{"id":2435976,"url":"https://alion.io/job/co-op-assistant-category-manager","title":"Assistant Category Manager","company":{"id":1766234,"name":"Co-op","domain":"coop.co.uk","url":"https://alion.io/company/coop-co-uk","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Oracle","truth_index":null},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":null,"employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Manchester, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":null,"max":38000,"currency":"GBP","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":50223},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Microsoft Excel","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-13T10:36:31Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-13","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T18:54:52Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"Assistant Category Manager - Marketing\nUp to £38,000 plus benefits (Work level 6A)\n12-month secondment\nManchester city centre - in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and the office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at https://jobs.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).\nWe’re looking for an Assistant Category Manager to join our Procurement team and help drive our strategy across our marketing category. If you can bring us the skills we need, you’ll have the opportunity to make a huge impact, making sure we’re getting the best value for money and reinvesting savings into our communities.\nWhy this role matters\nAs an Assistant Category Manager, you’ll be responsible for managing categories such as instore consumables and subscriptions, with an emphasis on contract and supplier management. You’ll work closely with colleagues across the business to support the development of innovative category plans. Our growing procurement team has a £1.3 billion annual spend. It’s a big job. But an even bigger opportunity to grow your profile in this important area of the business.\nWhat you’ll do\nAnalyse spend and supplier data to identify trends and deliver value, service improvements and commercial benefit\nSupport the team in developing new and effect processes and managing spend from an end-to-end perspective\nHelp drive visibility, control, and compliance across the category\nMonitor savings against targets, flagging any risks or opportunities to the category manager\nOwn and develop market intelligence reporting and market analysis that will feed into the category strategy\nExecute sourcing strategies, including tendering, analysis, selection, and negotiation with suppliers\nSupport the category team with procurement projects\nMake sure all contractual obligations relating to the Co-op and suppliers are set up correctly in line with the supplier framework governance and risk management policies\nFacilitate supplier meetings and prepare performance improvements plans for underperforming suppliers\nWhat you’ll bring\nWe’re committed to making our roles as accessible as possible, so we only ask for the minimum criteria. To thrive here, you’ll need to bring:\nGood interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build relationships with internal and external partners\nStrong attention to detail and the ability to analyse and interpret data using intermediate excel skills\nExperience in process improvement\nDrive and tenacity to work in a fast-paced environment and manage changing deadlines\nA passion for negotiation and sound commercial thinking ability\nWhy Co-op?\nAt Co-op, we’re owned by our members. And because we’re owned by you, we can do right by you. So when you join us, you’re not just taking a job, you’re joining a movement. We’re an organisation that puts people and communities first, and we’re powered by purpose. We want this to be a place where you can thrive, so you’ll also receive:\nAn annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)\n28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays\nA pension with up to 10% employer contributions\nAccess to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)\n30% discount on Co-op products and 10% off other brands\nStream - early access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it\nVirtual healthcare including GP appointments, mental health support, nutrition and fitness advice\n24/7 colleague support service\nTraining and support for your development and career progression\nCycle-to-work scheme\nA place you’ll belong\nWe’re building diverse and inclusive teams that reflect the communities we serve. We welcome applications from everyone and are committed to creating a workplace where colleagues can feel like they belong, supported by our inclusive policies and the ways we work.\nWe’re proud to be part of the Disability Confident scheme and offer interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a job. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, we’ll support you.\nLearn more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process and our inclusion commitments at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion\nPlease note that we may close applications for this role early.\nAs part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes up to 50 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4449,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Hybrid work"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Online Groceries","Legal Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-13T10:42:18Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":19,"reasons":["conf:4","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":50223,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/co-op-assistant-category-manager","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/co-op-assistant-category-manager.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T20:20:59Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":26945,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1766234},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1766234"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fco-op-assistant-category-manager"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fco-op-assistant-category-manager"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fco-op-assistant-category-manager"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/co-op-assistant-category-manager\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fco-op-assistant-category-manager"}]}