Associate Planner

PGA Tour•Roswell, GA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

The Associate Planner supports the development, maintenance, and execution of merchandise financial plans for assigned areas of business at the Department, Class, and Merchandise Category levels. This planning-forward role partners closely with Merchandising, Merchant teams, Allocation/Replenishment, Finance, Store Operations, Marketing, Supply Chain, and vendor partners to align sales, margin, receipts, inventory, turn, and profitability plans with customer and assortment strategies. The Associate Planner helps translate Associate Merchant and category strategies into financial, inventory, and receipt plans; reconciles bottom-up inputs with top-down targets; maintains Open-to-Buy tools; supports assortment breadth and depth analysis; prepares business review materials; tracks in-season KPIs; and identifies reforecast, markdown, reorder, and inventory productivity opportunities.

Requirements

2-4+ years of experience in merchandise planning, allocation, replenishment, retail analytics, financial planning, merchandising, buying, or category support within a multi-store, specialty retail, or omnichannel environment.
Strong working knowledge of merchandise financial planning and Open-to-Buy processes, including sales, margin, receipts, inventory investment, turn, weeks of supply, sell-through, markdowns, and profitability.
Experience maintaining planning tools, OTB worksheets, forecasts, and reporting packages across department, class, merchandise category, channel, and store or cluster views.
Assortment planning, conceptual review, or line review exposure with the ability to evaluate breadth, depth, price architecture, inventory investment, customer relevance, and half-year plan alignment in partnership with Associate Merchants a plus.
Strong analytical, financial, and retail math skills with ability to interpret KPI trends and recommend forecast, receipt, inventory, markdown, clearance, reorder, or rebalancing actions.
Experience preparing business reporting materials including OTB materials, Monthly Business Review packages, performance recaps, forecast updates, and action-oriented summaries for cross-functional partners.
Understanding of markdown, clearance, and inventory productivity strategies with the ability to balance sell-through, margin protection, aged inventory reduction, receipt flow, and profitability goals.
Familiarity with store clustering, store grading, localization, allocation, or replenishment concepts and their impact on assortment depth, inventory flow, customer demand, and localized planning decisions.
Effective communication, collaboration, and follow-through skills with ability to partner with Planning, Associate Merchants, Merchandising, Finance, Allocation/Replenishment, Store Operations, Merch Execution, Supply Chain, Marketing, and vendors.
Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, retail reporting, planning, and merchandising systems; experience with business intelligence, forecasting, product information management, or ERP tools preferred.
Detail-oriented, analytical, collaborative, and accountable with the ability to manage multiple priorities, maintain accurate planning outputs, and support fact-based decisions in a fast-paced specialty retail environment.

Nice To Haves

Assortment planning, conceptual review, or line review exposure with the ability to evaluate breadth, depth, price architecture, inventory investment, customer relevance, and half-year plan alignment in partnership with Associate Merchants a plus.
Experience with business intelligence, forecasting, product information management, or ERP tools preferred.

Responsibilities

Support the development, maintenance, and management of merchandise financial plans for assigned areas of business at the Department, Class, and Merchandise Category levels.
Partner with Associate Merchants and Merchant leaders to translate assortment and category strategies into sales, margin, receipt, inventory, turn, and profitability plans.
Reconcile bottom-up planning inputs with top-down financial targets, validating alignment across channel, department, class, and merchandise category views.
Maintain Open-to-Buy for sales, margin, receipt flow, inventory investment, weeks of supply, and inventory turn by channel and merchandise hierarchy.
Compare assortment breadth, depth, price architecture, and inventory investment against merchandise financial half-year plans during conceptual reviews, line reviews, and investment discussions.
Provide planning insights to Associate Merchants by identifying gaps between assortment strategy, historical performance, customer demand, receipt flow, and financial plan expectations.
Support product lifecycle planning decisions including newness, carryover, reorder, cancellation, promotional, markdown, and exit strategies to maximize sales, margin, turn, and category productivity.
Prepare Open-to-Buy cadence materials, including plan inputs, forecast updates, variance analysis, KPI summaries, risks, opportunities, and recommended planning actions.
Build and maintain Monthly Business Review reporting packages that summarize sales, margin, inventory, receipts, sell-through, turn, markdown, stock-to-sales, and profitability performance.
Collaborate with Merchandising, Associate Merchants, Finance, Allocation/Replenishment, Store Operations, Merch Execution, Supply Chain, Marketing, and vendor partners to align financial plans with assortment, inventory, and execution needs.
Monitor in-season KPI performance, including sales, gross margin, maintained margin, sell-through, weeks of supply, inventory turn, receipt flow, stock-to-sales, markdown rate, and profitability by channel and merchandise hierarchy.
Identify and communicate reforecast, markdown, reorder, cancellation, receipt shift, and inventory balancing opportunities based on performance trends, financial variance, and risk/opportunity analysis.
Maintain markdown and clearance tracking to support aged inventory reduction, margin protection, sell-through improvement, inventory productivity, and overall profitability goals.
Support store clustering analysis, store grading, and grade-level planning inputs to inform localized assortment depth, receipt flow, inventory investment, and replenishment recommendations.
Analyze store performance, customer demand, climate, channel, and market insights to identify planning opportunities by cluster, grade, geography, or channel.
Partner with Allocation/Replenishment, Associate Merchants, Store Operations, and Merch Execution to support inventory flow, product availability, and localized execution across stores and digital channels.
Stay informed on customer behavior, competitive activity, vendor innovation, product trends, pricing movement, and market conditions that impact financial plans, assortment productivity, sales, margin, and inventory decisions.
Support vendor and internal business conversations with planning analysis related to sales performance, receipt flow, inventory productivity, markdown support, promotional opportunities, and future assortment needs.
Identify reporting enhancements and process improvement opportunities that strengthen OTB management, forecast accuracy, business review preparation, and cross-functional decision-making.