Category & NPD Manager – Café Business

About the Role

We are looking for a commercially driven Category & NPD Manager to own category growth, new product development, and new brand onboarding for our café business.

The role will involve identifying customer and market opportunities, building the right product assortment, launching new products, and bringing relevant external brands onto the platform. The ideal candidate should have a strong understanding of the F&B/café ecosystem along with hands-on experience in category management and product launches.

Key Responsibilities

Category Management

• Own the café category strategy, assortment, pricing and growth roadmap.
• Analyse sales, margins, SKU performance and customer behaviour to identify growth opportunities.
• Identify category gaps, emerging trends and new product/brand opportunities.
• Drive category profitability through assortment optimisation, pricing and product mix.

New Product Development

• Identify and conceptualise new products based on consumer trends, market insights and business requirements.
• Drive the complete NPD lifecycle — from ideation and product development to costing, testing and launch.
• Work closely with culinary, procurement, operations and marketing teams to ensure successful product launches.
• Track post-launch performance and continuously improve the product portfolio.

New Brand Onboarding

• Identify and evaluate relevant café, food and emerging brands for onboarding.
• Build a pipeline of potential brand partners aligned with the category strategy.
• Evaluate brands on product quality, consumer appeal, pricing, margins and scalability.
• Lead commercial discussions and coordinate the onboarding process with internal stakeholders.
• Manage relationships with partner brands and identify opportunities for portfolio expansion.

Business & Growth

• Drive revenue, margin and contribution growth for the café category.
• Monitor market trends, competitor offerings and consumer preferences.
• Develop initiatives around new launches, combos, premiumisation and assortment expansion.
• Use data and customer insights to make informed category and product decisions.

What We’re Looking For

• 2+ years of experience in F&B, Café, QSR, Food-Tech, Cloud Kitchen or similar businesses.
• Experience in category management, NPD, product management or brand partnerships.
• Strong understanding of café/F&B products, consumer trends and food economics.
• Proven experience in launching new products or categories.
• Exposure to onboarding and managing external food/brand partners is preferred.
• Strong analytical and commercial acumen with an understanding of margins, pricing and unit economics.
• Excellent stakeholder management and negotiation skills.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.