Senior Global Category Manager

Role Overview

• Define, own and continuously evolve the global category vision, strategy, and 3-year ambition.
• Set the role of the category within Emma's overall portfolio — what it is for, who it serves, how it grows.
• Identify long-term growth opportunities across consumer segments, geographies, and channels.
• Translate company-level strategy and growth priorities into concrete category-level direction.
• Present and align the category strategy with senior stakeholders including C-level.
• Design and own the global portfolio architecture including Good / Better / Best tiering logic.
• Define SKU roles, lifecycle stages, trade-up paths, and rationalisation priorities.
• Build and maintain a global product roadmap covering Y1 to Y3+ horizons.
• Run quarterly portfolio reviews: identify winners, slow-movers, gaps, and overlaps.
• Drive SKU rationalisation decisions in collaboration with Commercial, Finance and Regions.
• Maintain the product catalogue as a single source of truth across the organisation.
• Lead product discovery: market gap analysis, consumer Jobs-to-Be-Done, and opportunity sizing.
• Define innovation briefs and product concepts with clear consumer and commercial rationale.
• Translate strategy into structured product requirements and success criteria for R&D.
• Partner with R&D and engineering throughout the design & build phase.
• Assess competitor product launches and technology trends to guide the innovation pipeline.
• Maintain a 12–18 month innovation pipeline with clear stage-gate milestones.
• Define global pricing principles and positioning guardrails for the category.
• Act as the global category point of contact for EU, APAC, and LATAM regional teams.

Requirements

• 7–10 years of experience in Category Management, Product Management, or Portfolio Strategy in consumer goods, e-commerce, or DTC.
• Proven track record managing complex multi-SKU consumer product portfolios (mattress, furniture, home, FMCG, or comparable).
• Experience leading product innovation from brief to launch in cross-functional environments.
• Strong exposure to global or multi-regional operating models.
• Strategic thinker who can turn ambiguity into a clear direction — and who can then execute it.
• Able to build category vision and roadmaps from scratch, not just maintain existing frameworks.
• Strong analytical skills: comfortable with performance data, business cases, and consumer research.
• Excellent communicator and influencer — able to align diverse, senior stakeholders across functions.
• Hands-on: comfortable operating at both strategic and operational levels.
• Experience with DTC, online-first, or omnichannel environments is a plus.

Benefits

• Pet-friendly environment, where you can bring your furry desk buddy;
• Discounts on our top-notch products;
• Health insurance including dentist;
• 24 days holidays/year +1 day/year at Emma (máx. 29 days);
• The opportunity to collaborate with multinational teams;
• Exciting events that aren't just team-building exercises but opportunities to create epic memories.