About this role
About the team
The e-commerce industry has experienced rapid growth in recent years and continues to be one of the most competitive sectors among leading internet companies. ByteDance E-commerce is building an innovative commerce ecosystem that connects consumers, merchants, creators, and brands through content and technology.
The Central Strategy team plays a central role in shaping the growth of our e-commerce business. Working across categories and functions, the team partners closely with Category Leaders and regional teams to understand business performance, identify growth opportunities, set strategic priorities, and develop scalable solutions that accelerate category growth.
About the role
As a Category Strategy Manager, you will be the strategic engine behind the growth of a key category within ByteDance E-commerce.
You will work closely with the cross functional team to set business targets, define growth strategies, identify the biggest opportunities and challenges, and translate business priorities into actionable initiatives.
This role sits at the intersection of strategy, data, consumer behavior, merchant ecosystem, product, operations, and commercial growth. You will tackle complex and ambiguous business problems, develop structured recommendations, and work with cross-functional teams to turn strategy into measurable business impact.
Responsibilities
- Shape Category Strategy: Analyze category performance, consumer behavior, market trends, merchant ecosystem, assortment, and competitive dynamics to identify growth opportunities and define strategic priorities.
- Own Business Planning & Target Setting: Partner with the Category Leader to develop annual and quarterly business plans, set ambitious but achievable targets, and identify the key growth levers required to deliver against business goals.
- Diagnose Business Performance: Use data and structured problem-solving to identify performance gaps, understand root causes, and determine the most critical opportunities across GMV, consumers, assortment, merchants, content, conversion, and other key business metrics.
- Design Growth Strategies: Develop strategies and strategic initiatives to accelerate category growth, including new business models, merchant segmentation, assortment expansion, consumer growth, operating model improvements, incentive mechanisms, and go-to-market strategies.
- Lead Strategic Projects: Own high-impact, cross-functional projects from problem definition and analysis through solution design, stakeholder alignment, execution, and measurement.
- Partner with Product & Operations: Work closely with Product, Operations, Campaign, Marketing, Creator, Affiliate, and other teams to translate category needs into business requirements, influence roadmaps, and drive adoption of new solutions.
- Turn Strategy into Execution: Work with Category and functional teams to translate strategic recommendations into clear action plans, establish success metrics, monitor progress, and ensure initiatives deliver measurable impact.
- Build Data-Driven Business Cases: Develop business cases, financial analyses, strategic recommendations, and management presentations to support key investment and business decisions.
- Influence Senior Stakeholders: Present insights and recommendations to senior leaders, challenge assumptions constructively, and drive alignment across local, regional, and cross-functional teams.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree or above, with 3+ years of experience in management consulting, strategy and operations, business strategy, e-commerce, internet, technology, investment banking, or other highly analytical business environments.
- Proven experience leading strategic or cross-functional projects from problem identification and analysis through solution design and execution, with measurable business impact.
- Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills, with the ability to break down ambiguous business problems, identify root causes, and develop practical solutions.
- Strong business acumen, with the ability to connect data, market trends, consumer behavior, and operational insights to commercial outcomes.
- Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment across multiple teams.
- Proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint, with experience using SQL, Tableau, Power BI, or other data analysis and business intelligence tools preferred.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in e-commerce, marketplace, consumer internet, retail, FMCG, technology, or other fast-growing industries.
- Experience in category strategy, business planning, management consulting, strategy & operations, marketplace strategy, or commercial strategy.
- Experience developing business strategies, setting targets, designing operating models, or leading large-scale strategic initiatives.
- Strong understanding of marketplace or e-commerce growth drivers, including consumer acquisition, assortment, merchant growth, traffic, conversion, content, promotions, and monetization.
- Experience working with Product, Operations, Commercial, Marketing, or other cross-functional teams to translate strategy into execution.
- Strong presentation and storytelling skills, with the ability to turn complex analysis into clear recommendations for senior management.
- Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, highly ambiguous environment, with strong ownership, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to independently drive projects from 0 to 1.