Category Manager Bakery

Job Description:

, Netherlands

Job Family Group:Commercial and Retail

Worker Type:Regular

Posting Start Date:June 11, 2026

Business Unit:

Experience Level: Experienced Professionals

Job Description:

What's the role

Shell Mobility is the world's largest fuels retailer, with more than 50,000 sites across 60 countries, serving over 30 million customers every day with fuel, food, coffee, and convenience products. Within this global network, the Benelux & France cluster operates nearly 1,000 service stations across four countries, supporting private customers, fleet drivers, and truck drivers. As part of our Powering Progress strategy, we are driving the mobility transition by making cleaner mobility seamless and enjoyable - enhancing our fuels portfolio, expanding EV charging, and delivering an outstanding convenience retail offer that puts customers first and elevates every journey.

Within this context, Shell Retail is transforming its sites into modern convenience and foodservice destinations, where fresh food plays a critical role in driving customer choice, visit frequency, and brand perception. The Bakery category - including freshly baked goods, sandwiches, and salads - is a cornerstone of Shell's fresh food proposition. As Category Manager for Bakery, you will hold end-to-end responsibility for the strategy, performance, and development of the in-store bakery and fresh food offering across Shell Retail Benelux. You will translate consumer needs, operational capabilities, and commercial objectives into a high-quality, scalable, and profitable proposition across the network, managing the category from long-term strategic vision through to day-to-day execution, with a strong focus on freshness, food safety, operational simplicity, waste control, and continuous improvement. Join Shell Retail and take on a high-impact role within one of our most visible fresh food categories, with a strong emphasis on quality, freshness, and customer experience. You will have the opportunity to shape scalable bakery and fresh food concepts across the Benelux, while working in a professional, international organization with leading brands and strong growth ambitions.

What you'll be doing
* Own end-to-end category performance for Bakery, Fresh Sandwiches, and Salads across the Benelux
* Develop and execute category strategies covering assortment, pricing, promotions, and positioning
* Hold full P&L accountability from sell-in through to sell-out
* Define and manage the bakery and fresh food assortment, including recipes, product ranges, and seasonal offers
* Select, contract, and manage suppliers for bakery products, ingredients, and fresh components
* Lead commercial negotiations, including margins, fees, and supplier support agreements
* Drive innovation across fresh food concepts, recipes, packaging, shelf life, and preparation methods
* Design, pilot, and scale new bakery and fresh food concepts across the network
* Ensure operational feasibility and simplicity in close collaboration with Operations, Supply Chain, and Format teams
* Safeguard food safety, product quality, and freshness standards across all retail locations
* Monitor market trends, consumer behavior, and competitive dynamics in bakery and fresh food
* Proactively manage operational challenges while maintaining focus on long-term category growth

What you bring
* Proven experience in category management within bakery, fresh food, or foodservice
* Strong understanding of fresh food operations, preparation processes and food safety requirements
* Strong commercial acumen, with excellent negotiation and stakeholder management skills
* Experience applying the full 4P framework: product, price, promotion, and placement
* Analytical mindset, with the ability to translate data and insights into actionable outcomes
* Hands-on and pragmatic, with a solid understanding of day-to-day retail operations
* Experience managing projects, including pilots, innovations, and rollouts
* Resilient and adaptable in a fast-paced retail environment
* Fluent in Dutch (spoken and written)

What we offer

You bring your skills and experience to Shell and in return you work with talented, committed people on one of the most important challenges facing our planet. You'll have the opportunity to develop the skills you need to grow in an environment where we value honesty, integrity, and respect for one another. You'll be able to balance your priorities as you become the best version of yourself.
* Progress as a person as we work on the energy transition together.
* Continuously grow the transferable skills you need to get ahead.
* Work at the forefront of technology, trends, and practices.
* Collaborate with experienced colleagues with unique expertise.
* Achieve your balance in a values-led culture that encourages you to be the best version of yourself.
* Benefit from flexible working hours, and the possibility of remote/mobile working.
* Perform at your best with a competitive starting salary and annual performance related salary increase - our pay and benefits packages are considered to be among the best in the world.
* Take advantage of paid parental leave, including for non-birthing parents.
* Join an organisation working to become one of the most diverse and inclusive in the world. We strongly encourage applicants of all genders, ages, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, sexual orientation, and life experiences to apply.
* Grow as you progress through diverse career opportunities in national and
* international teams.
* Gain access to a wide range of training and development programmes.

Note: As part of your application, please submit a motivation letter along with your resume. The motivation letter should outline your reasons for applying to this position and how your skills and experiences align with the job requirements. This will help us better understand your interest in the role and your suitability for the position.

We'd like you to know that Shell has a bold goal: to become one of the world's most diverse and inclusive companies. You can get to know more about how we're working towards that goal, click here.

Shell in The Netherlands

The Netherlands is one of the two founding countries of the company. Here 9,380 employees (March 2024) of more than 100 nationalities jointly work to provide the country with energy for today, for tomorrow and for you.

Energy for today
The refinery at Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam (Pernis) - Europe's largest - is facing a cleaner future with less carbon emissions. Chemicals Park Moerdijk is transitioning to a circular future. Shell operates multiple wind and solar farms in the Netherlands. Both onshore and offshore, Shell is exploring for and producing oil and gas via the Nederlandsche Aardolie Maatschappij, NAM (50% Shell, 50% ExxonMobil). Shell is the market leader in transport fuels. Dutch motorists take 3 billion litres of fuel from 570 Shell retail stations (May 2024) annually, while thousands of Shell's own fast EV charge points and Shell Ubitricity normal charge points are being installed as we speak.

Energy for tomorrow
At the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam (ETCA), research is conducted into low CO2 energy technologies and sustainable solutions for energy and chemicals. Near Rotterdam Shell builds Europe's biggest green hydrogen plant of the continent. From Amsterdam and The Hague, Shell Nederland leads the transition of the corporation to a more sustainable future, with 6.5 billion euros invested in solar panels, wind farms, green hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, EV charging and other groundbreaking solutions for the future.

Energy for you
Even after the company HQ moved to London in January 2022, Shell's commitment to the Netherlands remains very strong. The Hague still housing the headquarters of three of Shell's business divisions, and Rotterdam stays a key trading, marketing and sales hub for Shell products. Combined Shell in the Netherlands works to bring its wide range of energy products as close as possible to you as an energy consumer. This includes a Shell Impact Fund to make the energy transition closer to people with financial challenges, this includes EV chargers on the corner of your street via our daughter company Ubitricity and this includes keeping the country warm in winter with Liquid Natural Gas.

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