Category Management Analyst

Second Nature Brands is a fast-growing, PE-backed multi-brand snacking and treats company built on more than 150 years of category heritage. Following the acquisitions of Sahale Snacks, Brownie Brittle, and Voortman, our family of brands, including Kar’s, Sanders, and Second Nature, now competes across better-for-you nuts and trail mixes, cookies and wafers, baked treats and premium chocolate. With a refreshed executive team, a new Chicago-area commercial office, and an integrated portfolio approaching the next stage of scale, we are pursuing aggressive organic growth and disciplined M&A as we build a true platform leader in snacking. The Category Management Analyst will be a key member of the Commercial team, turning data into the insights that win on the shelf and at the customer.

Reporting to the head of Category Management, the Category Management Analyst partners with Sales, Trade, Shopper Insights, and our retail customers to grow our brands and the total category. This person owns the syndicated and shopper data toolkit, builds compelling category and assortment stories, and delivers the analytics that drive distribution, shelf, pricing, and promotion decisions across a multi-brand portfolio. The role can be filled at the Analyst or Senior Analyst level depending on experience, with Senior Analysts expected to lead customer-facing category reviews.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Build and maintain the category management toolkit using syndicated data (Circana/IRI, Nielsen) and panel data to track share, distribution, velocity, pricing, and promotional performance across brands and channels.

• Develop fact-based category reviews, assortment recommendations, and shelf/planogram analytics that support line reviews and joint business planning with national and regional retailers.

• Translate POS, shopper, and loyalty-card data into clear, action-oriented selling stories for the customer management and broker teams.

• Conduct assortment optimization, distribution gap (white space), and incrementality analyses to prioritize new item placement and SKU rationalization.

• Partner with Revenue Growth Management on price, pack, and trade promotion analytics to identify efficiency opportunities and quantify ROI.

• Maintain customer and item hierarchies and reporting structures within category and business intelligence platforms; ensure data accuracy and integrity across tools.

• Build and automate recurring reporting and dashboards (Power BI) to give the Commercial team self-serve visibility into business performance.

• Support the integration of newly acquired brands into category reporting, data feeds, and customer review templates.

• Provide ad hoc analysis and respond quickly to customer and internal data requests during reviews, S&OP, and planning cycles.

• (Senior Analyst) Lead category reviews directly with customers, mentor analysts, and serve as a subject-matter expert on syndicated data tools and category methodology.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Business, Marketing, Finance, Economics, or Analytics.

• Required: 2+ years of relevant CPG experience in category management, shopper insights, sales analytics, or trade/finance. Preferred: 4+ years, including direct experience building and presenting customer-facing category reviews.

• Hands-on experience with syndicated data (Circana/IRI or Nielsen) is required; familiarity with shopper panel, loyalty-card, or retailer portal data (e.g., Retail Link, Stratum) is a plus.

• Advanced Excel skills required; experience building dashboards and reports in Power BI (or Tableau) strongly preferred.

• Working knowledge of space/assortment tools (e.g., JDA/Blue Yonder, Spaceman, AODR) preferred for category and planogram work.

• Strong analytical and storytelling skills—able to turn complex data into a clear, concise, and persuasive recommendation.

• Detail-oriented and comfortable managing multiple priorities and ambiguity in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.

• Demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate across Sales, Marketing, Trade, and Finance without direct authority.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including comfort presenting to internal leaders and external customers.