Category Manager - Foodservice (FTC) in Scarborough

About McCain. At McCain, we’re feeding the world: from French fries to Smiles, we contribute to the important role food plays in people’s lives. That’s why we’re dedicated to ensuring our core values—Family, Authentic, Trusted, and Quality—shine through each day. As a privately owned family company with over 60 years of experience, a presence in more than 160 countries, and a global team of 22,000 people, our values and culture are at the heart of everything we do. We believe that we can work together, along with our business and community partners, to bring sustainable growth and positive change today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.

Why join the McCain family.

• Your Life - we’re here to help you fulfil your potential, flourish, and thrive in work and life.
• Your Success - work alongside passionate individuals who are committed to supporting your career ambitions, drive, and success.
• Your Impact - we want you to make a meaningful, lasting impact for you, for your colleagues, and for the business.

About the role. Reporting to the Senior Category Manager, the Category Manager plays a key role in driving growth across regional distributor customers and contract catering. This role is responsible for shaping and delivering impactful growth plans, using market, shopper and customer insights to uncover opportunities and translate them into meaningful action. Working in close partnership with Sales, Marketing, and the wider Category Growth team, the Category Manager brings insights to life through compelling, customer‑facing plans. They take ownership of execution, track performance closely and adapt strategies to stay ahead of evolving market dynamics. As a trusted partner to their customers, the Category Manager builds strong, collaborative relationships, clearly articulates the value of McCain's category propositions, and delivers data‑driven recommendations that create sustainable, shared growth.

Insight Development & Foresight

• Analyse and combine data from multiple sources to generate clear, actionable insights
• Use tools such as Circana CREST to identify trends, opportunities and risks
• Turn insights into practical recommendations that drive performance
• Stay curious and explore new technologies (e.g. AI) to improve speed and accuracy

Customer Category Growth Plans

• Develop and deliver tailored category growth strategies for distributor and contract catering customers
• Create customer‑focused plans that unlock commercial opportunities
• Work closely with Sales, Marketing and external partners to bring plans to life and optimise results

Marketing, Trade Events & Digital Effectiveness

• Plan and execute trade events, ensuring smooth delivery and effective use of resources
• Support marketing activity (e.g. product launches, menu recommendations) to deliver value for customers and consumers
• Improve and develop selling tools using data and digital solutions to increase impact

Customer & Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong, collaborative relationships with key foodservice customers
• Deliver clear, data‑led recommendations through category reviews and presentations
• Work closely with internal teams and external partners to ensure alignment and success

Leadership Principles Our principles, each with related practices, guide our actions across the organisation. Together, they address how McCain interacts with our customers and employees, and how we work as individuals and collectively to find success. While each role adheres to the Leadership Principles, individual roles may focus more on a specific principle or principles.

• We are customer obsessed. Customers are our starting point. By understanding their needs and leveraging data and consumer insights, we drive mutual success.
• We think big and plan ahead. Through ambition, curiosity and smart risks, we can accomplish goals, refine processes, and innovate to scale success.
• We bring out the best in our people. We create safe spaces for our people so that trust and empowerment come naturally. Inclusion is about listening first, showing humility and working together.
• We act like owners. Together we clear obstacles and do the work that makes us all successful and proud to be part of McCain.

What we’re looking for.

• Experience in Category Management within FMCG/CPG, retail or foodservice
• Proven track record of developing and delivering category, channel or customer growth strategies
• Experience working cross‑functionally and managing projects in fast‑paced environments
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills

Location. Being in the office every single day is the thing of the past. Here at McCain, we champion hybrid working. This means we don’t have a set expectation of exactly when you need to be in the office – however we do encourage our full‑time, office‑based people to connect in person with others for around half of their working time as that’s the best way for us to build and maintain our connections. Our head office (Customer Experience Centre) is on the outskirts of Scarborough – 1.5 hours away from Leeds City Centre and about an hour from York. We have lots of colleagues who travel to and from our Experience Centre (even if it is just for a good coffee!) and because hybrid really does mean hybrid at McCain, they get the opportunity to collaborate with their colleagues when they’re in the office and balance that with working from home to ensure they get a good life‑work balance.

The benefits of working for McCain.

• An excellent pension where we will pay double what you do, up to a maximum of 12% of your pay
• Flexible holidays – where you can buy & sell up to 5 days holiday per year
• Optional health cash plan
• Cycle to work scheme
• ‘Chips In’ Volunteering Day Off – to make a positive impact to the competitiveness, resilience and long‑term development of McCain communities across the globe

The McCain experience. We are McCain: this statement is about our power collectively and our importance individually – your impact is a significant part of the business. Our winning culture focuses on authenticity and trust so we can always bring out the best in our people. Here, you have the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive while being yourself. Join our team to see why we’re better together.

Equal opportunity employer. McCain Foods is an equal opportunity employer. As a global family‑owned company, we strive to be the employer of choice in the diverse communities around the world in which we live and work. We recognise that inclusion drives our creativity, resilience and success and makes our business stronger. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, age, veteran status, disability or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. McCain is an accessible employer. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know and we will work with you to find appropriate solutions.

Your privacy is important to us. By submitting personal data or information to us, you agree this will be handled in accordance with McCain's Global Privacy Policy and Global Employee Privacy Policy, as applicable. McCain leverages AI in the hiring process, though all final decisions are made by humans.