Associate Analyst - Category Management

The role is responsible for delivering end-to-end Category Management analytics and insights for the UK Snacks/Grains business as part of the Global Business Services (GBS) organization. Operating as a strategic partner to the UK Category and Commercial teams, the role enables accelerated category and customer growth through high-quality assortment, space, and performance analytics.

The position plays a critical role in translating complex internal and external data into clear, commercially relevant growth stories, supporting retailer engagement, joint business planning, and category decision-making. The role combines strong analytical execution with business storytelling, stakeholder partnership, and continuous improvement of Category Management delivery within the Center of Excellence.

Responsibilities

• Category Management & Commercial Analytics
• Execute Category Management analytics for the UK Snacks/Grains category in line with agreed service charters and SLAs
• Support assortment and space analysis to identify whitespace opportunities, range optimization levers, and shelf productivity improvements across key UK retailers
• Support in creating customer-specific growth stories and performance narratives to support world-class retailer engagement and category selling
• Deliver periodic and ad-hoc Customer Business Reviews, translating data into clear insights, implications, and recommended actions
• Business Insight & Performance Explanation
• Explain category, customer, and brand performance by synthesizing multiple data sources and incorporating market context beyond the data
• Diagnose performance drivers, risks, and optimization opportunities across channels, customers, competitors, and emerging players
• Provide deep-dive responses to follow-up business questions, creating clear tables, visuals, and insight-led narratives
• Stakeholder Partnership & Delivery Excellence
• Partner closely with Reporting Leads, Managers, and Senior Managers to deliver against business partner information needs
• Manage multiple concurrent priorities, ensuring timely, high-quality delivery aligned to agreed scope, templates, and governance
• Act as a trusted point of contact for stakeholders, balancing responsiveness with analytical rigor and quality control
• Proactively identify and flag delivery risks related to capacity, tools, data availability, or process dependencies
• Process Improvement & Capability Building
• Contribute to the development and refinement of Category Management and Reporting COE processes, including workflow mapping and bottleneck resolution
• Drive simplification, standardization, and digitization initiatives in collaboration with global and sector stakeholders
• Incorporate regular feedback from end users and business partners to continuously improve outputs, processes, and ways of working
  

• Strong foundation in category management (range reviews, assortment, space planning) and understanding of distribution/shelf KPIs
• Solid analytical skills with the ability to translate data into clear, actionable insights
• Ability to manage end-to-end delivery of projects with ownership of timelines and quality
• Good problem-solving skills, able to structure and work through ambiguous situations
• Clear communication and storytelling skills to present insights in a simple, structured way
• Effective stakeholder management, with the ability to collaborate across teams and drive alignment
• Learning agility with a focus on applying new skills, tools and best practices to improve outcomes