Category Associate Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Lasko Products, a market leader in home comfort products for over 100 years, is seeking a Senior Associate Category Manager to join our Category Management team at our headquarters in West Chester, PA. This is a hybrid position.

The Senior Associate Category Manager will support the development and execution of category strategies that drive sales growth, profitability, share growth, and portfolio health across assigned product lines. Working closely with the Sr. Business Unit Director and Category Leadership Team, this individual will provide the analytical foundation for category decisions, including market trend analysis, sales trend analysis, competitive monitoring, pricing analysis, forecasting support, and portfolio performance tracking.

This role is designed for a consumer-focused, analytical commercial professional who can translate data into actionable recommendations. The Senior Associate Category Manager will help define the category landscape, identify consumer and market opportunities, support product roadmap development, participate in new product development and line review planning, and collaborate across Marketing, Sales, Engineering, Industrial Design, Finance, Operations, Manufacturing, and Customer Service to help bring winning products to market.

The ideal candidate is highly analytical, detail-oriented, commercially curious, and comfortable working cross-functionally in a matrix environment. This person should be able to synthesize market, consumer, competitive, retailer, and financial inputs into clear business insights that support category growth and value creation.

Primary Responsibilities

• Partner with the Sr. Business Unit Director and Category Leadership Team to support product management activities, category planning, portfolio management, and new product launch execution for assigned product categories.
• Develop and maintain recurring market trend analysis, including consumer behavior shifts, category growth drivers, retail landscape changes, competitive moves, feature trends, pricing movement, promotional activity, and white-space opportunities.
• Conduct sales trend analysis across key retailers, channels, product segments, price tiers, and item-level performance to identify risks, opportunities, share implications, and recommended actions.
• Support the development and maintenance of a three-year product roadmap aligned with consumer needs, market trends, retailer requirements, strategic priorities, and category growth objectives.
• Build and maintain competitive intelligence across product offerings, pricing, promotions, claims, features, innovation launches, refreshes, and go-to-market strategies through internal and external research, including AI-enabled monitoring tools where applicable.
• Synthesize syndicated data, retailer POS trends, eCommerce analytics, consumer research, competitive information, internal sales data, pricing data, and financial performance into actionable insights and clear recommendations.
• Support planning and analysis related to pricing, forecasting, assortment strategy, product launches, category reviews, portfolio optimization, SKU rationalization, and promotional planning.
• Assist in building fact-based business cases for new products, refreshes, line extensions, and portfolio changes, including volume, revenue, gross margin, mix, and retailer/customer implications.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial Design, Strategy & Innovation, and Product teams to evaluate product opportunities through ideation, benchmarking, teardowns, mock-ups, consumer insights, and other analytical inputs.
• Help guide product concepts through the development process by supporting business case validation, customer/consumer need definition, positioning inputs, pricing assumptions, and launch readiness analysis.
• Partner with the Creative, Marketing, and Consumer Insights teams to support packaging, product positioning, claims development, content validation, and digital marketing inputs.
• Support channel-specific products and assortment strategies for retail and eCommerce customers, including Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, Sam's Club, Lowe's, Target, Amazon, and other strategic accounts as assigned.
• Prepare for and participate in customer line reviews, internal product presentations, Category Business Reviews, and other planning forums by developing insights, analysis, presentation materials, and recommended actions.
• Monitor inventory levels, forecast accuracy, product availability, launch readiness, and business performance metrics to identify risks, gaps, and opportunities for corrective action.
• Support lifecycle management for mature products, including portfolio health assessments, inventory disposition planning, SKU rationalization, margin improvement opportunities, and end-of-life recommendations.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing teams to support customer presentations, merchandising initiatives, promotions, product collateral, and sell-in materials with strong analytical backing.
• Help track category KPIs such as revenue, margin, share, mix, innovation vitality, pricing performance, SKU productivity, and white-space revenue to support ongoing category performance management.
• Provide ad hoc analytical support, executive-ready summaries, and recommendations to help drive category growth, profitability, and cross-functional alignment.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA preferred.
• 4+ years of experience in category management, product management, business analytics, sales analytics, marketing, finance, consumer products, or related commercial functions.
• Strong analytical capability with demonstrated experience turning data into business insights, recommendations, and action plans.
• Experience with market trend analysis, sales trend analysis, competitive analysis, pricing analysis, forecasting support, business case development, and portfolio performance tracking.
• Strong financial acumen with the ability to understand revenue, margin, mix, pricing, promotions, cost, inventory, and profitability drivers.
• Comfort working with syndicated data, retailer POS data, eCommerce analytics, consumer research, internal sales reports, and other structured/unstructured data sources. Experience with Circana/NPD or similar tools is a plus.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint required; proficiency with Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft Office applications, and AI-enabled productivity or analytics tools preferred.
• Ability to work effectively across functions and influence cross-functional teams in a matrix environment.
• Strong business acumen, problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and curiosity about consumer behavior, retail trends, and competitive dynamics.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, written, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate insights clearly to commercial, technical, and leadership audiences.
• Strong project management and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, and support fast-moving customer and product timelines.
• Experience within durable consumer goods, home products, appliances, retail, eCommerce, or related industries is preferred.
• Ability to travel as needed.

Success Profile

• Delivers fact-based insights that improve category decision-making, product roadmap choices, customer line review preparation, and portfolio prioritization.
• Builds a clear understanding of market, consumer, competitive, retailer, and sales trends and translates those signals into recommended actions.
• Strengthens the analytical cadence of the category team through repeatable reporting, scorecards, dashboards, and executive-ready summaries.
• Supports cross-functional alignment by connecting product, marketing, sales, operations, and finance inputs to category strategy and commercial outcomes.
• Contributes to category growth, margin improvement, innovation vitality, share gains, pricing discipline, and portfolio productivity.