What You Will DoThe Senior Director of Category Development & Planning is responsible for shaping the long-term category strategy, driving cross-functional alignment, and identifying opportunities to accelerate growth across customers, channels, and product lines. This role leads the development of strategic category insights, assortment optimization, and retail activation plans. The ideal candidate brings a combination of enterprise-level consumer goods experience demonstrating the ability to scale complex processes and partner with major retailers as well as start-up or high-growth experience, showing comfort with lean teams, rapid experimentation, and a bias toward action.
This leader oversees a team responsible for category analytics, assortment strategy, and retailer collaboration and acts as a critical partner to Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, and Executive Leadership.
How You Will Make an ImpactCategory Strategy & Leadership- Guide the multi-year retailer category vision, competitive strategy, and growth roadmap across key channels (e.g., mass, grocery, club, specialty, e-commerce).
- Leverage insights from consumer trends, shopper behavior, and market data to guide product portfolio and innovation strategy.
- Build scalable tools, frameworks, and processes that support data-driven decision-making, drawing on experience from large CPG companies.
Retailer & Customer Collaboration- Partner on joint business planning with major retail partners; deliver compelling category narratives that influence retailer decisions on shelf, pricing, promotions, and assortment.
- Develop best-in-class category presentations, line reviews, and merchandising strategies.
- Ensure alignment between retailer expectations and internal product/supply capabilities.
Growth Planning & Cross-Functional Activation- Lead the annual and quarterly sales planning process, ensuring category strategies, consumer insights, and demand forecasts are directly translated into customer-level targets and activation plans.
- Implement scalable sales planning tools and processes, drawing from best practices in large CPG organizations while adapting for speed, flexibility, and resource constraints common in start-up or high-growth environments.
- Enable the field and key account teams with clear, insight-driven playbooks, selling narratives, and category rationales that elevate customer conversations and secure incremental wins.
Planning, Forecasting & Operations- Partner closely with Supply Chain and Finance to establish accurate demand plans and support S&OP processes.
- Improve forecasting models and planning tools, balancing enterprise discipline with the flexibility required in smaller, fast-changing organizations.
- Identify opportunities for process optimization and capability building within the planning function.
Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing category development and planning team.
- Champion a culture that combines the strategic rigor of large CPGs with the entrepreneurial spirit of a start-up.
- Act as a strategic advisor to senior executives on category opportunities and marketplace risks.
What You Will Bring- 10-15+ years of experience in consumer goods category management, category development, and/or trade strategy, including 5-7+ years of experience owning and managing P&Ls for top-tier, strategic CPG customers.
- Significant experience in a large consumer packaged goods company with exposure to structured planning processes, retailer engagement, and national-level category leadership.
- Strong partnership experience with Sales and Finance to deliver profitable joint business plans and achieve customer-level financial targets.
- Proven track record of using financial insights to influence internal stakeholders and retailer decisions.
- Experience in start-ups, emerging brands, or high-growth environments, demonstrating comfort with ambiguity, agility, and hands-on leadership.
- Deep experience with category management tools such as Nielsen/IRI analytics suites, space planning/planogram tools, and retailer-specific category development platforms.
- Proven track record of influencing major retail partners and driving measurable category results.
- Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and storytelling skills.
- Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder management abilities.
What We OfferThe range for this position is: $205,000 - $225,000.
At Freshpet, we offer a competitive salary and an excellent benefits package, including medical, dental and vision insurance, basic and optional life insurance, short- and long-term disability protection, flexible spending accounts, and a 401(k) plan with company match, paid parental leave, pet insurance, tuition assistance, a generous PTO plan and so much more!
