Produce Category Lead

Hungryroot is using AI to build the most consumer-centric food and wellness company to ever exist. We act as your personal assistant for healthy living—getting to know your goals, lifestyle, and budget, and recommending and delivering healthy groceries, easy recipes, and essential supplements for you and your family.

It’s the easiest way to eat healthy, achieve your goals, save time, and discover new foods. We believe food is the foundation of health, convenience should not mean compromise, and that everyone is unique in how they eat and live. That’s why we’re building a future in which healthy living is both easy and enjoyable.

Hungryroot is a distributed team of top talent across 28+ U.S. states. While we have a headquarters in New York City, our remote-first culture emphasizes collaboration, team-building, and flexibility. Expect regular virtual team events, strong ownership and accountability, and an annual company retreat.

Hungryroot is seeking a strategic, analytical, and passionate Produce Category Lead to shape and scale our Fresh Produce assortment in alignment with our customers’ needs and preferences. This high-impact role is responsible for defining and executing a data-informed category strategy that maximizes customer satisfaction, drives sales and profitability, and upholds our mission to make healthy eating easy.

As Produce Category Lead, you will own end-to-end category management for your assortment of Fresh Produce -- including strategy, product development, vendor and item selection, packaging, and merchandising -- with a clear focus on developing and curating products and brands that meet the Root Standard: our commitment to quality, nutrition, convenience, and great taste. You’ll play a key role in building and managing supplier partnerships, unlocking value through cost optimization, vendor performance management, and innovation.

In this important role, you will report directly to the Director of Category Management and collaborate closely with Supply Chain, R&D, Culinary, Food Safety, and Marketing teams to develop, onboard and maintain an assortment of best-in-class products.

• Lead the strategic development and management of Hungryroot’s Fresh Produce category, curating a high-quality, health-forward assortment that meets customer needs.
• Partner closely with the R&D and Culinary teams to identify innovation opportunities and bring new product concepts to life, ensuring they align with Hungryroot’s standards for nutrition, convenience, and taste.
• Proactively identify and source innovative brands and products that drive customer satisfaction, sales, and margin. 
• Own the end-to-end product lifecycle, leading cross-functional execution from pipeline planning and vendor negotiations through onboarding, launch, and in-market performance management.
• Leverage data and customer insights to inform category strategy, guiding decisions on product mix, pricing, promotion, and placement to improve business performance and customer value.
• Identify and deliver cost-saving initiatives, renegotiating vendor agreements or exploring alternative sourcing while preserving quality, performance, and margin goals.
• Steer long-term assortment health, identifying assortment gaps, whitespace opportunities, market trends, and rationalization needs to ensure the mix evolves with customer preferences and business priorities.
• Build and manage best-in-class supplier relationships, holding vendors accountable to performance standards across cost, quality, food safety, and service. Ensure that supplier selection provides the best quality, availability, shelf-life, and cost to provide best customer experience, and constantly work to optimize network of suppliers to deliver across these factors.
• Own category compliance and quality, partnering closely with food safety and regulatory teams to uphold federal, state, and internal standards.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with supply chain and fulfillment teams to ensure product availability, minimize disruptions, and maintain healthy inventory aligned with demand.
• Collaborate with suppliers & internal packaging engineer to ensure product packaging minimizes damages and maximizes shelf-life.
• Work with brand partners and our partnerships team to design and activate promotional opportunities that elevate category performance and support revenue goals.

• 5+ years of experience in Fresh Produce category management, buying, or merchandising—ideally within eCommerce.
• Deep familiarity with the Fresh Produce category—including fruits, vegetables, organic, seasonal, value added / cut produce —with a strong understanding of consumer preferences, supply chain dynamics, and packaging considerations.
• Experience collaborating on product development or private-label innovation in a fresh or perishable food category is strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to negotiate, manage projects, and communicate effectively across internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience building vendor partnerships and developing sustainable relationships.
• Working knowledge of retail and eCommerce food safety standards.
• Strong analytical mindset with strong proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets.
• Highly collaborative, with a track record of effective cross-functional partnership.
• Agile and solutions-oriented; thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Self-motivated, positive, and proactive with a transparent communication style.
• Passion for food, health, and wellness, with a pulse on industry trends and consumer behavior.
• Familiarity with tools like NetSuite, Airtable, Looker, or other ERP systems is a plus.

• Remote-first: work from home, work from our NYC office, work from anywhere in the U.S. - you decide!
• Equity 
• Unlimited vacation policy
• Universal paid parental leave
• Monthly Hungryroot credit for delicious, healthy groceries
• Comprehensive health, vision, dental, and life insurance
• 401k with Company Match
• A work from home stipend to support your initial home-office setup

Expected Pay Range
$100,000-$130,000

#LI-REMOTE

The employer will not sponsor applicants for work visas.

Our mission to help make healthy eating easy, accessible, and joyful is better served by a diverse workplace. We are a proud Equal Opportunity Employer committed to building an inclusive workplace. We have zero-tolerance for harassment or discrimination. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected class.