Category Head

About the Role

A prominent retail group headquartered in Saudi Arabia seeks an experienced Category Head to join their leadership team. Reporting directly to senior executives, this role oversees the development and execution of strategies related to category management, buying, and merchandise planning encompassing various retail categories.

Key Responsibilities

• Developing and implementing category strategies, budgets, and commercial plans aligned with the company’s growth objectives.
• Managing assortment planning, pricing strategies, promotional activities, and inventory controls.
• Driving achievement of revenue goals, gross margin targets, and inventory productivity benchmarks.
• Leading vendor and supplier negotiations and maintaining robust supplier relationships.
• Overseeing and guiding the category, buying, and planning teams.

Candidate Profile

• More than 10 years of experience in category management, buying, or merchandise planning roles with substantial leadership responsibilities.
• Experience working in principal-led retail environments, brand ownership, or large-scale omnichannel operations.
• Strong commercial acumen with expertise in profit and loss management, budgeting, stock turnover, and working capital optimization.
• Demonstrated success in increasing both revenue and margins while enhancing inventory efficiency.
• Background in lifestyle retail segments such as apparel, accessories, leather goods, watches, luggage, toys, homeware, gifts, or related categories.
• Preferably, experience within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) retail market, particularly Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.