Co-op
Senior Category Manager
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Senior Category Manager
Senior Category Manager
Location: Manchester city centre | Contract: Hybrid (2-3 office days/week) | Type: 12-month fixed-term | Salary: £60,000–£75,000 plus company car and extensive benefits (Work Level 5)
About the Role
We’re looking for a passionate Senior Category Manager to join the Co-op Group and help shape the future of our customer-centric value propositions. If you thrive on customer insight, are excited by strategic leadership, and want to drive impactful change—this role could be for you.
At Co-op, everything we do aligns with our mission: to make things fairer, better, and more inclusive for customers and communities. In this strategic leadership position, you’ll lead category strategy development rooted in deep customer understanding, ensuring our food business divisions deliver growing, relevant, and commercially robust offerings.
This is a forward-thinking career opportunity where you’ll collaborate with Heads of Trading and Commercial, balancing analytical acumen, operational execution, and bold innovation.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Lead the strategic vision for a portfolio of product categories, ensuring alignment across the Customer Development team and the wider business
- Develop customer-focused category plans that are both commercially solid and operationally feasible for rollout
- Shape growth-driven offerings and ensure they meet evolving consumer needs
Financial & Operational Accountability
- Own the financial performance of assigned categories, contributing directly to the Food Business P&L
- Oversee and optimise promotional events, range launches, and critical execution timelines to drive results
- Collaborate closely with brand, price and promotions, range & format, and operations teams
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Team Growth & Stakeholder Engagement
- Manage and develop a team of Category Managers and Assistants (c.5-6 colleagues), providing mentorship and performance support
- Build cross-functional partnerships within Co-op to align incentives and ensure holistic delivery
Requirements
At Co-op, we champion equality by asking only for essential criteria. To succeed in this role, you’ll need:
- Proven leadership experience in people management and team development—personal and project-based leadership recognized
- Experience in retail, FMCG, or customer-centric category management roles, whether from a supplier or sales perspective
- A versatile commercial mindset, with expertise in managing complex stakeholder relationships and leveraging multiparty collaboration
- Passionate about understanding consumer behavior—translating insights into concrete commercial actions
- Proven hands-on experience in category management, purchasing, or account management, with expertise in strategic alignment, planning, and execution
- The ability to balance granular focus with strategic foresight, ensuring no detail goes unmanaged while keeping objectives in clear view
Why Join Co-op?
When you join Co-op, you’re not just taking a job—you’re contributing to a mission-driven organisation that champions people, purpose, and profitability.
Salary & Benefits (Plus Company Car)
- Base salary of £60K–£75K
- Auto-enrolment pension with up to 10% employer contribution
- Performance-linked bonus (annual schedule)
- 28 days annual holidays (increasing to 32 days with service), plus full bank holidays
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Wellbeing & Support
- Comprehensive private healthcare
- 24/7 employee support service
- Virtual healthcare resources—doctors, mental health tools, nutrition and fitness guidance
- Subsidised onsite gym (located at our Manchester campus)
Lifestyle & Exclusivity
- 30% discount on all Co-op products, 10% off competitor brands
- Stream Finance™ – earn while you grow: tap into a portion of your salary early via progressive pay releases
- Cycle-to-work scheme
- Co-op community spirit: exclusive events, member perks, and an ownership model that values and empowers every colleague
A Place of Belonging
Co-op thrives on a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Our workforces mirror society, and we ensure everyone is supported through:
- Disability Confident Employer: Guaranteed interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet basic criteria
- Adjustments forALL recruits: Academic, physical, mental health, or situational requirements—we adapt the process to make it work
Dive deeper into our recruitment process and inclusion priorities at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process and jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion.
Ready to lead the next chapter of our category strategy and shape the future of fairer retail? Apply today.
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