Category Director

SUMMARY:

This role is responsible for the strategic direction, growth, performance, and profitability of assigned category or categories and serves as a key business leader for those areas.

The role creates and executes plans to drive profitable growth, motivate sales engagement, strengthen vendor performance, and improve the company's competitive position within the assigned category or categories. The role coordinates and partners with stakeholders including Business Development, Marketing, Product Management, Sales, Operations, vendor partners, customers, and others to support the business plan.

The role acts as a primary business, market, and technical-commercial resource for assigned products, services, and technologies and is expected to maintain both deep expertise in the company's current offerings and broad knowledge of the overall category landscape, including relevant manufacturers, solutions, technologies, and competitive alternatives that the company does and does not currently carry. This knowledge is used to continually improve category strategy, portfolio quality, and the positioning of the company's offerings to maximize results.

Responsibilities may include category strategy, business planning, forecasting, performance management, vendor portfolio development, market expansion, new vendor evaluation and onboarding, sales enablement, and early-stage growth support for emerging vendors or growth areas until a more scaled ownership model is established, where applicable.

Depending on level and organizational design, the role may function as a senior individual contributor or may also include formal leadership of category personnel and or Business Development Managers while retaining direct category, vendor, or business development responsibilities.

The role may move between proactively driving sales and a sales-enablement focus depending on category needs, business priorities, and stage of market development.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Own the strategic direction, business plan, growth initiatives, and profitability of the assigned category or categories.
• Develop and execute annual and multi-year category strategies that improve revenue, gross profit, market position, and long-term business value.
• Serve as a key internal and external point of contact for the assigned category or categories, identifying stakeholder needs and mobilizing the appropriate internal and external resources to address them effectively.
• Partner with Sales to help advance category growth, including support for strategic opportunities, joint sales calls, customer meetings, and site visits as appropriate.
• Align category and vendor strategy with overall company strategy; establish category sales objectives, project expected revenue and profit, and translate those objectives into field-facing action plans that support ongoing growth and profitability.
• Manage vendor relationships for the category, including business planning, strategic alignment, growth initiatives, program development, communication facilitation, and issue resolution.
• Evaluate portfolio gaps and identify new vendor, product, service, market, and business development opportunities that strengthen the company's competitive position and long-term growth potential.
• Lead or support new vendor evaluation, qualification, onboarding, activation, and early-stage growth efforts in partnership with Sales, Marketing, Product Management, Business Development, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Partner with Marketing to coordinate category marketing initiatives, launches, promotions, and related go-to-market activities that help drive demand and sales performance.
• Partner with Product Management to support inventory planning, product readiness, and portfolio alignment across multiple lines within the assigned category or categories.
• Ensure Sales teams have the technical product information, current literature, demonstrations, and related materials needed to support product launches, promotions, and ongoing sales activity.
• Drive category forecasting, KPI development, reporting, and business reviews; monitor performance against plan and recommend corrective action where needed.
• Analyze market trends, competitive dynamics, customer behavior, pricing conditions, supply and demand changes, economic indicators, and internal performance data to inform category strategy and investment decisions.
• Maintain strong knowledge of the broader category ecosystem, including key manufacturers, technologies, substitutes, adjacencies, and competitive positioning beyond the company's current line card, and use that knowledge to improve the portfolio and relative positioning of the company's offerings.
• Act as a senior business and market resource for the assigned category or categories, providing strategic guidance, technical-commercial expertise, and solution-positioning support on key opportunities and initiatives.
• Generate industry visibility and establish a reputation of excellence for the company within the assigned category or categories through thought leadership, partner engagement, customer interaction, training, events, and market-facing activity.
• Deliver value-creation activities by sharing expertise beyond directly assigned vendors, products, or solutions in ways that strengthen broader business performance.
• Work efficiently and effectively across internal functions to support customers, improve execution, and drive strong cross-functional coordination.
• Maintain professional and technical knowledge through industry and vendor events, educational opportunities, professional publications, personal networks, and participation in relevant professional communities.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES BY LEVEL:

Category Manager

• Functions as an individual contributor requiring strong lateral leadership.
• Owns assigned categories, vendors, and growth initiatives and helps drive execution through influence across internal teams.
• May lead early-stage growth efforts for emerging vendors, market adjacencies, or startup categories.

Senior Category Manager

• Performs all Category Manager responsibilities with greater autonomy, scope, and strategic complexity.
• Handles larger, more complex, or more strategically important categories, vendor portfolios, or market-development initiatives.
• May mentor less experienced team members, lead cross-functional initiatives, and serve as a higher-level internal resource across multiple technologies, vendors, or adjacent solution areas.
• May retain direct responsibility for one or more vendors, growth areas, or emerging category initiatives while operating at a broader strategic level.

Category Director

• Performs Category Manager and Senior Category Manager responsibilities and, where assigned, also leads category personnel and or Business Development Managers.
• Establishes priorities, performance expectations, accountability standards, and development plans that support category goals.
• Builds organizational capability and bench strength, including hiring, coaching, performance management, succession
• planning, and talent development.
• May retain direct responsibility for one or more categories, vendors, or business development initiatives in addition to formal leadership responsibilities.
• May also include broader Director of Business Development responsibilities, where assigned, including leadership of direct reports' vendor relationships, performance cadences, and related business planning.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Core qualifications for all levels

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience required.
• Significant experience in category management, product strategy, business development, industry sales, vendor partner management, or related commercial leadership work.
• Demonstrated expertise and business acumen within the assigned category or categories.
• Strong technical and business knowledge of the key players in the category, including those the company carries and those it does not, along with the ability to use that knowledge to build strategic plans and position the company's blend of offerings to maximize results.
• Industry-recognized certification relevant to the assigned category required, such as CTS or a comparable category-specific credential.
• Strong understanding of category strategy, vendor management, pricing, profitability, customer behavior, market development, sales execution, and growth planning.
• Strong ability to interpret data, develop forecasts, establish performance metrics, build reports, assess business opportunities, and translate insights into action.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to build clear business cases, present insights effectively, and influence stakeholders.
• Proven track record of being customer-centric and maintaining strong customer relationships.
• Ability to integrate the needs of other teams and functions with business goals and processes.
• Ability to manage long and short sales cycles.
• Ability to manage multiple simultaneous objectives while maintaining strong responsiveness and execution.
• Sound analysis and critical decision-making skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, CRM platforms, Power BI, Excel, PowerPoint, and related business tools.
• Approximately 25% travel required.

Category Manager

• Demonstrated ability to drive growth through lateral leadership and strong cross-functional execution.
• Capable of independently managing assigned categories, vendors, and market-development work.

Senior Category Manager

• Demonstrated pattern of identifying opportunities beyond an initial scope, effectively communicating value to expand opportunities, and proactively bringing value beyond assigned areas.
• Proven ability to operate across multiple manufacturers, technologies, or adjacent market areas with a broader strategic lens.
• Recognized internally as a senior resource for category direction, vendor engagement, and solution positioning.

Category Director

• Demonstrated success leading, developing, training, and mentoring team members while influencing cross-functional stakeholders in a complex business environment.
• Direct people-leadership experience required where the role includes formal direct reports.
• Proven ability to drive results through both direct authority and organizational influence.
• Demonstrated ability to lead senior vendor relationships, guide broader category strategy, and manage performance through other people while also retaining direct business ownership where needed.