Sr. Category Manager - Mass/ Club/ Military/ Drug

Build your career at Sazerac! With almost 400 years of rich history, Sazerac Company has thrived as an independent, American family-owned company with operations in the United States and around the world. Since the 2000s, Sazerac has averaged double digit growth every year! Sazerac Company produces and markets the most award-winning bourbons and whiskeys in the world, including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, Traveller, and Sazerac Rye. Additionally, Sazerac owns many popular brands across a range of spirits, including Fireball, Svedka, Wheatley, BuzzBallz, Southern Comfort, Seagram’s V.O., Myers’s, Goldschläger, Parrot Bay, 99 Brand, and Platinum Vodka.

We’re proud of our award-winning culture and distilleries. Our Louisville office has been named one of the “Best Places to Work in Kentucky” four times, and our Buffalo Trace Distillery has earned the title of “world’s most award-winning distillery” through the dedication of our craftsmen for well over 200 years. Whether you’re a recent graduate or an experienced professional, Sazerac provides extraordinary opportunities for growth with competitive salaries and benefits in an exciting, entrepreneurial industry.

Why Sazerac? 

• Innovative and Forward-Thinking: Join a company that values innovation and excellence and is driving the future of the beverage industry.
• Rich Tradition: Join a team with a strong heritage of craftsmanship and quality, creating memorable experiences for our customers.
• Collaborative Environment: Work in an inclusive, collaborative atmosphere where your ideas and expertise are valued.
• Career Growth: Benefit from continuous learning opportunities and career development programs to advance your career.

The Senior Category Manager is a critical leader within our organization, responsible for building impactful retailer partnerships by leveraging data and insights to drive Sazerac’s portfolio expansion and increasing share of shelf. This individual must possess both strategic vision and hands-on capability- developing compelling, data-driven selling stories and guiding a team in executing them with excellence. In this role, you will lead a small sized team of category professionals, coaching and mentoring them to deliver high-quality output and drive measurable business impact. You will be expected to foster a culture of curiosity, ownership, and collaboration- both within your team and across the broader commercial organization. This position requires a highly analytical and commercially astute individual who can turn complex data into actionable insights, support strategic growth initiatives, and build scalable best practices in category leadership. You will work across multiple brands and categories, and across omnichannel touchpoints, with a mix of short-term execution and long-term planning.

• Insight-Driven Mindset: You thrive on turning data into insight and insight into action, always rooted in the business context.
• Bias for Action: You take initiative, operate with urgency, and are resourceful in navigating ambiguity.
• Operational Excellence: You create systems, tools, and processes that help your team scale and deliver consistently.
• Leadership & Team Development: You are passionate about growing people, providing guidance, and enabling them to deliver their best work.
• Collaborative Influence: You build strong partnerships across sales, insights, and customer teams - always bringing value to the table.

Location: This role is fully remote role to be based in Dallas, TX.

Key Responsibilities (job responsibilities may vary by state depending on regulatory and compliance standards for the state):

• Lead the development of scalable category strategies across all customer accounts, supporting merchandising, pricing, assortment, placement, and promotion, both online and offline.
• Manage and develop a high-performing team, creating clear goals, delivering regular feedback, and supporting their growth through coaching, development plans, and training.
• Partner closely with sales, insights, shopper marketing, and other cross-functional teams to deliver actionable category plans and influence internal and external stakeholders.
• Create and present category reviews that leverage syndicated data, shopper insights, loyalty data, and retailer systems to inform decision-making and grow category performance.
• Maintain ongoing tracking of company and customer assortments to evaluate performance and identify growth opportunities.
• Serve as a thought partner to retail customers, providing a strategic point of view and elevating conversations with data-backed insights.
• Build and nurture senior-level customer relationships to strengthen strategic alignment and uncover joint business opportunities.
• Actively participate in developing best practices in category management across the organization.
• Stay current with market and competitor trends and proactively adapt strategies to maintain a competitive edge.

MUST HAVE

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, Data Analytics, Economics, or a related field
• 8+ years of experience in Category Management, Shopper Insights, Trade Marketing, or Customer Strategy roles within the CPG or beverage alcohol industry
• 2+ years of experience managing a small to mid-sized team, with demonstrated success in developing, coaching, and retaining high-performing talent
• Proven experience with syndicated data (Nielsen, Circana), panel data (Numerator, Nielsen), and retailer platforms (Retail Link, 84.51°, etc.)
• Fluency in Excel, PowerPoint, and data visualization tools such as Power BI or Tableau
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to distill large data sets into meaningful insights and business recommendations
• Experience supporting Mass, Club, Military, or Drug channels
• Ability to influence across teams without direct authority and communicate value in a customer-centric manner
• A strong understanding of omnichannel retail dynamics, especially in regulated categories like beverage alcohol
• Excellent planning and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and introduce structure in evolving environments
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to travel up to 25–30%

PREFERRED

• MBA or advanced degree
• Experience in the alcohol industry or DSD Beverage categories
• Experience in both large corporate environments and entrepreneurial, high-growth companies
• A strategic mindset with a hands-on, execution-driven approach

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A career at Sazerac offers you the opportunity to reach your full potential as part of a creative, decisive, high-performance team. Sazerac values the needs and wants of our team members and offers inclusive benefits to attract and retain the best talent. Our culture is built upon the values of hard work, diligence and personal responsibility.

Sazerac Team Members enjoy:

• Competitive Pay
• Comprehensive Benefits from Day One including medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance.
• Family Coverage: Options to cover family members, including domestic partners.
• 401(k) Plan: Immediate access to a matching 401(k) plan.
• Flexible Time Away: Enjoy paid time off (PTO), holidays, and parental leave.
• Mental Health and Wellness: Access to mental health care and wellness incentive programs.
• Educational Support: Benefit from tuition reimbursement and our scholarship program for dependents of Sazerac team members.
• Fun Extras: Enjoy branded apparel, fun events, and a team member bottle purchase program.
• Training and Development: Opportunities for professional growth and development.

Benefits, salary range, and programs may vary by role or location. For roles within our commercial team - the Salary range refers to base salary only and does not include car allowance, annual bonus, fuel or cell phone reimbursement. Please ask your Talent Acquisition Partner for more information about our total rewards package. Sazerac is committed to equality of opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, veteran status, age, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, physical or mental disability or any other legally protected status.