Benefits & Perks
• Bonus potential of up to 20% of base pay
• Medical Insurance
• Dental Coverage
• Vision Insurance
• 401(k) Retirement Plan with company match
• Paid Time Off & Holidays
• Employee Discount on Groceries
Pay range: $140,000 to $175,000 per year.
Apply today!
Smith Brothers Farms is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all qualified candidates to apply.
Smith Brothers Farms is committed to ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees are treated with respect and dignity. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and experiences.
Reasonable accommodations are available for qualified individuals with disabilities.
Join a brand with passion and a commitment to the community and its employees
Founded in 1920, Smith Brothers Farms is one of the Pacific Northwest's most iconic home-delivery dairy brands. For over 100 years, we've proudly delivered farm-fresh milk, locally made goods, and exceptional customer service to families across the region. Our mission is simple: bring fresh, high-quality foods straight to the front door while supporting local farms and communities.
As Director of Merchandising & Category Management, you decide what earns its place in our customers' homes. You will own category strategy and the assortment across every department, with accountability for sales, gross margin, and category mix. You will set pricing and promotion strategies, lead vendor negotiations, grow the Smith Brothers brand, and connect front-end demand to our cold-chain fulfillment.
You will lead a team of Ecommerce professionals and Buyers who build your plans into the live website and app and report how customers respond, so your time goes to commercial strategy and category decisions.
When you join Smith Brothers Farms, you become part of a trusted Northwest tradition built on quality, integrity, and family values.
What you'll do
Category management and assortment strategy
• Hold P&L accountability for sales, gross margin, and share of basket across dairy, fresh, and center-store categories.
• Define each category's role (destination, routine, convenience, or seasonal) and set matching targets and strategies.
• Build annual category plans covering assortment breadth and depth, price position, promotional intensity, and growth goals.
• Lead category reviews with buyers, using sales, margin, basket penetration, repeat purchase, and standing-order data to decide what to add, keep, rotate, and retire.
• Manage SKU productivity and rationalization, balancing variety against margin, inventory risk, and cold-chain space.
• Find assortment gaps against customer needs and competitors, and direct sourcing of new items, local producers, and regional exclusives.
• Tailor assortment to the Seattle and Portland markets.
• Own the New Product Plan and set criteria and review points for evaluating new items after launch.
• Plan seasonal and holiday assortments with enough lead time for sourcing, content, and fulfillment.
Pricing and promotion
• Set pricing rules and price-position strategy by category for high-frequency home delivery.
• Own the Merchandising Plan for each two-week promotion period: which items go on sale, how deep, and which themes and hero items lead each week.
• Build the promotional calendar and bulk or bundle incentives that grow order frequency and average order value.
• Balance traffic drivers against margin loss and cannibalization, including the effect of sale pricing on standing-order customers.
Vendor partnerships
• Lead negotiations with vendors and buyers on trade funding, promotional support, scan-backs, and regional exclusives.
• Run joint business planning with key vendors, tied to category plans and shared growth targets.
• Develop vendor-funded website and app placements into a revenue stream.
Smith Brothers brand growth
• Grow Smith Brothers-branded products as a share of basket and margin.
• Identify where our brand can extend into new categories or replace lower-margin national items.
Digital shelf strategy
• Set how each category appears on the website and app (structure, featured placement, search priorities) and approve major changes.
• Direct cross-merchandising, recommendations, and standing-order programs that lift average order value.
• Rank merchandising system improvements with IT by commercial value.
• Sign off on each promotion period's build before it goes live.
Analytics and financial modeling
• Run basket analyses showing the net margin contribution of promotions after vendor funding.
• Study cross-category demand patterns to balance traffic drivers against margin and cannibalization.
• Use Power BI and Excel reporting to decide what to repeat, change, or drop, and present results and plans to the Chief Growth Officer.
Fulfillment and waste
• Align promotional volume with warehouse, cold-chain, and delivery route capacity alongside operations leadership.
• Set product substitution rules that protect quality and margin.
• Reduce perishable shrink through forecasting input, promotion timing, and accurate pricing on weight-variable items.
Leadership
• Lead and develop the Ecommerce Merchandising Manager with clear decision rights and on-time plans that protect the team's build schedule.
• Lead and develop the Buyers with clear category growth and profitability mandates.
• Lead and develop the Ecommerce Communications Lead with clear engagement growth mandates.
• 8+ years in grocery merchandising, category management, CPG, or e-grocery, including 4+ years leading cross-functional teams.
• Hands-on category management experience: category roles and plans, assortment planning, SKU rationalization, and line reviews.
• Experience in e-commerce, home delivery, or direct-to-consumer grocery.
• A track record in pricing elasticity, promotion, and net-net margin modeling.
• Independent data skills in Excel and a BI tool such as Power BI; SQL is a plus.
• Working knowledge of perishable supply chains, temperature-controlled logistics, and weight-variable products.
• Experience as the business owner partnering with IT, developers, or product teams on system changes.
• A collaborative style that brings buyers, vendors, marketing, creative, and operations to a shared plan.
Working Conditions
This is a full-time, in-office position at our Federal Way, Washington location.
