Sr. Category Merch Analyst - Hybrid in Stillwater, MN

Job Overview

The Senior Category Merchandising Analyst plays a crucial role in promoting profitability through rigorous promotional planning, vendor funding management, category performance tracking, and margin investment decisions. This role sits at the intersection of Merchandising and Pricing, providing essential insights for timely, confident, and profitable decision-making.

Job Responsibilities

• Analyze vendor funding, trade spend, and markdown activity to maximize ROI and margin rate
• Provide category leaders with actionable visibility into funding performance, gaps, and opportunities
• Support promo and pricing decisions using elasticity insights, competitive analysis, and historical performance
• Build and maintain reporting that tracks sales, margin, units, mix, traffic drivers, and category trends
• Convert complex data into clear, executive-ready recommendations
• Lead post-mortem analysis on promotions and major merchandising events and provide concise summaries of what worked, what didn’t, and what actions we should take next
• Partner closely with Finance to support forecast accuracy, period planning, and risk/opportunity assessments
• Lead or support cross-functional projects that strengthen Cub’s merchandising processes, tools, and analytical capabilities
• Perform other duties as assigned

Job Requirements

• Education/Certification: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Data Analytics, or related field
• Experience: 5-10 years of retail analytics, merchandising finance, pricing, or vendor funding experience
• Knowledge/Skills/Abilities: Strong communication skills, intellectual curiosity, and a bias for action in a fast-paced environment; strong knowledge of retail P&L levers, including margin, mix, markdowns, and funding; experience working with Nielsen/NIQ syndicated data and/or merchandising and promo-planning tools, such as Cognira is strongly preferred; advanced Excel; experience with Power BI/Tableau and SQL is a strong plus

About UNFI

UNFI is North America's premier grocery wholesaler, delivering the widest variety of fresh, branded, and owned brand products to community grocers and retail chains alike. As a pioneer in natural and organic foods, UNFI is growing and transforming to meet the evolving needs of its customers. With 29,000+ employees across 50 Distribution Centers and corporate offices, UNFI offers competitive 401k, flexible PTO plans, a hybrid work schedule, health benefits, and a mentorship program/developmental opportunities.