Assistant Category Manager - Apparel

We’re building a world of health around every individual — shaping a more connected, convenient and compassionate health experience. At CVS Health®, you’ll be surrounded by passionate colleagues who care deeply, innovate with purpose, hold ourselves accountable and prioritize safety and quality in everything we do. Join us and be part of something bigger – helping to simplify health care one person, one family and one community at a time.

Are you passionate about driving innovation with compelling assortments and experiences? If so, there is a great opportunity to join CVS as an Assistant Category Manager of Apparel. In this role, you will partner with your leadership to execute the strategy to drive these categories while amplifying the priorities for CVS Retail.

You will participate in shaping the category strategy, at the direction of your leader, to drive the P&L to achieve sales, profitability and margin growth, along with training and development of future leaders. In this role you will have ownership of the P&L driving optimal and intentional business towards your category in a creative way. You will use your negotiating skills to immerse yourself in your category, readily sharing best practices with your peers, Senior Category Manager Leader and your Division Market Manager. You will use all available tactics including Assortment, Promotions, ExtraCare, Digital, Social, Marketing, Store Brand and Supplier Capabilities to reach or exceed goals.

Our experience leading and influencing others (both directly and indirectly), and ability to clearly present to your Senior Category Manager and Division Market Manager leadership using your top-notch presentation skills will be paramount to your success. You must leverage your prior experience to build influential presentations about your categories with a clear narrative leaving everyone in the meeting clearly aligned to the path forwards. You will leverage your clearly defined prioritization skills to proactively anticipate the market and take calculated risks to grow your market share without risking profit on the P&L.

Additional Responsibilities include:

• Achieve revenue and margin goals by accomplishing market share growth. Manage all profit and loss targets to include sales, contribution of margin, inventory turns, GMROI and DOS
• Leverage data, insights, and analytics to influence stakeholders and make recommendations as appropriate
• Vendor management, collaborates and negotiates with manufacturers and vendors ensuring strategies achieve in-year sales and margin goals to promote long-term success and partnership
• P&L management
• At the direction of the Senior Category Manager or DMM, fully embraces organizational improvement initiatives, acting as a change agent with one’s own team and peers and partners
• Establish and enforce policies and procedures that promote ethical behavior, compliance, and best practices
• Foster and shape innovation by bringing ideas to market in an agile way, while balancing growth potential against financial risk for the broader team
• Drive the team to deliver best-in-class merchandising experiences across in-store channel for Seasonal Gifting and lead strategy for Seasonal Gifting catalog, including leading negotiations with all suppliers
• Develop growth and oversee category strategies rooted in an understanding of the customer and trends
• Assign appropriate timelines and accountabilities for items, empowering the team to drive action steps to completion
• Leverage thought partners (Senior leaders, corporate partners, peers, team, etc.) as needed to create and revisit the strategy
• Navigate ambiguity and change to achieve goals despite potential obstacles
• Follow up on strategic initiatives and KPI performance
• Drive assortment decisions through planograms and features, along with promotional activity strategy, slotting, forecasting and negotiations

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of merchandising experience negotiating contracts with vendors in similar business models
• Previous experience leading cross-functional teams and initiatives with a high degree of complexity
• Previous experience developing strategies to mobilize the business to achieve goals and outcomes using innovative solutions.
• Previous experience leveraging data to support strategic plans and return on investment
• Previous experience engaging and inspiring a cross-functional team to reach optimal business outcomes together
• Expertise leveraging MS Office Suite, including advanced Excel and PowerPoint capabilities
• Extensive knowledge of retail business operations, including front store merchandising
• Proven track record of the ability to work collaboratively with internal and external business partners to deliver ROI from effective targeting and communication strategies
• Travel requirements – up to 25% travel expected

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience having total P&L accountability a plus

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

Anticipated Weekly Hours

40

Time Type

Full time

Pay Range

The typical pay range for this role is:

$66,330.00 - $145,860.00

This pay range represents the base hourly rate or base annual full-time salary for all positions in the job grade within which this position falls. The actual base salary offer will depend on a variety of factors including experience, education, geography and other relevant factors. This position is eligible for a CVS Health bonus, commission or short-term incentive program in addition to the base pay range listed above.

Our people fuel our future. Our teams reflect the customers, patients, members and communities we serve and we are committed to fostering a workplace where every colleague feels valued and that they belong.

Great benefits for great people

We take pride in offering a comprehensive and competitive mix of pay and benefits that reflects our commitment to our colleagues and their families.

This full‑time position is eligible for a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the physical, emotional, and financial well‑being of colleagues and their families. The benefits for this position include medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, retirement savings options, wellness programs, and other resources, based on eligibility.

Additional details about available benefits are provided during the application process and on Benefits Moments.

We anticipate the application window for this opening will close on: 06/30/2026

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state and local laws.