Category Manager Private Label

Job description / Role

About the team

You will be joining the Grocery team at Careem, where we are on a mission to redefine convenience across the region. Our focus on private label is central to improving quality, value, and differentiation in our offerings. The team is highly cross-functional and collaborative, working closely with operations, commercial, analytics, and product teams.

About the role

We are looking for a Category Manager to drive our private label strategy and support the execution within the Grocery vertical. This role is based in Dubai and will play a key part in shaping the growth of our private label product portfolio, optimizing pricing, sourcing, and vendor relationships to ensure strong performance across the region.

What you’ll do

• Own the private label P&L for categories and assortment strategy for private label categories in the UAE
• Develop strategic sourcing strategies, lead supplier negotiations and onboarding, ensuring alignment with Careem’s commercial requirements and expectations
• Work closely with supply chain and demand planning teams to maintain high availability and optimized inventory levels
• Partner with marketing and product teams to drive visibility, adoption, and conversion of private label SKUs
• Monitor category performance, customer feedback, and market trends to refine strategies
• Collaborate with legal, finance, and compliance to ensure all products meet regulatory standards

What you’ll need

• 5–8 years of experience in category management, merchandising, procurement, or strategic sourcing — ideally in grocery retail or FMCG
• Proven track record of owning commercial KPIs and delivering on margin and growth targets
• Strong negotiation skills and experience managing supplier relationships
• Analytical mindset with comfort in Excel and data tools to drive decisions
• Entrepreneurial drive, ownership mindset, and bias for action
• Excellent cross-functional collaboration and communication skills

About the Company

We are a brand that aims to simplify people's lives by revolutionizing the transportation industry. A brand that strives to inspire everyone it interacts with, and supports every single person who dares to believe. #BeCareem

Careem is the MENA region's leading ride-hailing service and newest Tech Unicorn. With 30% monthly growth, we now operate in 50+ cities across 11 countries and host over 6 million users. With our recent Series D funding success, we are positioned on the cusp of significant scale and well on target to deliver our goal of creating one million jobs in the region by 2018.