Category Manager
About Camelot Illinois
Camelot Illinois has been awarded the contract as the new private manager of the Illinois Lottery. The company is restoring transparency, integrity and responsibility to the Illinois Lottery. In partnership with the state, Camelot will operate a modern lottery that truly benefits the people of Illinois. The company’s innovative approach places consumers and social responsibility at its core, providing funding for schools, capital projects and special causes. Camelot is committed to building an organization with the strength and experience to grow the lottery and reinforce its rightful position as a force for good.
Camelot Illinois is a subsidiary of Camelot Global, a leading technology and professional services provider to lotteries around the world. Camelot Global’s portfolio of work includes the Irish National Lottery, Loterie Romande (Switzerland), the California State Lottery, the Kentucky Lottery and the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, among others.
Our sister company, Camelot UK, has operated the UK National Lottery since 1994. Camelot UK has an unrivaled track record for success, helping the UK National Lottery deliver over $80 billion to winners and $46 billion to good causes to date.
About the Team:
The Retail Sales team will implement a comprehensive refresh of the in-store experience for both customers and consumers. 8000 retailers across Illinois will receive transformational sales support reinforced by better products and better media advertising resulting in a transformation of sales performance and overall brand image.
Position Overview:
At Camelot Illinois, the Category Manager will be responsible for gathering, analyzing and discussing market trends and data with internal and external stakeholders.
Responsibilities:
- Have a clear understanding of how the Illinois Lottery is currently presented to the consumer in different retail sectors, accounts, formats and outlets (POS, location of lottery category in store).
- Enable the introduction of the Illinois Lottery into new channels and optimizing in-store execution through matching future retail environment.
- Build conclusions and recommendations based on research and market trends to benefit categories and customers through the key account team.
- Research and conduct customer analysis to improve sales or efficiencies with the key account estate.
- Monitor and report on industry, channel and account trends.
- Lead and run analysis on placement, promotion, and game mix to optimize sales in channel and account formats
- Developing a clear vision of the future trends that will impact the Illinois Lottery in retail, including political, commercial and consumer recommendations.
- Anticipate internal and external business and regulatory issues, and aligning with internal expertise to recommend and produce, process or service improvements.
- Working cross functionally with key stakeholders to develop and influence proposed solutions to meet the challenges and opportunities identified, to ensure the execution of the Illinois Lottery is optimized in-store.
- Validating and trialing new retailers and new in-stores solutions in the retail market.
- Managing external POS designers and suppliers to develop cost-effective in-store solutions, and associated budget and contract negotiations.
- Ensuring future retail trends are incorporated within Camelot Illinois commercial planning processes and timelines.
Requirements
Qualifications:
Required:
- Bachelors degree is required.
- 2 or more years previous Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) commercial based roles in either sales or trade/category marketing.
- Experience working with a major retailer or retailers in either a category or business development role would be a significant benefit.
- Ability to understand through analysis and insight the key trends affecting retailers and how this might give us opportunities and threats.
- Proven experience facilitating consensus between key stakeholders on priority decisions.
Preferred:
- Knowledge of POS development and experience of introducing new initiatives into retailers.
- Exceptional communication skills to be able to outline key insights and potential solutions.
- Problem solving abilities to help find solutions to meet the challenges and opportunities identified.
- Understanding of Project Management disciplines.
- Ability to take a long-term view of the market and developments.
- Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office or the Google Suite of products.
Benefits
WHY WORK FOR US
Camelot Illinois is building a transformative lottery company with world-class people, technology and operations. The Camelot values of being honest, creating together, keeping it simple and thinking long term are embedded in the design of our organization and our plans for Illinois.
- Be Honest: We do what we say, we keep our promises and we don’t rest until we’ve earned each other’s respect
- Create Together: The most effective solutions come from strong collaboration, a culture of innovation, shared goals and respect for everyone’s expertise.
- Keep It Simple: We keep things simple, direct and transparent so customers in particular always know where they stand.
- Think Long Term: We work with customers to build successful lotteries for the next generation, not just the next day.
Career Growth
We want people who thrive in a relaxed, autonomous, results-driven environment to join our company. We believe the way to attract and retain the best talent is to offer a fulfilling career in an organization committed to growing its own future leaders. Career Development is a top priority and we will partner with employees to grow and progress their professional skill sets.
Benefits and Employee Policies
We will bring our experience of working with European lotteries to Illinois. We will also bring a European influence to paid time off, family leave and so on. We have created a strong ethical culture which is translated to each of our employees and business dealings globally. We aim to offer a package of benefits and policies which will compete with any private sector employer in the state. We ensure that every employee is engaged and has the necessary support to understand and implement the responsible gaming principles in their job.
Moreover, we pledge to have the highest standards of respect, diversity and inclusion at our company and will support and encourage our partners to do the same.
Camelot Illinois is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.