Assistant Category Manager

As the region's leading local tech organization, we're proud to say that we have been delivering for millions of people right across MENA for the past 18 years.

We were founded in Kuwait in 2004, and acquired by Delivery Hero (DHER) in 2015. This gives us a unique outlook - local knowledge with global expertise. It also allows us to innovate, create, and bring new technologies for the betterment of the MENA region, such as q-commerce, sustainable packaging, cloud kitchens, autonomous delivery vehicles, robots, and drones.

We deliver across 9 countries with more than 4,500+ employees Our food delivery business works with over 27,000 brands and almost 50,000 branches.

Our q-commerce concept, talabat mart (121 Stores), now delivers groceries to customers in Bahrain, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE in 30 minutes or less

talabat is part of the Delivery Hero Group, the world's leading local delivery platform operating in 70+ countries worldwide

Role Summary / Overview

Focus on growing our own Grocery Store "tMart", which is the region's first cloud store concept offering 30-minute delivery of groceries at hypermarket prices. The service has expanded rapidly across Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Oman and Iraq

Role Scope 

• Full Ownership over the category management role in terms of Assortments, Pricing, Offers and Supply.

• Responsible for monitoring economic performance of the assigned departments /categories across sales, gross margin, profit and loss and consistency with the company's commercial strategy.

• Ensuring proper implementation of the commercial strategy and strategic guidelines, including categories plan and pricing strategy.

• Providing input to the Ops team flows, adjacencies, tools and templates, fixtures, etc.

• Reviewing and resolving any issues with local suppliers.

• Assortment:

• Ensuring cost efficiency across our consumers that meets their needs/wants.

• Defining and maintaining the local assortment and integrating the basic assortment for the department/categories.

• Providing regional teams with information regarding products and quantities needed for international and regional contracts.

• Selecting local suppliers, negotiating and purchasing in line with expected needs guided by standards such as cost price, discounts, rebates, payment terms, discounts, etc.

• Price:

• Pricing the items based on pricing guidelines and recommended prices for PL/Imported items.

• Collecting market prices and conducting country price audits.

• Promos:

• Identifying local promo products and pricing each item and submitting forecasting/relevant reordering information to replenishment.

• Developing the country promotion calendar.

• Following up and ensuring effective execution of all activities required for each promotional event.

• Analyzing and providing inputs for more effective promotional activities such as consumer preferences, local competitors and trends.

What Did We Order?

• You have at least 5+ years of experience in progressive development and management of multiple product categories, matured by working for large retailers (FMCG), in an international setting.

• You have built teams and led cross-functional projects at scale.

• You are very detail-oriented, structured and know how to prioritize -- you consider yourself as someone who delivers solutions and not bottlenecks to be solved.

• You are willing to do anything necessary for the project to succeed, including working on the warehouse floor when you are short staffed to make a customer delivery, or to take customer calls. No job is too insignificant, no detail is too small for you.

• You are able to interact with senior-level executives and can manage the expectations of multiple stakeholders. You are someone energized by the unknown and look forward to learning each day on the job. You have excellent analytical and communication skills, and always like to be hands-on with several tools.

• You have excellent analytical and communication skills, and always like to be hands-on with several tools.

• Additionally, you have robust interpersonal and intercultural skills. You can inspire several teams and stakeholders to rally behind a mission.

• Language skills: Fluent English and Arabic.