Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in a related field of study and at least 10 years applicable of experience. Applicable experience should include:
- Experience curating product assortments with a focus on understanding the customer “jobs-to-be-done” and their needs
- Extensive understanding of sourcing and procurement operations, procedures, and best practices with demonstration of strong supplier negotiation and business planning skills to maximize supplier sales.
- Experience with developing supplier-focused programs (e.g., incentives, co-ops, rebates, etc.)
- Industrial distribution industry experience preferred.
- Strong presentation skills with professional presence to deliver materials to executive audience (internally and/or externally).
- Strong cross-functional program management experience
- Highly entrepreneurial- someone with experience in building organizations and driving change management.
- Demonstrated leadership, collaboration, and change management skills.
Work Environment & Physical Demands:
Reasonable accommodations will be evaluated and may be implemented to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions of this position.
- Routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, etc.
- Regularly required to talk and hear.
- Frequently required to sit.
- Occasionally required to stand and walk.
- Must be able to get self to and from various work locations. This typically requires a valid driver’s license to operate a moving vehicle (personal, company, and/or rental).
- May be required to wear various forms of protective equipment (shoes, gloves, protective eyewear, etc.) when making sales calls and/or visiting warehouse, manufacturing, customer and/or supplier facilities.
- May be exposed to facilities subject to seasonal temperature fluctuations (hot in summer, cold in winter) and conditions (dirt, smoke, concrete surfaces, etc.) when viewing and/or demonstrating products.
- Occasionally required to lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, and ability to adjust focus.
- Long periods of time working on a computer and performing repetitive key-boarding activities is required.
What We Do
Vallen is a leading provider of indirect industrial supplies—all those materials that are not part of the products our customers manufacture. From earplugs to specialty tools, to abrasives and cutting tools, we cover the vast majority of our customers’ maintenance, repair, operations and production-related needs. Vallen is also a leader in safety services with offerings that include equipment inspection, maintenance, certification and solution design. Many of our customers look to us for integrated supply solutions and vendor-managed inventory, with Vallen associates on-site, bringing local knowledge and expertise to the specific needs of individual facilities.
