Associate Director - Category Management

Associate Director - Category Management

Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Role Overview

We are seeking a highly driven and strategic Associate Director - Category Management to lead and scale our category charter. This role will be responsible for owning end-to-end category strategy, driving sustainable growth, building strong supplier ecosystems, and leading high-impact teams. The ideal candidate brings deep experience in ecommerce category management, strong commercial acumen, and the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders while delivering results in a fast-paced environment.

Core Areas

Category Strategy & Growth | Product Assortment & Portfolio Management | Strategic Sourcing

Vendor & Partner Management | Inventory & Working Capital Optimization

Pricing, Margin & P&L Ownership | Stakeholder & Team Leadership

Key Responsibilities

1. Category Strategy & Business Ownership

• Own the overall category vision, strategy, and roadmap aligned with company goals.
• Drive topline growth, margin expansion, and long-term category profitability.
• Define success metrics and continuously track performance across sales, margin, fill rate, inventory turns, and customer satisfaction.
• Identify whitespace opportunities and lead category expansion initiatives.

2. Product & Assortment Leadership

• Lead assortment planning at scale, ensuring the right mix of selection, price points, and brands.
• Use customer insights, market trends, and competitive intelligence to shape assortment decisions.
• Drive innovation through new product introductions, private labels, or exclusive partnerships where applicable.
• Ensure assortment remains relevant, differentiated, and customer-centric.

3. Strategic Supplier & Partner Management

• Build and manage senior-level relationships with key suppliers, brands, and manufacturers.
• Lead high-value negotiations on commercial terms, pricing, contracts, and strategic partnerships.
• Drive joint business planning (JBP) with top partners to unlock growth and operational efficiencies.
• Ensure supplier performance on quality, compliance, and service levels.

4. Inventory, Forecasting & Supply Optimization

• Oversee demand forecasting, inventory planning, and replenishment strategies to optimize working capital.
• Balance availability, fill rates, and inventory health across the category.
• Lead initiatives to reduce slow-moving, aging, or obsolete inventory.
• Partner with supply chain and operations teams to improve forecasting accuracy and execution.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with marketing, growth, merchandising, supply chain, finance, and product teams.
• Drive integrated go-to-market plans including promotions, launches, and seasonal campaigns.
• Provide category inputs for pricing, promotions, and customer acquisition strategies.
• Act as the category spokesperson in leadership and business reviews.

6. Customer & Market Focus

• Champion a customer-first mindset across all category decisions.
• Leverage customer feedback, NPS, and behavioral data to improve assortment and experience.
• Ensure consistent quality, value, and relevance across the portfolio.

7. Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead and manage a team of category managers, buyers, and analysts, ensuring strong execution across sourcing, assortment, pricing, and inventory outcomes.
• Provide strategic direction and day-to-day guidance, balancing hands-on coaching with empowerment to drive independent ownership of categories.
• Set clear performance goals and KPIs aligned to category P&L, growth, margin, availability, and customer experience metrics.
• Conduct regular performance reviews, feedback sessions, and development conversations to continuously raise the bar on execution quality.
• Build and maintain strong succession pipelines by identifying high-potential talent and creating structured development and exposure opportunities.
• Foster a culture of accountability and ownership, where teams are encouraged to take end-to-end responsibility for category outcomes.
• Drive data-driven decision making by embedding analytical rigor into planning, reviews, and business decisions.
• Establish best practices, playbooks, and standard operating processes to improve consistency, scalability, and efficiency across categories.
• Encourage continuous improvement by regularly reviewing performance, identifying root causes, and implementing corrective and preventive actions.
• Partner with HR and leadership to support hiring, onboarding, and capability-building initiatives as the category organization scales.

What Were Looking For

• Bachelors degree in Business, Marketing, or a related field (MBA preferred).
• 6 - 8 years of experience in category management, buying, or merchandising, preferably in ecommerce or consumer-focused businesses.
• Proven experience owning category-level P&L and driving growth at scale.
• Strong strategic thinking combined with hands-on execution ability.
• Excellent negotiation, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.
• High analytical capability with strong comfort using data to drive decisions.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.
• Proficiency with buying, inventory, and analytics tools.