Rotterdam
Senior Category Manager EMEA

Senior Category Manager EMEA
Location: Rotterdam
Full-time

Dole Packaged Foods is an agricultural company that works with the earth’s abundant resources to feed the world. Our mission is to create ‘Sunshine for Everyone’. With over a century of expertise, we are committed to cultivating high-quality food products, while prioritizing sustainability, innovation, and care for the planet and its people.

Dole Packaged Foods delivers this goal in Europe through a network of various (B2B) customers, ranging from retail to food supply to distributors who supply our products to our consumers.

About the role

As our Senior Category Manager EMEA, you will play a key role in shaping how our categories grow and win in European markets. At the intersection of Category Strategy, Insights, and Commercial Execution, you’ll turn complex data into clear opportunities and compelling category stories that create impact in the market.

By combining strong analytical thinking with commercial insight, you identify growth drivers, discover shopper and category insights, and translate them into strategies that resonate with both internal stakeholders and retail partners. Working closely with Marketing and Sales, you will act as a strategic partner and ensure that insights are translated into actions that strengthen our position and achieve sustainable growth of categories in EMEA.

You are based in the Netherlands and work in a hybrid way (from home and office in Rotterdam). Regular travel is mandatory as part of the role, especially through the UK and Germany (and more broadly within Europe). Travel frequency varies depending on the needs of the company, usually ranging from once every two months to twice a month.

Your role

You’ll play a pivotal role in driving category growth across EMEA, from identifying opportunities to enabling strong execution in the marketplace.

By leveraging category and shopper insights, you can drive commercial decisions, define go-to-market approaches, and influence key stakeholders across functions and geographies. In close collaboration with Sales and Marketing, you ensure that the strategy is translated into clear, impactful actions.

In addition, you are responsible for:

• Shape and steer category strategy across EMEA: You will define growth priorities, key segments and consumption opportunities across markets, and provide a clear strategic direction that drives category expansion and strengthens market share.

• Turn insights into commercial impact: You translate data and insights into clear, actionable recommendations that drive the growth of the category ahead of the market. By identifying trends and opportunities, you can ensure that initiatives deliver measurable business results.

• Drive cross-functional alignment: You’ll work closely with Sales, Marketing, and key stakeholders to align priorities and ensure consistent, high-quality execution of category initiatives across markets.

• Strengthen partnerships with retailers: You’ll build compelling, insight-driven category stories that increase credibility and deepen engagement with retail partners, supporting stronger collaboration and better results in the market.

• Achieve results through execution excellence: You will ensure that key assortment, visibility and activation initiatives are effectively executed in the market, while continuously identifying and unlocking new, scalable growth opportunities in EMEA.

About you

You are a strategic and commercially driven category professional who knows how to turn data into growth. With a sharp analytical mindset, you’ll look beyond the numbers to discover what’s really driving the category’s performance and translate insights into clear, actionable strategies.

You’re confident working with complex datasets from sources such as Circana, NielsenIQ, Kantar, and retailer data, and know how to bring these insights to life. Through strong stories and impactful presentations, you influence both internal stakeholders and retail partners, turning category insights into compelling commercial stories that drive decisions.

Hands-on, structured and result-oriented, you take ownership and deliver. You know how to balance strategy and execution, working cross-functionally with Sales and Marketing to ensure that ideas don’t stay on paper but have real impact on the market.

In addition, you bring:

• 7–10 years of experience in Category Management, Category Insights or a similar commercial role within FMCG.
• Strong experience working with or within key European markets, preferably with extensive knowledge of markets such as the UK, France or Germany.
• Fluent in English, additional European languages are considered a plus.

We offer

• The opportunity to develop our European organization to the next level and realize our purpose, while also building your personal and professional growth and well-being.
• International collaboration in a small, committed and very diverse team, with direct colleagues in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Belgium.
• A 7-month starter contract, with the possibility to quickly grow into a permanent position if we are the right match, because we are really looking for a long-term commitment.
• A full-time (40 hours per week) contract with an annual base salary based on a full-time equivalent salary between €85,000 and €100,000, tailored to your skills and experience.
• In addition, we offer modern pension schemes with defined contributions (based on a 50/50 split between employer and employee) and income insurance, 26 days of vacation per year in addition to applicable holidays, full reimbursement of the costs of public transport for commuting.
• Laptop, mobile phone, home office equipment, and so on.

Our application process

Upon receipt of your request, we will carefully review your profile. We want to get back to you with an update within two weeks. If your experience and background are a good fit, we invite you to do a short online assessment of about 20 minutes. This helps us to keep the selection process as objective as possible. If there is a good match based on the results, the first meeting with HR is scheduled. If that interview is positive, we arrange a follow-up interview with the head of Marketing & Category Management. If everything feels right for both parties, we will make you a suitable offer and welcome you to the Dole Europe Tribe!

Before applying to this position, please view our privacy policy