Category Management, Sr Manager

About Us

At Zevia, we’re creating a world of better-for-you flavor—better for people and the planet. Our team is made up of courageous challengers and tenacious builders who are passionate about our mission. We’re solutions-oriented, always improving, and we operate with a healthy thirst for risk. We believe in staying true to our convictions while continuously learning and evolving.

At our core, we are people-centric. We care deeply, lead with empathy, and operate as one team—no egos, just a shared purpose. We strive to reflect the diversity of our consumer base within our organization and foster a culture of empathy and humility.

Together, we aim to impact global health, provide affordable better-for-you products, and protect the planet by reducing plastic.

We’re fighting the good fight to change the beverage industry for the better — and we’re just getting started.

Summary

The Senior Manager, Category Management, turns data into insights that directly help Zevia win at retail. This role brings together data expertise, shopper curiosity, and retailer understanding to create clear, actionable recommendations that improve distribution, shelf placement, and merchandising performance. As a key partner to Sales, this leader transforms shopper, market, and competitive data into compelling, customer-ready narratives that drives strong buyer engagement and unlock growth across existing and emerging channels.

What You’ll Do 

Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

1) Category Management

• Leverage category, market, competitive, and retailer data to identify performance drivers and translate insights into persuasive selling stories that enable distribution growth, improve shelf placement, optimize merchandising, and unlock new whitespace opportunities.
• Serve as the primary Category Management resource for top retailers, acting as the go‑to insights partner for Sales team
• Utilize syndicated, retailer POS, panel, and shopper insights data to uncover trends, performance drivers, gaps, and opportunities by customer and channel.
• Serve as key player in category reviews, trend analyses, competitive assessments, and assortment evaluations, delivering insight‑led recommendations that align with each retailer’s strategy and objectives.
• Recommend improved shelf execution, adjacencies, and space allocation to improve visibility, velocity, and category growth
• Perform performance‑driver analysis to diagnose shifts in distribution, velocity, baseline volume, promotional lift, and share—clarifying what’s moving the business and why.
• Evaluate promotional and pricing activity to identify what’s working, what’s not, and how to optimize investment for greater impact and ROI.
• Present clear, customer‑ready recommendations that connect insights to retailer priorities and expected outcomes, strengthening Sales’ influence in buyer conversations.
• Utilize Next Gen AI dashboards + Syndicated/Scan data to simplify reporting surface new insights and accelerate decision-making
• Support account planning, buyer meetings, and business reviews with actionable insights, decks, and scorecards aligned to Sales objectives and customer goals.

2) Shopper Insights

• Help Sales and Marketing better understand who the shopper is in each retailer and channel, and what we need to do to win with them.
• Shopper Profiling: Help the team better understand who is shopping in different retailers/channels to inform commercial plans.
• Utilize shopper and panel data to optimize assortment and SKU mix.
• Enable shopper‑relevant promotional and merchandising execution by identifying what shoppers buy together.

3) Influence

• Turn data into clear, persuasive insights and equip Sales with sales‑ready materials that elevate buyer conversations and strengthen Zevia’s presence at retail.
• Turn data into simple, persuasive insights that clearly explain what’s happening in the business and what actions Sales should take to grow distribution, improve shelf placement, and capture whitespace.
• Create compelling, sales‑ready presentations, narratives, and customer decks that transform insights into retailer‑friendly recommendations for line reviews, business reviews, and joint planning sessions.
• Deliver excellent written and verbal communication, presenting insights in a clear, concise, and influential way that strengthens buyer engagement and improves Sales’ ability to tell a compelling story.

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of Category Management experience in the Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) industry with additional benefit from beverage and/or natural product experience.
• Proficiency with syndicated and scan data platforms, including Nielsen, Circana, and SPINS, with the ability to synthesize findings into clear insights.
• Experience with consumer/shopper panel data such as Numerator or IRI/Nielsen Homescan.
• Experience with retailer data portals (e.g., Walmart Luminate, 84.51°, Target Vendor Portal)
• 4-Year degree preferred and/or equivalent combination of education and work experience.
• Ability to execute core category management and assortment optimization work, informing shelf, pack, and portfolio recommendations
• Experience turning complex data into simple, actionable insights that influence buyers and Sales partners
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Experience interacting with and influencing retail buyers, supporting collaborative planning and category storytelling.
• Curious, growth‑minded, and proactive, seeking ways to make the team, culture and business better
• Ability to prioritize and operate effectively in a fast‑moving, data‑rich environment

Supervisory Responsibility

This position does have direct supervisory responsibility and serves as a mentor and coach within the department.

Work Environment

This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, and photocopiers, filing cabinets, and fax machines.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

The employee is occasionally required to sit; climb or balance; and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.  The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 30 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. 

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

Full-Time Exempt

Travel

This position may require ad hoc travel, per business need (up to 35%). 

Work Authorization/Security Clearance

Must be eligible to work in the U.S.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

What We Offer

• A collaborative environment, where everyone contributes and delivers
• A place where you can grow, develop and learn
• Competitive compensation that includes a base salary, discretionary bonus and stock options. See below for range.
• A comprehensive benefits package which includes:
  • An array of medical plans
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • Group Life Insurance
  • Short-term disability + Long-term disability
  • Flexible Spending Accounts: Medical, Dependent and Limited Use
  • Health Savings Account
  • Accident Insurance
  • Critical Illness Insurance
  • Hospital Indemnity Insurance
  • Legal Insurance
  • Travel Assistance
  • Employee Assistance Program
  • Pet Insurance
  • 401k Plan (Traditional and Roth)
  • Vacation, Personal/Sick Days, and Holidays
  • Professional development contributions
  • And of course, all the Zevia you can drink!