Category Manager

**Position Overview**
**Pacific Smoke International** is Canada’s leading distributor of electronic vaporizers and manufacturer of award-winning vaping products. Our goal is to empower people nationwide to quit smoking by choosing a safer alternative to combustible cigarettes. We are a young, thriving company, located in Markham and we are seeking a culturally aligned and skilled **Category Manager
- Bilingual (Mandarin and English)** to join our team.

The Category Manager will oversee the performance of all external brands or new brands, including but not limited to hardware, e-liquids, and other brands and products that are identified to fit into the company’s business strategy. This includes leadership in the planning and execution of go-to-market strategies and each brand’s financial performance. The **Category Manager** would work with all external product brands to organize and direct activities to achieve business development objectives.

He/she would enjoy empowerment to impact change and would be inspired to contribute toward the greater vision of eliminating combustible cigarettes from the world. Strong business acumen, curiosity, people skills, savvy communications, and an analytical, solution-oriented mindset would lead to success in this role. Our managers are not afraid to get their hands dirty and will dive into solving problems and seizing opportunities with the team.

If you are an innovative thinker who is fulfilled by driving brand/product performance, overcoming challenges, and seizing opportunities to launch and build high-performance external brands/products with a sense of financial sustainability in a constantly evolving environment, this is the ideal role for you

**Company Values**:**

We are seeking to attract staff who share and demonstrate our values, which focus on eliminating combustible cigarettes from the world by empowering people to quit smoking and switch to safer alternative that improves their lifestyle choices. Our core values are**:Judgement, Curiosity, Agility, Results, Accountability, Teamwork**

**Key Responsibilities/Accountabilities**

Furthermore, the Category Manager’s responsibilities/accountabilities include:

- Work closely with the Senior Manager, Brand Marketing, and other department managers to develop and execute external brand/portfolio strategies and plans to achieve the company’s & department’s objectives.
- Oversee the external brand/portfolio development process from research, ideation, planning, development, marketing, and sales strategies for entire external brands.
- Deal with external brand owners and manufacturers to continuously optimize product selection, portfolio strategy, and relationship management.
- Work with relevant cross-functional teams (i.e., marketing intelligence, product development, digital marketing) to build external brands and products that are set up for success and built to sustainably perform.
- Continuously assess the competitive landscape and consumer insights to identify trends, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Assess brand/product performance and effectiveness; strategically add new products, evolve promotional strategies, and minimize slow-moving SKUs.
- Strategize and oversee go-to-market launch strategies and conduct post-mortem analyses to measure effectiveness and refine tactics.
- Manage and be accountable for brand financial performance and the brand marketing budget.
- Generate and analyze reports from various data sources such as regional/national sales, digital marketing analytics, and more to improve brand/product strategies and performance.
- Assist line manager to define, measure, and report on major KPIs relating to business performance to senior management.
- Collaborate with Marketing on merchandising and guide the creation of point-of-sale materials to increase brand awareness and exposure.
- Create engaging presentations and present new products and promotions to cross-functional departments and key stakeholders.
- Be the main contact point and informed decision-maker for brand-related topics through collaborations with sales, product development, supply chain, demand planning, project management, order desk, and so on.
- Manage the brand planning calendar; coordinate cross-functional activities and plan processes, manage timelines, and ensure timely completion of all deliverables.
- Other related duties as assigned from time to time.

**Required Qualifications**
- Mandarin speaking is required
- Vape (cannabis or tobacco) industry product, supplier & sales knowledge is required
- Proven advanced negotiation and contract management skills
- Ability to identify, quantify and effectively mitigate procurement risks
- Ability to develop actionable strategies and oversee their execution
- Ability to adapt to changing requirements and provide the necessary support
- Strong cost-benefit and business analysis abilities
- 2-3 years of working experience in product/category management or related exp