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Form of workPreferred candidates will be able to work on-site and will reside in the Bloomington MN Metro area. Remote candidates can be based anywhere in the U.S. except Montana, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
WHAT YOU WILL BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR:
As Category Manager – Proprietary Product, you will be a key business leader who owns the vision, pre-defined annual KPI’s and long-term vision and strategy for your category. You will lead the category team in, business planning, and on time development and delivery of the the softgoods category for Quality Bicycle Product's (Q) Consumer Brands. As a Category Manager at Q, you will provide leadership to the product team. You will mentor and coach across the product organization towards unique, relevant, and compelling products.
Category Development and Product Management [45%]
- Executes upon the Development plan that aligns to the business objective and strategies.
- Plans, manages, and coordinates all development projects for bags, footwear, and clothing (communication and coordination among all functional areas is key)
- Conducts category reviews on a regular basis and implements tools for category analysis including but not limited to SWOT analysis, competitive reviews (inclusive of price banding), industry and product line sales, market lifecycle analysis, and CAGR and sku productivity analysis.
- Prioritizes category development projects, own the category development budget, and manage development resources inside each project.
- Serves as the key connector of the cross functional teams and across the greater organization to establish product margin goals and on-time delivery to market.
- Collaborates with sourcing to build and maintain relationships with suppliers, lead team in long range planning, quoting, project placement, and delivery needs.
- Works with supply chain, product safety and compliance, and industrial design and engineering teams to develop and meet expectations for qualification and quality assurance.
- Conducts pre-costing and ROI exercises to ensure developments will meet identified margin goals.
- Collaborates with project management to establish development calendar identifying critical milestones, identify risks and develop mitigation plans as needed, and model a fast to fail, quick to learn mentality among the team.
- Presents key category product initiatives to internal and external customers.
- Consistently improves overall product range and individual product details each model year, as appropriate.
- Negotiates with potential and existing proprietary and OEM suppliers on behalf of Q and assigned product category.
Vision and Strategy [30%]
- In collaboration with the Consumer Brand Product Portfolio Director, Marketing Brand Director or Manager, and Industrial Design Manager, cascades consumer trends, identifies specific category trends, sets and clearly articulates category strategy and plans across multiple brands and product assortments depending on market opportunities.
- In collaboration with Q Brand Marketing Leaders, leads alignment to brand product vision and authenticity across all category team members who are developing products for the assigned categories and brands.
- Develops and implements impactful category analysis inclusive of consumer insights using a range of data sources to identify market trends, quantify and qualify gaps and opportunities, make meaningful product decisions that drive the formation of category business strategies.
- Collaborates with category peers within Industrial Design, Engineering, Project Management and Consumer Brand Product to ensure products are being developed in concert to launch total solutions to market.
- Delivers market-forward product initiatives that are unique, compelling, and desirable for brand consumers.
Leadership (15%)
- Demonstrates strong cross-functional engagement and influence among Consumer Brand Product Managers, Product Assistants, Industrial Designers, Engineers, Sales and Marketing.
- Communicates with versatility in a dynamic multi-cultural work environment.
- Informs project prioritization and resource allocation across product development teams.
- Engages with Consumer Brand Category Director, Systems and Business Process Manager, and others in the business and cross functional team on the development of tools and processes to evolve our business practices to be best in class.
- Sets a stage of best practices upon which to build a future Product Management team focused on softgoods parts and accessories.
Other tasks and responsibilities as assigned [5%]
*Represents essential duties.
WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED:
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years of product portfolio work experience that demonstrates keen abilities in analytics, team communication, project management and overall product portfolio expertise. Must be able to manage all aspects of a successful product portfolio.
- Ability to understand the diverse cycling marketplaces, distribution channels, and consumers. This exists due to passion and/or work experience. Has an enthusiasm for the cycling industry with the associated technical knowledge of, and mechanical ability to work on, bicycles and components.
- Supervisory/leadership experience
- Must be able to convert market and industry insights and performance data into high impact initiatives to meet work goals.
- Bachelor’s degree with substantial course work in financial analysis. Must possess financial acumen and retail math skills that were either derived from your major and/or work experience.
- Demonstrated experience in product development, category development and/or product management, understanding critical milestones in the concept through launch stages.
- Ability to build cross departmental/functional teams, partnerships, and alignment.
- Past work experience shows involvement in change management efforts and a high comfort level in a fast-paced environment where the initial work process is often ambiguous.
- Self-starter and self-motivated requiring little support from others.
- Excellent communication and public speaking skills.
- Critical thinking abilities that easily draw conclusions from data and own learnings from industry information; can recognize opportunities and can influence decision makers to move to execution using both quantitative and qualitative research.
- Experience in leveraging consumer data to drive sales growth.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Master’s degree
OTHER RELATED CRITERIA
- Domestic and International Travel
- Ability to travel up to 15-25% of weeks annually, depending on responsibilities, which includes flying by plane and driving a motor vehicle. Must possess a valid Passport, US driver’s license and fulfill the requirements of being a Q Approved Driver.
- Physical Requirements
- Ability to perform work on a phone and computer extensively
Model Q Core Values
- Act with integrity
- Be a true partner
- Create something special
- Deliver greatness
- Keep the customer first
- As a Leader, believe in and serve as a role model for Q’s DEI mission by creating a work environment where everyone has respect, space, a voice, and can thrive.
Quality Bicycle Products is proud to be a certified B-Corp, and an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer, committed to inclusion and diversity. We seek talent from all backgrounds to join our teams, and we encourage our employees to bring their authentic and best selves to work. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Quality Bicycle Products approaches pay in an ethical and transparent way. Pay ranges are assigned to a job based on market data from 3rd party salary benchmark data as well as balancing internal equity of other roles with similar levels of responsibility. Individual pay within the range can vary for several reasons including, but not limited to, skills, abilities, experience, tenure, performance, and available budget.
