Senior Category Manager

Senior Category Manager

Fellow is on a mission to give you the gear, the guidance, and the coffee to make your brewing routine a moment of creativity. We design products for your countertop—not your cupboard—full of thoughtful features you’ll actually use. Headquartered out of San Francisco’s Mission District, Fellow has grown from a Kickstarter campaign into a global brand with distributors and customers in more than 50 countries. Welcome to a brighter, less boring morning!

The Senior Category Manager will accomplish all of this while living out Fellowship Thinking, our leadership principles:

• Fellowship Thinking centers our customers, always.
• Fellowship Thinking views all goals as shared.
• Fellowship Thinking never stops improving.
• Fellowship Thinking says “yes, if”.
• Fellowship Thinking deliberately seeks equity. 

We are looking for an experienced, strategic thinker to help define and drive the long-term growth of Fellow’s gear categories, the company’s largest business unit. Supporting the Director of Category, this role will be an integral part of Fellow’s journey to becoming “the” premium home coffee brand.

Key responsibilities:

• Long-term growth strategy: 
• Identify growth opportunities by analyzing market, consumer, and operational data, with an emphasis on assortment optimization, distribution, and long-term enterprise value creation
• Support development of the strategic roadmap for the category in the context of Fellow’s company-wide strategic and financial objectives, from market insights to opportunity sizing
• Support new product development as a key business stakeholder with broad cross-functional and cross-channel perspective, including leading go-to-market coordination and communication

• Market Positioning:
• Own and refine global pricing strategies, ensuring alignment with market conditions and Fellow’s brand positioning
• Develop and oversee promotional strategies, including channel-specific promotions, bundles, and multipack offerings to enhance customer engagement and drive sales
• Manage distribution strategy decisions regarding product availability by region, channel, or account, ensuring optimal reach and effectiveness
• Support selling activity as the “product expert:” contributing pitch decks, joining customer sell-in meetings, conducting demos, and attending major trade shows
• Review print, packaging, and launch creative assets to ensure they are aligned with category strategic positioning

• Market and Customer Intelligence:
• Develop deep understanding of Fellow’s competitive set and articulate differentiation of our product portfolio
• Own competitive insights, conducting thorough analysis of competitor offerings to articulate Fellow’s differentiation within the market
• Gather and assess customer insights to guide cross-functional collaboration on strategic planning, marketing efforts,and tactical initiatives enhancing alignment with customer expectations
• Track NPS, ratings, reviews and cross-channel customer feedback

• Category P&L management:
• Analyze category’s business performance across all of Fellow’s distribution channels
• Partner cross-functionally with sales channels and marketing teams to grow revenue and gross/contribution margin
• Support key cross-functional processes such as demand and supply planning, merchandising, and promotional activity

Preferred qualifications:

• 6+ years experience in category management, business operations, or management consulting with a clear focus on consumer products; MBA preferred
• Strong general athlete with high horsepower and exceptional analytical capability; ability to perform large amounts of quantitative analysis and be able to place it in the broader context of the business and market
• Superior business acumen and an ability to understand impact of initiatives across all functional areas of the business
• “Elastic thinker” who can operate at both the 10,000 foot and the 10-inch level
• High consumer empathy and intuition
• Excellent communication skills and executive presence; ability to work with all functional areas of the business, from go-to-market teams to engineering and operations

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation including employee equity plan
• Generous paid time off plan
• 401k with company contribution after 6 months of employment
• Medical/dental/vision insurance
• Better Yourself Wellness credit & Better Your Community donation matching
• Generous discount on Fellow products
• The best coffee anywhere

Salary Range: $135,000-$155,000

Our highest goal at Fellow is creating a safe, inclusive, and rewarding environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and thrive. We are committed to building diverse teams and strongly encourage people from underrepresented groups, including but not limited to women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply. 

Fellow is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.