Senior Director, Category Leadership

Who We Are

Chomps is America’s fastest-growing meat snack brand, redefining convenient snacking with a commitment to real ingredients and bold, satisfying flavors. Crafted from 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef and venison, along with antibiotic-free turkey and chicken, each Chomps meat stick delivers 10+ grams of high-quality protein without sugar, hormones, soy, dairy, artificial preservatives, artificial nitrates, or MSG. Seasoned with a blend of flavorful herbs and spices, Chomps provides a nutritious protein snack for the whole family. As a minority-owned, family-operated, and B Corporation-certified business, Chomps prioritizes thoughtful sourcing and recently earned the non–ultra-processed food certification through the non-GMO project. Discover a new standard in snacking at www.chomps.com.

Traits of a Chompian

If you’ve been called scrappy, resourceful, and persistent, then you might just be a Chompian. You’re a team player who’s self-motivated and action-oriented. You’re committed to delivering efficiency and accuracy, and you happen to be great at proactive cross-functional communication. You’re a critical thinker and a natural problem solver who enjoys details, research, and data. You take initiative and complete ownership of everything you do, and you’ll go the extra mile for your team, consumers, and audience. You’re hungry to learn with a passion to grow and improve every day. You also take a keen interest in health, fitness, and nutrition. Sound like you? Then we want to meat you.

*Accepting applications from 6/19 - 6/26/2026

What You Will Do

The Sr. Director, Category Leadership will shape the next chapter of growth for one of the fastest-growing brands in better-for-you snacking. This highly strategic, commercially influential leader will define Chomps’ long-term category leadership vision, own the category growth agenda, and translate syndicated, household, loyalty, shopper, and retailer data into clear recommendations that influence Sales, Marketing, Innovation, RGM, and executive decision-making. They will build the annual Category Growth Story, identify whitespace opportunities, develop a sharp competitive POV, and help Chomps win with retailers through compelling, data-backed stories.

This role is ideal for a senior category leader who is both a builder and an operator — someone who can serve as an executive-level category spokesperson with top retailers while also scaling Chomps’ internal category management capability. The right candidate brings deep CPG category expertise, strong retailer storytelling skills, functional depth across syndicated, retailer, household, and shopper data platforms, and experience across assortment, space, shelf strategy, and shopper insights. Most importantly, they know how to turn analysis into action, build trusted partnerships, develop high-performing teams, and help a high-growth brand make smarter category-driven decisions.

Responsibilities:

Category Strategy & Insights

Define and execute Chomps’ long-term category leadership vision, operating model, and role with customers across channels.
Own Chomps’ category growth strategy — annual Category Growth Story, competitive POV, whitespace identification — and ensure it actively drives commercial decisions across Sales, Marketing, and Innovation.
Translate syndicated, panel, loyalty, and retailer data into growth recommendations that are specific, actionable, and commercially grounded.
Serve as the internal SME on category performance, shopper behavior, and competitive dynamics.

Retailer-Facing Category Leadership

Partner with Sales Leadership to develop customer-specific growth strategies, category-based selling stories, and retailer-ready recommendations.
Serve as Chomps’ executive-level category voice with top retailers and strategic partners, establishing the brand as a trusted category advisor through compelling, data-backed growth strategies.
Drive assortment optimization, space management, shelf strategy, and category growth recommendations that build merchant credibility and deliver measurable category impact.

Assortment, Space & Commercial Growth

Own enterprise shelf strategy and space management recommendations — planogram logic, SKU rationalization, incrementality framing, and secondary placement leveraging a mix of consumption insights, household data and/or primary consumer research.
Partner with Sales and Revenue Growth Management (RGM) to identify and unlock category, distribution, velocity, and share growth opportunities across priority customers and channels.
Own priority SKU ranking for annual planning process in collaboration with RGM.
Influence annual planning and commercial priorities through category-driven recommendations that accelerate revenue growth and retailer performance.

Cross-Functional Influence & Capability Building

Act as a strategic thought partner to Sales, RGM, Finance, Operations, Marketing, Innovation, and Executive Leadership — driving decisions through insight and point of view, not just analysis delivery.
Define clear measures of category leadership impact, including retailer engagement, distribution gains, assortment quality, shelf/space outcomes, velocity improvement, and influence on commercial planning decisions.
Partner with Innovation, Marketing, and Commercial teams to translate category whitespace, shopper needs, and incrementality insights into portfolio, innovation, and distribution strategies that support long-term growth.

Leadership & Team Development

Build, lead, and develop a high-performing Category Leadership team, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and business impact.
Coach and mentor team members through clear annual KPIs, quarterly initiatives, ongoing feedback, and career development planning.
Foster strong cross-functional partnerships so the team is viewed as a trusted strategic advisor across Sales, Marketing, Innovation, RGM, Finance, Operations, and Executive Leadership.
Elevate team capabilities in category strategy, shopper insights, retailer storytelling, data-driven decision-making, and emerging AI-enabled tools.

Who You Are:

10+ years in Category Management, Category Leadership, or Commercial Strategy within CPG — with meaningful time in branded food or snack.
6+ years of people leadership experience, including leading managers and developing high-performing teams
Demonstrated success influencing retailer merchants, category managers, and senior customer stakeholders through data-driven recommendations and strategic storytelling.
Experience building or significantly scaling a category management function, not just executing within one.
Background spanning large CPG (process rigor, best-practice methodology) and high-growth emerging brand (resourcefulness, building without full infrastructure) is a real advantage.

Functional Depth

Expert fluency with SPINS, Circana/IRI, and NielsenIQ; working knowledge of retailer data platforms (84.51, Scintilla).
Expert usage of household data sources (NielsenIQ, Circana or Numerator) along with the ability to leverage more advanced tools such as source of volume, cross purchase, and overlap.
Strong command of space management, planogram logic, assortment optimization, shopper panel data, and JBP integration.
Experience leading custom primary research from design through execution, with a strong understanding of when to apply different research methodologies based on business objectives, decision stakes, timeline, and budget.
Demonstrated ability to evaluate the incremental value of research investments, including when to pursue retailer-specific learning versus scalable insights that can inform broader brand, portfolio, commercial, or innovation strategy.
Ability to build the full insight-to-action arc: data → implication → recommendation → retailer-ready story.
Advanced Excel and PowerPoint required; Power BI or equivalent BI tools a strong plus.

Leadership & Soft Skills

Executive-level storytelling — you can hold a room with a retail merchant and walk into an exec review in the same afternoon.
Leads through influence: builds trust by being right, being generous with knowledge, and following through.
Ownership mentality: defines the problem, designs the solution, sees it through. Takes initiative.
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and building structure where none exists.

Education

Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree in a quantitative or commercial field preferred.

Position: Senior Director, Category Leadership

Reports to: VP, Sales Strategy & Operations

Location: Remote

Type: Full-Time, exempt

Salary Range Opportunity:

The salary range for this role is $180,000 - $190,000 + 25% annual bonus

Compensation Philosophy & Total Comp:

Our salary ranges are based on verified market data and our philosophy of paying competitively for our size and industry
Individual pay rate decisions are based on several factors, including qualifications for the role, experience level, skillset, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company
In addition to base salary, full-time team members receive medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401K 6% match, and monthly reimbursements for wellness and home office.

Other Perks:

Ability to make an impact: Join a rapidly growing and entrepreneurial-spirited team at a pivotal point to positively impact the food industry.
Opportunities to grow: Advance within Chomps quickly based on outstanding performance.
Unlimited PTO and 15+ paid holiday days. Hybrid & flexible remote schedule. Chicago office open to those in the area.
Paid maternity and paternity leave.
Bi-annual total team in-person activities.
Company-wide Continual Education budget.
Unlimited snacks: Enough meat sticks that if you wanted to eat your body weight in them you could (no judgment here).

Our Commitment

Chomps is committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. To achieve our mission of making nutritious food more accessible we greatly benefit from a range of perspectives, which comes from diversity of all types, at all levels of the organization. Achieving true diversity and inclusion is the right thing to do and the smart thing for our business.

We're aware of the research showing that historically underrepresented groups are less likely to apply for a job if they don't believe that they meet all of the criteria. Do you hesitate to submit an application because you believe you need to check every box? Please apply anyway with a thoughtful cover letter! We would love to hear from you to discuss how you can help us build a great team at Chomps.

You must reside in the United States to be considered for this position. Chomps does not provide employment-based visa sponsorship at this time. Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Important Notice:

It has come to our attention that fraudsters have been posing as Chomps employees or recruiters and contacting job-seeking candidates regarding potential job opportunities. These fraudulent messages sometimes include a request for payment and confidential personal information. Please note that the Chomps recruiting process does not include asking candidates for payments or other confidential financial information. If you are applying for a job, you can confirm the legitimacy of a job posting by viewing current open roles: https://chomps.com/pages/chomps-careers. If you have questions please email us at people@chomps.com