Referred applicants should not apply directly to this role.

All referred applicants must first be submitted through Workday by a current Loblaw Colleague.

Come make your difference in communities across Canada, where authenticity, trust and making connections is valued – as we shape the future of Canadian retail, together. Our unique position as one of the country's largest employers, coupled with our commitment to positively impact the lives of all Canadians, provides our colleagues a range of opportunities and experiences to help Canadians Live Life Well®.

At Loblaw Companies Limited, we succeed through collaboration and commitment and set a high bar for ourselves and those around us. Whether you are just starting your career, re-entering the workforce, or looking for a new job, this is where you belong. 

Join us at Loblaw Companies Limited as a Category Director in our Hard Discount Division where we bring innovative products and programs to grocery retail stores across Canada. Reporting to the Sr. Director, you will lead all facets of the Condiments, Salad Fixings, and Meal Makers categories for our Hard Discount stores including vision, strategy, financial, competitive benchmarking, and program execution. You will be accountable for leading a team of Merchants and Associate Merchants.

Are you data-driven and customer-centric with a passion for food? If you would like to belong to a complementary team of critical business leaders, apply today!

What you will do:

• Work with various colleagues in merchandising, operations, control brands, supply chain, loyalty, analytics, e-commerce, marketing, media, and other divisions.
• Build positive relationships with category vendors and external partners.
• Use data and analytics to build short and long-term strategic plans; identify critical merchandising priorities, risks, and opportunities.
• Own financial forecasting, modeling performance, category top-to-bottom ownership of profit loss (P&L) outcomes with emphasis on sales, trading margin, shrink and EBIT.
• Be solely accountable for delivering category budget goals, achieving non-financial departmental goals, as well as assigned weekly, periodic, and quarterly reporting obligations.
• Build and maintain a deep understanding of the competitive landscape to drive positive performance outcomes – including market share growth development, shelf pricing, assortment, promotional strategy, and global merchandising best-practices.
• Coordinate with vendors to achieve best-in-market product costing, programs and investments while protecting vendor relationships.
• Work with your team to implement assortment management (including optimization analysis, new product costing evaluation, planogram design and in-store merchandising strategies).
• Collaborate with control brand Product Managers, Product Developers to identify opportunities and reach all strategic financial goals for the private label portfolio within the category.

What qualifications and experience should you have:

• Post-secondary education or equivalent experience
• 5 years of proven experience in retail merchandising, strategy, marketing, business development and/or business management – specifically responsibilities over P&L required.

• Post-graduate education and authoritatively accredited designation(s) an asset
• A self-motivated leader with a high-reaching approach and a passion for category management
• Proven experience in financial forecasting, modeling and analytics required.
• Strong analytical approach in decision making – using data to derive business insights that lead to practical strategies with favorable financial outcomes.
• Ability to engage, collaborate with and influence complementary teams.
• Ability to think critically, innovate and overcome obstacles.
• Ability to coach, mentor, and lead teams with a desire to cultivate talent that is prepared for the next level.

Our commitment to Sustainability and Social Impact is an essential part of the way we do business, and we focus our attention on areas where we can have the greatest impact. Our approach to sustainability and social impact is based on three pillars – Environment, Sourcing and Community – and we are constantly looking for ways to demonstrate leadership in these important areas. Our CORE Values – Care, Ownership, Respect and Excellence – guide all our decision-making and come to life through our Blue Culture. We offer our colleagues progressive careers, comprehensive training, flexibility, and other competitive benefits – these are some of the many reasons why we are one of Canada’s Top Employers, Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, Canada’s Greenest Employers & Canada’s Top Employers for Young People.

If you are unsure whether your experience matches every requirement above, we encourage you to apply anyway. We are looking for varied perspectives which include diverse experiences that we can add to our team.

We have a long-standing focus on diversity, equity and inclusion because we know it will make our company a better place to work and shop. We are committed to creating accessible environments for our colleagues, candidates and customers. Requests for accommodation due to a disability (which may be visible or invisible, temporary or permanent) can be made at any stage of application and employment. We encourage candidates to make their accommodation needs known so that we can provide equitable opportunities.  
 
Please Note:
Candidates who are 18 years or older are required to complete a criminal background check. Details will be provided through the application process.