Category General Manager, Health, Beauty & Wellness (Chicago or New York)

Groupon connects 42 million customers with local experiences - restaurants, events, wellness and travel - and the million-plus merchants who deliver them. Our mission is to get people offline and into the real world at prices that make it possible. We're an AI-native company in the middle of a platform transformation, moving from a deals marketplace to an experience discovery platform that works for customers and merchants at the same time.

 

About the Role

Health, Beauty & Wellness (HBW) is one of Groupon’s largest local categories. We are looking for a Category General Manager to own its strategy and performance across supply, customer demand, assortment and offer design, and category economics. The mandate is to determine where HBW can win, set an integrated growth agenda and turn that agenda into measurable business results.

The Category GM owns the integrated HBW plan, sets priorities for the cross-functional capacity committed to the category, and leads execution through influence and partnership with the committed commercial, marketing, product and analytics teams. The role sits within Marketplace S&O and carries no individual sales quota. You lead through capacity committed by each function at the start of every planning cycle, not through a standing team of direct reports.

You’ll combine a general manager’s ownership mindset with analytical depth and commercial judgment: get into the details of the data and the merchant and customer experience, make clear trade-offs, and align senior leaders around the actions that materially improve the category.

This role is open at Director or Senior Director level, depending on experience. Both levels own the integrated HBW strategy and business performance. Senior Director candidates should bring experience leading a larger or more complex category or commercial agenda, with greater independence in setting direction, making commercial trade-offs and leading execution across functions.

 

Key Responsibilities

• Own the HBW category strategy and business plan. Set the growth agenda, define the priorities and make trade-offs across supply, demand, assortment, offer design and economics — sizing opportunities and distinguishing execution problems from market problems.

• Shape where Groupon builds and improves supply. Translate customer demand, supply density and quality, and category context into the markets, services and merchant profiles that get commercial focus — and make sure those priorities show up in the HBW book of business.

• Build the integrated demand plan. Set growth objectives and prioritize the category initiatives, merchants and deals supported through Marketing, Merchandising, campaigns, search and CRM.

• Improve category economics. Set the category approach to pricing, take rate and promotions within agreed parameters, including when to trade margin for growth.

• Own the offer and deal strategy. Define category playbooks, deal constructs, price architecture, value proposition, packaging and what the deal page needs to communicate.

• Lead cross-functional execution. Align priorities, targets, resources and deliverables; establish a regular category operating cadence; resolve blockers; and ensure decisions turn into results.

 

Key Requirements

• You have owned a category, marketplace, P&L or cross-functional growth agenda in category management, general management, Strategy & Operations, marketplace leadership, growth, product or a comparable operating role — and can point to measurable business results.

• Analytical and commercial judgment. You get into the data, business models, and merchant and customer experience without losing the strategic view — you can size opportunities, challenge assumptions and understand category economics.

• Cross-functional leadership. You can align senior partners, earn trust and move work through teams you do not directly manage.

• Customer and merchant orientation. You connect market and performance data to what customers value and what merchants need to create compelling, sustainable offers.

• An operator’s bias for action. You move from a clear point of view to a practical plan, define owners and milestones and stay close enough to execution to ensure results.

• Clear executive communication. You lead with the recommendation, explain trade-offs and challenge senior stakeholders constructively.

• AI fluency. You use AI tools to investigate the category, model economics and automate recurring analysis — with the judgment to validate what they produce.

 

Nice to Have

• Direct experience in health, beauty or wellness (HBW) services, or an adjacent local services category

• Experience in a two-sided marketplace or platform business

• Bachelor’s degree; MBA or equivalent commercial training

 

What Success Looks Like

• HBW delivers sustainable growth against the agreed business plan while improving category economics.

• Groupon has stronger supply coverage and quality in the markets and services that matter most to customers.

• Deals and offers are more compelling to customers and structured to create value for merchants.

• The organization runs HBW from one category plan you own — effort concentrated on the highest-value opportunities, with clear decisions and fast follow-through.

 

We Are Interested In

• How you analyze ambiguous problems and financial and performance data to reach a clear point of view.

• How you prioritise competing opportunities when the category cannot pursue all of them.

• How you exercise commercial judgment — particularly on when to trade margin for growth.

• How you align senior stakeholders and drive decisions into execution without reporting-line authority.

• How you use AI to get to a defensible answer faster, and how you check it.

 

How We Operate

At Groupon, we build on five principles: Extreme Ownership, Speed Over Comfort, Impact Obsessed, Simplify to Scale, and Disciplined. These aren’t values on a wall — they’re how we expect everyone to show up.

In this role, these principles mean:

• Extreme Ownership — own the HBW category plan and results, making commercial trade-offs within agreed parameters and setting priorities for committed resources.

• Speed Over Comfort — make timely, well-grounded commercial decisions and move quickly from analysis to action.

• Impact Obsessed — focus effort on measurable improvements in category growth, economics, supply coverage and offer quality.

• Simplify to Scale — build clear category playbooks and practical ways of working that teams can adopt and sustain.

• Disciplined — agree targets, decision parameters and delivery commitments with functional partners, then track performance and address gaps.

 

The Comp

• Base: DOE $190,000–$280,000

• Target bonus: 35% at Director, 45% at Senior Director

• Target total cash compensation, including base salary and annual bonus: approximately $257,000–$406,000

• Annual equity award

• New York City or Chicago

The compensation range covers both Director and Senior Director levels. Your offer will reflect the level of the role and your relevant experience.

 

What Else You Get

• Benefits from day one of the month after you start: medical, dental, vision, life, disability, FSAs, EAP, 401(k) match, and ESPP

• Direct exposure to senior leadership across the business, and the AI tooling to work at a pace most companies can’t

 

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.

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.

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