Category Insights Manager (12 month Maternity Cover)

About Hero UKI

You probably know us best through our beloved brands: Deliciously Ella for our range of plant-based food products and delicious recipes; Organix for our tasty toddler snacking range; and Goodies for fun pre-schooler snacks. This is a unique opportunity to lead the Sales agenda and make a visible impact in a leading company that prioritises growth, high performance and building strong, purpose-led brands.

We’re proud of our strong heritage of using business as a force for good in the UK food landscape – building brands that connect deeply with consumers; leading our categories in key retail partners; and offering delicious, better-for-you snacking options to all age groups.

You’ll find our offices in the heart of London and in sunny Bournemouth. We’ve been named a Great Place to Work, and we’re seriously proud of the positive culture and business we’ve built together.

We’re part of the Hero Group, a global family of brands united by a shared mission ‘to delight consumers through honest goodness in every bite’.

About Hero Group

Hero is a global food company, founded in 1886 in Switzerland, specialising in branded nutritional products across the Growing Up and Adult categories. With a portfolio of trusted brands like Corny, Semper, Goodies, Beech-Nut, Organix, and Deliciously Ella, Hero delivers high-quality, great-tasting food rooted in natural goodness. With 4,000 team members worldwide, the company is driven by strong values, high performance, and a commitment to doing the right thing - always, without compromise.

Our Values

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. Developed through an inclusive process involving colleagues from across the business, they guide how we work, collaborate and succeed together. They reflect who we are today and the future we are building.

Create Wow - We go beyond expectations and strive to make a meaningful impact

Everyone Hero – Every individual matters and every contribution counts.

Nourish Others – We support, inspire, and help each other grow.

Take Responsibility - We own our actions and outcomes, individually and as a team

About The Role

This role will be a 12-month Fixed term maternity cover and will provide dedicated category & insights support to fulfil team demands and help deliver company growth targets. Further strengthen the reputation of the category team and the quality of output primarily to internal stakeholders. Providing value-adding category expertise, encouraging curiosity and inspiring us with new ways-of-working as we navigate through an ambitious period for the company. 

Also, where necessary, stepping in to present ‘some’ customer-facing category recommendations to retailers, supporting the wider team across both offices to help achieve, both, sales & category initiatives for all 3 of our brands.

Create capacity within the wider team by taking ownership of our regular reports and analyses. Update the business on our progress in key areas, enabling colleagues to focus on category priorities in baby and snacking.

Act as a central point for internal business questions, turning data into clear “so what” recommendations that improve decision-making across the business

The Team

You’ll join a high-performing category team at the heart of our commercial function, working across our London and Bournemouth offices.

This team plays a critical role in driving category strategy and long-term growth, partnering closely with both internal stakeholders and retail customers.

You’ll work alongside experienced, knowledgeable colleagues who bring strong insight, curiosity and commercial focus—offering a collaborative environment where you can both contribute and develop.

Key Responsibilities

• Enable effective & seamless knowledge transfer and capability building across the wider category team during the period of maternity cover. 
• Lead and deliver internal category insights and reporting for Hero UK&I primarily for the baby category but also in adult snacking, depending on workload capacity and the demands on the team at the time.  
• Leverage our vast breadth of sales and shopper data sources to develop clear, actionable insights that shape internal category strategy and strengthen customer-facing propositions. 
• Drawing from mainstream and familiar sources of EPOS, market data and shopper research to drive our category-thinking to the next level. Taking raw data to deliver meaningful insights and ultimately growth for the business. 
• Liaise with our leading external agency partners, developing a regular working relationship to ensure the integrity of our data (and therefore the final output) is being maintained. 
• Manage our reporting processes, embracing new technology and support with our adoption of AI to streamline manual reporting, improve our efficiency & output and create more time for value-added insight generation  
• Take ownership of streamlining our reporting, dashboards and performance tracking to ensure consistency and accuracy – with a more unified approach across Baby & Free-From/Snacking 
• Support ad hoc analysis and internal requests, translating data into clear recommendations 
• Analyse promotional and NPD performance to identify growth opportunities 
• Make a clear positive contribution to the wider team and culture as we navigate through an exciting and unprecedented period of change resulting from new insight sources, Government influence and up-ageing ambitions across the UK and global organisation. 

About You – Skills and Experiences

• Extensive experience with and a competent user of Dunnhumby (Tesco) sales & shopper data, with a proven track-record of taking data-led insight to drive actions and unlock new growth opportunities. 
• Ideally you will bring an agency background with experience of supporting multiple clients, categories or brands. 
• Experience of working with other leading sources of continuous data, eg: Cicana (IRI), Numerator (Kantar) and Nectar SIP 
• Strong category management and insight generation experience, ideally within grocery, FMCG or a retail customer-facing environment. 
• Confident turning shopper, market and customer data into clear recommendations for internal stakeholders and retail customers. 
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders, share insight clearly and work collaboratively and cross-functionally across the different commercial teams. 
• Commercially curious, proactive and able to operate effectively in a fast-moving environment with multiple priorities. 

What We Offer

You will have the opportunity to be part of a mission driven business at a hugely exciting point in our growth trajectory, where your voice is heard and where you’re able to actively impact our business. Some great perks in working for Hero UK&I include:

• 25 days holiday + bank holidays + your birthday off
• Private Medical Insurance from day one (plus dental and optical fund)
• Life Assurance and Income Protection
• Contributory pension scheme starting with 5% employer contribution, moving to 10% with service, and access to free pension advice
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
• Access to Grocery Aid employee assistance resources.
• Massages & Reflexology when you are in our Bournemouth office
• Psycle Classes when you are in our London office
• Salary sacrificed schemes: Childcare support, Home & Tech, Bike to Work and Electric Car Schemes
• On-site parking at our Bournemouth Office
• Hybrid Working and Flexible Bank Holidays
• Summer hours in July and August
• Office perks including team breakfasts and lunches and snacks from all our UK brands
• Learning Opportunities and Study Leave
• Free Deliciously Ella App Access for you and five friends and family

Equal Opportunity Statement

Hero UK&I is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or any other protected category under applicable laws.