Assistant Category Manager – General Merchandise

Bring your heart to CVS Health. Every one of us at CVS Health shares a single, clear purpose: Bringing our heart to every moment of your health. This purpose guides our commitment to deliver enhanced human-centric health care for a rapidly changing world. Anchored in our brand — with heart at its center — our purpose sends a personal message that how we deliver our services is just as important as what we deliver.
 
Our Heart At Work Behaviors™ support this purpose. We want everyone who works at CVS Health to feel empowered by the role they play in transforming our culture and accelerating our ability to innovate and deliver solutions to make health care more personal, convenient and affordable.

Position Summary

At CVS Health, our retail business is a critical part of our strategy – it’s where and how consumers can take care of their everyday well-being with products that help with physical, mental, social/emotional well-being. We are looking for passionate, innovative, customer-centric thinkers who are comfortable using data, technology, critical thinking skills and insights to drive business results.

CVS is seeking a Seasonal Assistant Category Manager to join our team. In this role, you will be responsible for managing a specific strategic merchandise category, focusing on attaining budgeted sales, gross margin, and building market share while ensuring a customer-focused trend set that brings joy and fun to our consumers.

In this role, you will also evaluate ways in which CVS can create the competitive advantage through product reviews and planning moving ahead of trends to meet and exceed the expectations of our consumers. You will have a profound impact on the product assortment for our consumers. To be successful in this role, the ideal candidate will need to demonstrate strong executive presence as this colleague directly represents our brand with both our internal and external partners. It will be essential that the ideal candidate has a strength in building strong, trusted relationships to best negotiate terms and conditions of deals with our vendor partners.  This role will readily work cross-functionally as part of a merchandising ecosystem that is needed to bring the category to life in our online and retail stores.

Responsibilities include:

• Collaborate with the support team, including Pricing, Promotion Assistants, Merchandise Planners, Inventory Planners, Financial Planners, Store Operations, and Category Planogram Designers, to achieve merchandising objectives aligned with the CVS Strategic Plan.
• Identify new, competitive opportunities within assigned categories and drive business growth to ensure CVS maintains an industry-leading position.
• Develop Annual Category Business Plans for 1-3-5 years, implementing category strategic plans such as weekly, seasonal, and annual merchandising programs to deliver industry-leading results.
• Lead the product review and planning process, initiating and executing marketing plans for weekly and seasonal marketing programs while maintaining positive trade relations and developing strategic alliances.
• Conduct interviews and negotiations with manufacturers and vendors, develop and implement promotional strategies, and maintain competitive analysis through store and market visits.
• Optimize SKU mix, sales, and gross margin, achieving sales and gross margin budgets for the category as outlined in the strategic plan, while partnering cross-functionally to ensure results.

Required Qualifications

• 5 years of full-time work experience in a retail and/or corporate environment
• 5 years’ experience influencing without authority
• 5 years’ experience leveraging strong analytical skills to consume data and drive decision-making
• 5 years’ experience leveraging strong negotiation skills
• 5 years’ experience demonstrating strong communication skills in both formal and informal writing and speech
• Ability to travel up to 25%

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple priorities
• Expertise leveraging MS Office Suite, including advanced Excel and PowerPoint capabilities
• Deliver high quality professional communications, presentations, responses and analyses on a wide range of requests by working quickly, independently and with minimal direction
• Communicate clearly to small and large groups internally and externally to lead complex projects to completion
• Collaborate cross functionally with leaders and colleagues’ enterprise wide to solution, implement, and drive results
• Plan and execute short- and long-term goals

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Pay Range

The typical pay range for this role is:

This pay range represents the base hourly rate or base annual full-time salary for all positions in the job grade within which this position falls.  The actual base salary offer will depend on a variety of factors including experience, education, geography and other relevant factors.  This position is eligible for a CVS Health bonus, commission or short-term incentive program in addition to the base pay range listed above. 
 
In addition to your compensation, enjoy the rewards of an organization that puts our heart into caring for our colleagues and our communities.  The Company offers a full range of medical, dental, and vision benefits.  Eligible employees may enroll in the Company’s 401(k) retirement savings plan, and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan is also available for eligible employees.  The Company provides a fully-paid term life insurance plan to eligible employees, and short-term and long term disability benefits. CVS Health also offers numerous well-being programs, education assistance, free development courses, a CVS store discount, and discount programs with participating partners.  As for time off, Company employees enjoy Paid Time Off (“PTO”) or vacation pay, as well as paid holidays throughout the calendar year. Number of paid holidays, sick time and other time off are provided consistent with relevant state law and Company policies.  
 
For more detailed information on available benefits, please visit jobs.CVSHealth.com/benefits

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state and local laws.

Salary : $63,300 - $139,200