About The Role
About the Role
The Head of Category & Insights is responsible for leading BrewDog’s Category & Insights capability across Beer and Beyond Beer, developing a clear category point of view, and translating market, shopper, and customer insights into commercial opportunities that drive category growth and BrewDog’s performance.
Leading the Category & Insights team, the role will build BrewDog’s category thought leadership, strengthen our influence with customers — including direct leadership of the Tesco Category relationship — and ensure insight moves beyond reporting performance to identifying why it is happening, where the opportunities are and what we should do next.
Key Responsibilities
Category Strategy & Thought Leadership
- Develop BrewDog’s category point of view across Beer and Beyond Beer, identifying the trends, growth drivers and opportunities that matter most.
- Translate market, shopper, consumer and competitive insight into clear commercial implications and recommendations.
- Identify and quantify emerging category opportunities and whitespace, building a clear size of prize.
- Build proactive thought leadership that enables BrewDog to lead category conversations, including signature initiatives such as the State of the Craft Beer Nation.
- Provide category evidence and insight to inform portfolio and innovation decisions.
Customer Category Leadership & Tesco
· Lead BrewDog’s Category relationship with Tesco, becoming a trusted partner to its buying and category teams.
· Partner with Tesco Sales to develop category-led growth plans and lead Category input into range reviews, Brand Days and strategic customer planning.
· Identify and influence opportunities across ROS, range, distribution, assortment, space and visibility, supported by robust category and shopper evidence.
· Lead senior Category relationships across other priority customers where required, while coaching Category Managers to strengthen customer influence.
· Ensure BrewDog brings a proactive category point of view to priority customer conversations.
Performance, Insights & Growth Opportunities
- Own the Category performance framework across Beer and Beyond Beer, covering Market Share, ROS, Distribution, Range Productivity and priority shopper measures.
- Establish a disciplined performance rhythm that moves from reporting → diagnosis → action, supported by the Category Analyst and Category Managers.
- Lead priority customer and category deep dives, identifying root causes, opportunities and corrective actions — including a clear focus on Tesco performance.
- Build understanding of emerging Beyond Beer categories, shoppers, occasions and competitive dynamics to identify future growth opportunities.
- Measure priority interventions and innovation performance, ensuring learning informs future decisions.
Team Leadership & Category Capability
- Lead, coach and develop the Category & Insights team, establishing clear ownership, priorities and KPIs.
- Build capability across category management, analytics, commercial storytelling and customer influence.
- Develop Category fluency across Beer and Beyond Beer.
- Balance responsive customer requirements with sufficient capacity for proactive category work and strategic projects.
- Ensure the Category Analyst provides the analytical foundation that enables Category Managers to focus on insight, recommendations and customer influence.
Cross-Functional Commercial Leadership
- Partner with Sales, Marketing, Shopper Marketing and RGM to translate category opportunities into integrated commercial plans.
- Provide category input into Price, Pack, Promotion and Portfolio decisions.
- Support priority innovation by bringing category, shopper and customer evidence into proposition development and commercialisation.
- Bring an objective, evidence-led Category perspective to major customer, portfolio and innovation decisions.
Internal: Category Director, Category & Insights Team, Sales Director, Channel Directors, Key Account Managers, Shopper Marketing, Revenue Growth Management, Beer Marketing, Beyond Beer Marketing, Finance, Innovation, NPD Operations.
External: Tesco Buying and Category Teams, priority customer Buying and Category Teams, Customer Space Planning Teams, Circana/NIQ, dunnhumby, Quantium and relevant Category/Insight Agencies.
About You
Essential:
Advanced knowledge of category management, shopper/category analytics and commercial insight.
Advanced Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint skills.
Strong understanding of retailer EPOS, loyalty and category data.
Desirable:
Category Management Association (CMA) or equivalent Category Management qualification.
Degree or equivalent qualification in Business, Marketing, Economics, Mathematics or a related discipline, or equivalent commercial experience.
Experience with retailer space planning tools.
Essential
- Significant Category Management / Category Development experience within UK FMCG, operating at Senior Category Manager, Category Lead or equivalent level.
- Proven experience leading category relationships with major UK grocery retailers and influencing senior customer decisions.
- Demonstrable success developing category strategies and growth plans that deliver measurable commercial outcomes.
- Experience leading and developing Category and/or Insights teams.
- Strong experience using market, retailer and shopper insight to identify and quantify opportunities across ROS, distribution, range and space.
- Experience leading strategic customer processes including range reviews, annual planning and JBP/category development.
Desirable
- Direct experience working with Tesco and dunnhumby.
- Experience within Beer, Alcohol, Beverages or Premium FMCG.
- Experience working across multiple categories and channels, including Convenience, Wholesale and/or On Trade.
- Experience operating as a Category Captain / trusted category advisor.
- Experience providing category or commercial input into portfolio and innovation decisions.
Essential
- Deep understanding of the UK Grocery landscape and how retailers make range, space and commercial decisions.
- Expert understanding of Category Management principles, retailer category processes and category strategy development.
- Strong understanding of key category performance drivers including Market Share, ROS, Distribution, Range Productivity and Promotional Effectiveness.
- Strong understanding of shopper behaviour and the role of shopper insight in driving category and customer growth.
- Good understanding of Revenue Growth Management principles, including Price, Pack, Promotion and Portfolio.
Desirable
- Strong understanding of the UK Beer, Craft and Alcohol categories.
- Understanding of Beyond Beer and emerging beverage categories.
- Knowledge of Convenience, Wholesale and On Trade channels.
Essential
- Expert user of Circana (IRI) and/or NIQ, with strong experience using retailer EPOS and loyalty datasets including dunnhumby, Quantium, SIP or equivalent.
- Exceptional analytical capability, able to turn complex data into clear insight, commercial recommendations and action.
- Strong strategic thinking, with the ability to identify, prioritise and quantify growth opportunities and size of prize.
- Excellent commercial storytelling, presentation and influencing skills with senior internal and external stakeholders.
- Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to connect category opportunities to measurable business outcomes.
- Strong people leadership, coaching and capability-development skills.
- Excellent prioritisation, able to balance immediate customer requirements with longer-term strategic priorities.
Desirable
- Experience with Power BI / Tableau.
- Experience with retailer space-planning tools such as Blue Yonder/JDA or equivalent.
- Familiarity with syndicated household panel data such as Kantar Worldpanel.
- Commercially curious with a growth mindset.
- Naturally asks “why?” and “what next?”, rather than simply reporting performance.
- Confident influencing and constructively challenging senior internal and external stakeholders.
- Data-driven but action-oriented.
- Strong relationship builder and people leader.
- Able to simplify complexity into clear commercial recommendations.
- Comfortable balancing collaboration with clear accountability and decision-making.
- Resilient and adaptable in a fast-paced environment.
- Self-starter with a bias for action.
- Passionate about winning in category and developing others.
- Curious about Beer, Craft and the broader beverage landscape.
- Market Share and Rate of Sale (ROS) performance across priority categories, brands and customers.
- Delivery of distribution, range, space and category growth opportunities.
- Tesco category performance and delivery of agreed customer growth priorities.
- Strength and impact of BrewDog’s category relationships and influence with priority customers.
- Quality and commercial impact of proactive category insight thought leadership and growth recommendations across Beer and Beyond Beer.
- Development and performance of the Category & Insights team, including delivery against agreed functional KPIs.
Head of Category & Insights in London employer: BrewDog
At BrewDog, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer, offering a vibrant work culture that celebrates passion for craft beer and innovation. Our commitment to employee growth is evident through generous benefits like enhanced pension contributions, additional holiday days, and a unique 4-week sabbatical every five years, ensuring our team members can thrive both personally and professionally in our Ellon location.
