Groupon is a marketplace where customers discover new experiences and services everyday and local businesses thrive. To date we have worked with over a million merchant partners worldwide, connecting over 16 million customers with deals across various categories. In a world often dominated by e-commerce giants, we stand out as one of the few platforms uniquely committed to helping local businesses succeed on a performance basis.
Groupon is on a radical journey to transform our business with relentless pursuit of results. Even with thousands of employees spread across multiple continents, we still maintain a culture that inspires innovation, rewards risk-taking and celebrates success. The impact here can be immediate due to our scale and the speed of our transformation. We're a "best of both worlds" kind of company. We're big enough to have the resources and scale, but small enough that a single person has a surprising amount of autonomy and can make a meaningful impact.
About the role :
We’re seeking a Category Manager to drive growth and excellence within Groupon’s Things to Do (TTD) vertical.
You’ll help define the commercial standards for the category, lead performance management, and work cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, and Operations to deliver profitable, high-quality deals that delight customers and strengthen merchant partnerships.
This is a highly visible role at the intersection of data, strategy, and execution — ideal for someone who thrives in a fast-moving, analytical, and collaborative environment.
North Star :
Own and scale Groupon’s Things to Do category by driving profitable growth, setting commercial standards, and enabling Sales and Marketing teams to deliver exceptional experiences to our global merchant and customer community.
What You’ll Do :
Category Strategy & Standards
- Define and maintain category deal standards, including margins, payment terms, deal structures (single/multi PDS), options, and taxonomy.
- Ensure every deal meets Groupon’s profitability and quality standards, balancing merchant ROI with customer value.
- Oversee the creation and maintenance of B2B marketing materials and category-specific sales scripts, including key selling points and objection handling.
- Own and maintain the category landing page, ensuring content reflects strategy, demand, and key partnerships.
Sales Enablement & Training
- Collaborate with the Training team to train and certify Sales reps on category-specific standards.
- Develop training materials, quizzes, and certification content to ensure consistent sales quality.
- Review a selection of high-rated Sales calls weekly, providing feedback and enriching scripts and playbooks with insights from the field.
Category Ownership & Performance Management
- Own the Category landing page and ensure content and merchant visibility reflect current strategic priorities.
- Monitor category performance across new deal launches, existing deals, and GP delivery metrics.
- Build and maintain supply–demand models, providing feedback to Sales on merchant pipeline, coverage, and performance by subcategory.
Merchant & Account Collaboration
- For US-based Category Managers: own relationships for top enterprise accounts
- For non-US-based Category Managers: act as category subject-matter expert, supporting account strategy, joining key Sales calls, and ensuring materials and insights are ready for partner-facing discussions.
- Serve as the informal owner of top merchants in the category, attending all relevant calls and coordinating with Sales to ensure strategic alignment.
Competitive Analysis & Marketplace Positioning
- Conduct monthly benchmarking of competitor marketplaces (pricing, content quality, ad positioning).
- Partner with Revenue Analysts and Marketing liaisons to ensure competitive visibility and monetization via GPPI metrics and search relevance.
- Advise on category pricing strategy and margin optimization based on market insights.
What You Bring :
- 5+ years of experience in Category Management, Merchandising, or Marketplace Operations, ideally within Travel, Experiences, or E-commerce.
- Strong understanding of deal economics, margins, and pricing structures.
- Experience working cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Product teams.
- Excellent analytical skills with ability to interpret category performance data and act on insights.
- Demonstrated experience in sales enablement or training content development.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; ability to influence across levels.
- Fluent in English; additional language proficiency a plus.
Who You Are :
- Strategic, analytical, and commercially minded.
- Passionate about local experiences and customer value.
- Collaborative and confident working cross-functionally in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
- Curious, data-driven, and continuously seeking improvement.
- Excited to own a high-impact category and shape how millions of customers experience Groupon.
- Makes the plays rather than waiting for work to be delegated
- Owns outcomes - from sales performance to margin structures to merchant relationships
- Measures everything in value and can clearly articulate ROI and strategic impact
- Drives transformation by implementing best practices that create sustainable, scalable growth
- Thinks strategically while executing tactically across sales, merchandising, and marketing functions
- Delegates operations work to the ops team in order to focus on sales growth
How We Measure Your Success :
- You quickly establish clear category standards that improve deal quality, profitability, and consistency across the Things to Do (TTD) portfolio.
- You deliver actionable insights through data analysis, merchant feedback, and competitor benchmarking to guide commercial decisions.
- You enable the Sales organization through impactful training, certification, and category playbooks that raise close rates and deal quality.
- You drive measurable margin, conversion, and revenue growth by optimizing the deal mix and championing best practices across teams.
- You build credibility as Groupon’s go-to expert for the Things to Do category, influencing strategy and cross-functional priorities.
Location:
Hybrid; Chicago, Illinois
Salary Range:
$75,000 - 100,000 + bonus of up to $140,000 OTE
Benefits:
Medical, Dental, Vision, EAP, 401(k) Match, ESPP, Life and Disability Insurance, FSAs, and more
Groupon
is an AI-First Company
We’re committed to building smarter, faster, and more innovative ways of working—and AI plays a key role in how we get there. We encourage candidates to
leverage AI tools
during the hiring process where it adds value, and we’re always keen to hear how technology improves the way you work. If you’re passionate about AI or curious to explore how it can elevate your role—
you’ll be right at home here.
Groupon’s purpose is to build strong communities through thriving small businesses. To learn more about the world’s largest local e-commerce marketplace, click here. You can also find out more about us in the latest Groupon news as well as learning about our DEI approach. If all of this sounds like something that’s a great fit for you, then click apply and join us on a mission to become the ultimate destination for local experiences and services.
Beware of Recruitment Fraud:
Groupon follows a merit-based recruitment process without charging job seekers any fees. We've noticed an increase in recruitment fraud, including fake job postings and fraudulent interviews and job offers aimed at stealing personal information or money. Be cautious of individuals falsely representing Groupon's Talent Acquisition team with fake job offers. If you encounter any suspicious job offers or interview calls demanding money, recognize these as scams. Groupon is not responsible for losses from such dealings. For legitimate job openings (and a sneak peek into life at Groupon), always check our official career website at Groupon Careers