The Role:

We're looking for a Category Manager to own and scale our Lunchbox & Water Bottle category end-to-end. This is a high-ownership role where you'll drive everything from product strategy and vendor development to pricing, margins, and go-to-market. You'll work at the intersection of product, supply chain, and brand - making sure every SKU we launch earns its shelf space in the lives of Indian parents.

What You'll Do?

Category Strategy & P&L Ownership:

- Own the category P&L for lunchboxes and water bottles. Drive revenue, margin, and contribution targets.

- Define the category roadmap: which products to launch, when, at what price, and for which customer segment.

- Conduct competitive analysis across D2C, marketplace, and offline brands to identify whitespace opportunities

- Build and maintain a category calendar aligned with seasonal demand, back-to-school cycles, and marketing tentpoles.

Product Development & Sourcing:

- Lead end-to-end product development from concept and sampling through production and quality sign-off by working closely with the NPD team.

- Identify, and evaluate, vendor and manufacturer relationships. Negotiate pricing, MOQs, and payment terms by working closely with the Sourcing & Procurement team

- Collaborate with the design team on product aesthetics, packaging, and brand- consistent visual language.

- Own the quality benchmarking process - ensure every product meets safety, durability, and food-grade standards relevant to kids' products.

Pricing, Assortment & Merchandising:

- Set and optimise pricing strategy across channels (D2C website, Amazon, Flipkart, quick commerce).

- Manage SKU rationalisation: decide what stays, what gets refreshed, and what gets discontinued based on sell-through and margin data.

- Partner with the growth and performance marketing teams to inform creative strategy with category-level insights - what's converting, what's not, and why.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

- Work closely with supply chain and ops to manage inventory, lead times, and demand planning.

- Brief the content and brand teams on product positioning, key claims, and differentiation for each launch.

- Feed consumer insights from reviews, returns data, and customer calls back into the product development cycle.

- Collaborate with the performance marketing team to ensure category positioning stays consistent with the brand's kids-first narrative, even as creative testing expands.

Who You Are?

- 1-5 years in category management, buying, product management - ideally in consumer goods, D2C, or retail.

- You've owned a P&L before and are comfortable being accountable for both topline and margin.

- Strong product development, and sourcing skills. You know how to negotiate and you know what good quality looks like.

- Analytical and data-driven: you're fluent in sell-through reports, inventory dashboards, and margin analysis. You don't need someone to pull data for you.

- Taste and product instinct matter to you. You care about how a product looks, feels, and functions - not just whether it hits a price point.

- You understand brand positioning and can articulate why a product belongs (or doesn't belong) in the assortment.

- Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, founder-led environment where priorities shift and speed matters.