Category Manager

Careem is building the Everything App for the greater Middle East — making it easy to move around, order food and groceries, manage payments, and more. Our purpose is simple: to simplify and improve people’s lives and build an awesome organisation that inspires.
Since 2012, Careem has enabled earnings for over 2.5 million Captains, simplified the lives of more than 70 million customers, and built a platform where the region’s best talent and entrepreneurs thrive. We operate in 70+ cities across 10 countries, from Morocco to Pakistan.

We’re now entering our next chapter — one powered by AI. We’re looking for AI talent: curious problem-solvers who know how to apply AI to build tools, automate workflows, and create real impact. Whether it’s streamlining operations, enhancing customer experience, or reimagining internal systems — we want people who can make Careem work smarter and move faster.

About the team

You will be joining the Grocery team at Careem, where we are on a mission to redefine convenience across the region. 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 strategy and support the execution within the Grocery vertical. This role is based in Riyadh and will play a key part in shaping the growth of our product portfolio, optimizing pricing, sourcing, and vendor relationships to ensure strong performance across the region.

What you’ll do

• Own the P&L for categories and assortment strategy

• 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 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

What we’ll provide you

We offer colleagues the opportunity to drive impact in the region while they learn and grow. As a full time Careem colleague, you will be able to:

• Work and learn from great minds by joining a community of inspiring colleagues.

• Put your passion to work in a purposeful organisation dedicated to creating impact in a region with a lot of untapped potential.

• Explore new opportunities to learn and grow every day.

• Work 4 days a week in office & 1 day from home, and remotely from any country in the world for 30 days a year with unlimited vacation days per year. (If you are in an individual contributor role in tech, you will have 2 office days a week and 3 to work from home.)

• Access to healthcare benefits and fitness reimbursements for health activities including gym, health club, and training classes.