Category Manager

About the Company

Extend is revolutionizing the post-purchase experience for retailers and their customers by providing merchants with AI-driven solutions that enhance customer satisfaction and drive revenue growth. Our comprehensive platform offers automated customer service handling, seamless returns/exchange management, end-to-end automated fulfillment, and product protection and shipping protection alongside Extend's best-in-class fraud detection. By integrating leading-edge technology with exceptional customer service, Extend empowers businesses to build trust and loyalty among consumers while reducing costs and increasing profits. Today, Extend works with more than 1,000 leading merchant partners across industries, including fashion/apparel, cosmetics, furniture, jewelry, consumer electronics, auto parts, sports and fitness, and much more. Extend is backed by some of the most prominent technology investors in the industry, and our headquarters is in downtown San Francisco.

About the Role

At Extend, your work will have a direct and visible impact. As a GTM Strategy & Program Manager, you'll own the go-to-market strategy, influence the product roadmap, and be an expert for your assigned portfolio of verticals—spanning Extend’s Product Protection & Shipping Protection products. You'll be part of a highly impactful, cross-functional team that contributes to innovative solutions and delivers exceptional protection products that set new industry standards.

Responsibilities

• Vertical Expertise & Pod Leadership
  • Lead Your Pod: Run Pod leadership for your verticals—synthesizing call learnings, merchant feedback, and market research into a continuously updated GTM Playbook for Extend’s Revenue teams.
  • Demonstrate Mastery: Show deep command of Extend's product fit for your vertical across Product & Shipping Protection.
• GTM Strategy & Category Growth
  • Own Your Portfolio: Drive top- and bottom-line growth for your verticals and define the product strategy for your verticals.
  • Shape Strategy: Define, execute, and present GTM strategy for your portfolio, ensuring it aligns with merchant, consumer, and Extend needs while outperforming competitors.
  • Identify Expansion Opportunities: Surface category growth and expansion opportunities, including preparing strategic angles for new and adjacent verticals.
  • Advise on Key Accounts: Act as strategic advisor on key accounts, key deals, and merchant growth.
  • Own Agentic Rule Creation: Execute strategic cost-saving decisions using Extend’s new claim intake AI agent.
• Product Development
  • Directly Influence the Warrantable Product Roadmap: Identify opportunities from competitive research, Pod learnings, and win/loss patterns, and turn them into product features.
  • Extend the Roadmap: Contribute to a multi-year warrantable product roadmap and fold new feature enablement into the GTM Playbook.
  • Ensure Competitiveness: Regularly review your portfolio to maintain best-in-class coverage and pricing through ongoing industry and category analysis.
  • Innovate: Design custom solutions for major retail partners like Peloton, Sonos, Oura Ring, Ashley Furniture, and more.

Requirements

• 5+ years in retail category management, product strategy, or similar analytical, cross-functional roles in e-commerce or fast-paced tech environments.
• Demonstrated product or initiative ownership from idea through launch and enablement.
• A strong ability to research, synthesize information, and present actionable insights to leadership.
• Advanced proficiency in AI tools & Excel (data modeling, financial analysis, forecasting).
• Proven experience leading cross-functional projects and presenting findings to leadership teams.
• Comfort operating with day-to-day deal/pricing support and autonomy over strategy and roadmap decisions.
• Detail-oriented mindset with a knack for process improvement and innovation.
• Self-starter who thrives on high-stakes decision-making and taking initiative.
• Strong prioritization skills to handle multiple projects amid shifting priorities.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience using BI tools to inform strategy and optimization grounded in data.
• Familiarity with or strong interest in leveraging AI/agentic tools for workflow automation.
• Exposure to underwriting/actuarial concepts (frequency, severity, loss ratio), analyzing insurance risk, and retail pricing strategies.

Pay

The target base salary range for this position is $125,000 - $140,000 per year. Individual salaries are determined based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Benefits

• Competitive salary based on experience, with full medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• Stock in an early-stage startup growing quickly.
• Generous, flexible paid time off policy.
• 401(k) with Financial Guidance from Morgan Stanley.