Category Manager Beauty (Fragrance) - all genders

Role As a Category Manager in Beauty, you will join a high-performing, driven team dedicated to shaping the future of Beauty at Zalando. Fragrance represents one of our fastest-growing categories, carrying an exceptionally strategic portfolio and managing critical global stakeholders. Taking direct ownership of your brand portfolio, you will develop innovative strategies to acquire target partners and drive ambitious growth within our Fragrance unit. Alongside managing high-level global stakeholders, you will take direct ownership of both your highly strategic brand portfolio and unit, with support of leadership and Category Planning, to deliver on key unit KPIs. Responsibilities - Drive Portfolio Excellence: Take proactive ownership of your high-impact brand portfolio, determining commercial strategy and identifying emerging Haircare trends to ensure a competitive assortment offer. - Strategic Brand Acquisition: Support our New Partnerships team in hunting and onboarding key and emerging brands to drive continued industry credibility, leveraging market insights to amplify visibility and recruit new consumer segments. - Partner for Performance: Collaborate closely with Category Planning to define strategy, manage budgets, and take data-driven actions based on KPIs to maximize unit profit. - Master Negotiations: Build your expertise to negotiate optimal terms with prominent external partners, ensuring mutual success aligned with Zalando's growth plans. - Build Global Relationships: Maintain strong long-term relationships with global brand partners to create sustainable partnership growth and strategic unlocks that support our competitiveness and customer goals. - Represent Beauty Initiatives: Exchange regularly with Marketing, Content, Photo Production, and Logistics, as well as acting as an ambassador for a variety of selective projects around CX, Sampling, and more that enhance our customer journey. Qualifications - Sector Expertise: You bring a background in Business, Category Management, or a comparable field, backed by experience in commercial buying or category management within a Head Office or e-commerce environment. - Haircare Ambition: You are sharp on the biggest players in the Haircare & Gifting market, possess respectable knowledge and commercial understanding of top Haircare brands, and are keen to drive innovative new product development and customer experience. - Analytical Mindset: You have excellent analytical skills and are proficient in Google Suite and MS Office (especially Excel), combining commercial intuition with a data-driven approach. - Negotiation Professional: You are a strong communicator with a track record in delivering results through high-level and impactful commercial agreements. - Agile & Proactive: You thrive in fast-paced environments, staying organized while maintaining a proactive, "can-do" attitude. - Collaborative Spirit: You are a true team player willing to roll up your sleeves and collaborate, whilst maintaining strong independence and a problem-solving mindset. What We Offer Zalando provides a range of benefits. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer. - 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days) - 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners - Family support, including counselling and dedicated services for parents and carers - Company pension scheme - Employee shares programme - Health and wellbeing options, including Wellhub - Mental health support and coaching - Development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review - 2 paid volunteering days a year - Relocation assistance (subject to prior agreement)