Assistant Category Manager - Houseware

We’re building a world of health around every individual — shaping a more connected, convenient and compassionate health experience. At CVS Health(R), you’ll be surrounded by passionate colleagues who care deeply, innovate with purpose, hold ourselves accountable and prioritize safety and quality in everything we do. Join us and be part of something bigger – helping to simplify health care one person, one family and one community at a time.
** Position Summary
** The Assistant Category Manager will participate in shaping the category strategy to drive the P&L to achieve sales, profitability and margin growth, and contribute to the training and development of future leaders. You will have ownership of the P&L, driving optimal and intentional business towards your category in a creative way. You will use your negotiating skills to immerse yourself in your category, readily sharing best practices with your peers, Senior Category Manager leader, and your Division Market Manager.

You will use all available tactics - including Assortment, Promotions, Extra Care, Digital, Social, Marketing, Store Brand, and Supplier Capabilities - to reach or exceed goals.

Your experience leading and influencing others (both directly and indirectly), and your ability to clearly present to your Senior Category Manager and DMM leadership using your top-notch presentation skills, will be paramount to your success. You will leverage your prior experience to build influential presentations about your categories with a clear narrative, leaving everyone in the meeting clearly aligned to the path forwards.

You will leverage your clearly defined prioritization skills to proactively anticipate the market, and take calculated risks to grow your market share, without risking profit on the P&L.Additional Responsibilities:
* Achieve revenue and margin goals by accomplishing market share growth. Manage all profit and loss targets to include sales, contribution of margin, inventory turns, GMROI and DOS.
* Leverage data, insights, and analytics to influence stakeholders and makes recommendations as appropriate.
* Vendor management - Collaborates and negotiates with manufacturers and vendors, ensuring strategies achieve in-year sales and margin goals, to promote long-term success and partnership.
* P&L management.
* At the direction of the Senior Category Manager or DMM, fully embraces organizational improvement initiatives, acting as a change agent with one’s own team and peers and partners.
* Establish and enforce policies and procedures that promote ethical behavior, compliance, and best practices.
* Foster and shape innovation by bringing ideas to market in an agile way, while balancing growth potential against financial risk for the broader team.
* Drive the team to deliver best-in-class merchandising experiences across in-store channel for Seasonal Gifting and lead strategy for Seasonal Gifting catalog, including leading negotiations with all suppliers.
* Develop growth and oversee category strategies rooted in an understanding of the customer and trends.
* Assign appropriate timelines and accountabilities for items, empowering the team to drive action steps to completion.
* Leverage thought partners (Senior leaders, corporate partners, peers, team, etc.) as needed to create and revisit the strategy.
* Navigate ambiguity and change to achieve goals despite potential obstacles.
* Follow up on strategic initiatives and KPI performance.
* Drive assortment decisions through planograms and features, along with promotional activity strategy, slotting, forecasting and negotiations.
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* Required Qualifications:

*** 5+ years Merchandising experience, including negotiating contracts with vendors in similar business models.
* Demonstrated success leading cross-functional teams and initiatives with a high degree of complexity.
* Proven ability to develop and execute strategies to mobilize the business to achieve goals and outcomes using innovative solutions.
* Previous experience leveraging data to support strategic plans and return on investment.
* Previous experience engaging and inspiring a cross-functional team to reach optimal business outcomes together.
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