Director of Category Management & Merchandising

Compensation: $133,000 - $155,000 / year + bonus eligible

Location: Remote (preference for candidates within commuting distance of our Ashburn, VA office)

We are seeking a strategic, commercially minded Director of Category Management & Merchandising to define and scale our retail and category strategy across snack/impulse, non-alcoholic beverage, and an expanded portfolio of retail and travel essentials. Reporting to the Vice President, Commercial, this leader will build a best-in-class, multi-category retail program that drives revenue growth, margin expansion, and a better customer experience alongside our core food and beverage operations.

This is an ideal opportunity for a leader who enjoys building category strategy, shaping the physical retail experience, using data to grow sales and margin, and developing a team that executes consistently in the field.

What You'll Do:

In this role, you will serve as SSP America's subject matter expert and strategic advisor for category management, merchandising, planograms, space allocation, and pricing and promotional strategy.

Key responsibilities include:

• Defining and executing a holistic retail and category strategy that integrates snack/impulse, non-alcoholic beverage, and expanded retail categories into one cohesive commercial approach.
• Establishing SSP America as a competitor in travel retail and convenience formats, and identifying new revenue streams through fresh food, travel essentials, and emerging consumer trends.
• Leading the creation and optimization of planograms, merchandising frameworks, and space allocation strategies across all formats, including fresh and prepared food categories such as pastry cases and sandwich programs.
• Partnering with Design & Construction to set retail design standards for new builds, renovations, and conversions, including grab-and-go environments, to-go formats, fixtures, equipment, and flow, and ensuring retail is built into new concept development and capital planning.
• Delivering against key commercial KPIs, including average transaction value, capture rate, margin, and incremental sales, and using data and analytics to understand customer behavior, product performance, and market trends.
• Developing pricing and promotion strategies with Commercial and Finance, and partnering with Operations and Marketing to execute promotions, limited-time offers, and seasonal programs.
• Leading end-to-end execution of new program rollouts, including product selection and testing, POS setup and data integrity, operational readiness, marketing alignment, and post-launch performance analysis.
• Building strategic relationships with key suppliers and distributors, managing and growing the supplier income program, and partnering with Procurement and Marketing on marketing funds and an integrated marketing calendar.
• Leading and mentoring a team of category managers, retail buyers, and merchandisers, and partnering with Operations leadership, including GMs, DOs, and RVPs, to ensure programs are practical, scalable, and consistently executed at the unit level.
• Building a high-performance culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement aligned with SSP America's Core Values of Ownership, Teamwork, Curiosity, and Passion.

What We're Looking For:

We're looking for a leader who pairs deep category management and merchandising expertise with strong commercial acumen and an operations-first mindset.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or international equivalent) in Marketing, Business Management, Finance, or a related field.
• Minimum of 8 to 10 years of experience in the hospitality, retail, or food service industry.
• Proven experience in multi-unit restaurant, retail, or foodservice operations.
• Deep understanding of category management principles for food and beverage products, including market research, program development, planogramming, merchandising strategy and tactics, product demonstrations, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Experience leading, developing, and mentoring teams of category managers, retail buyers, or merchandisers.
• Strong understanding of P&L, sales, and profitability, with experience analyzing sales and margin metrics to evaluate the impact of marketing and commercial initiatives.
• Proven experience interacting with and advising senior leaders, with a strong sense of urgency, professionalism, and sound judgment under pressure.
• Excellent communication, presentation, organization, and problem-solving skills, with exceptional attention to detail.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office (Excel, Outlook, Teams, Word, and PowerPoint), planogram software (Scorpion, Spaceman), and POS and inventory systems (MyMicros, MyInventory).
• Ability to establish and maintain eligibility to work in the United States without sponsorship.
• Ability to travel less than 20% within the U.S. and Canada, including overnight extended stay.
• Ability to pass and maintain a criminal background check and, as required, meet airport security requirements such as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) clearance, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Transport Canada, and other applicable clearances.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in travel retail, airport concessions, convenience, or grab-and-go foodservice formats.
• Experience expanding merchandising into fresh and prepared food categories, such as pastry and sandwich programs.
• Experience partnering with design and construction teams on retail buildouts, fixtures, and store layouts.
• Experience managing supplier income programs, marketing funds, and trade funding.
• Working knowledge of marketing and graphics software.

What Does Success in This Role Look Like?

• Balance commercial results, customer experience, and operational practicality in every category decision.
• Use sales data, customer insights, and field feedback to drive assortment, pricing, and space decisions.
• Track trends in travel retail, convenience, and foodservice merchandising, and act on what you learn.
• Hold suppliers accountable and get measurable value from every partnership.
• Turn strategy into programs that GMs and frontline teams can execute consistently.
• Build trusted partnerships across Operations, Marketing, Culinary, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Design & Construction.

This role shapes what travelers see and buy at SSP America locations in airports nationwide. You'll build a multi-category retail program inside a complex, growing organization, with direct access to senior leadership and real influence over strategy, assortment, store design, and commercial results.

If you're passionate about category strategy, merchandising, retail design, and building programs that travelers notice and operators can execute, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply today and help us build the future of Retail at SSP America.