Director of Category Management, Jewelry

Blue Nile•New York, NY

14h•$150,000 - $200,000

About The Position

Blue Nile is seeking a Director of Category Management to lead the strategy, performance and evolution of its jewelry categories. This leader owns assortment strategy, product architecture, financial performance, lifecycle management and merchandising expression. The role combines merchant intuition, customer insight and competitive intelligence to maximize existing sales and create incremental revenue streams. The Director will create a curated, differentiated jewelry assortment that strengthens Blue Nile’s brand point of view while delivering revenue, margin, productivity and inventory objectives. The Director develops multi-year category strategies and assortment architecture, identifies growth opportunities and serves as the category authority on customers, products, competitors and trends. They guide product visibility and merchandising across digital and retail channels, oversee assortment curation and product lifecycle decisions, and partner with Product Development, Design, Sourcing and other teams on product strategies and launches. The role owns category financial and commercial performance, working with Planning, Finance and Demand Planning on forecasts and inventory investments. As a connective leader across a broad range of functions, the Director establishes category priorities, influences senior stakeholders, and leads, coaches and develops a high-performing Category Management team. The position requires a bachelor’s degree in a related field and 8–12+ years of merchandising experience. Annual base pay is $150,000–$200,000, with final pay determined by experience and qualifications. Blue Nile will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, Economics, Analytics, Marketing or a related field.
8–12+ years of experience in merchandising.
Strategic mindset and ability to translate complex data into actionable business strategies.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with shifting priorities.
Proven expertise in pricing strategy, margin analysis and product mix optimization.
Strong analytical and quantitative skills.
Proficiency with Excel, SQL, Tableau or similar platforms.
Exceptional leadership skills, with experience managing and developing high-performing teams.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to collaborate effectively across departments.

Responsibilities

Own the vision, strategy and commercial performance for Blue Nile jewelry categories.
Develop multi-year category strategies that define each category’s role in the jewelry portfolio and identify opportunities for growth, differentiation and portfolio evolution.
Establish assortment architecture across product segments, price points, materials, styles and customer needs.
Identify category white space and translate customer, competitive and performance insights into product opportunities.
Maintain deep knowledge of customers, products, the competitive environment and emerging jewelry trends.
Build business cases and recommendations for category investments, assortment changes and growth opportunities.
Partner with Site Merchandising, Creative, Marketing, Technology and Retail to make Diamond Basics selection inspiring, understandable and intuitive online and in stores.
Establish product priorities for category pages, search, sort, recommendations, storytelling, marketing and promotional placements.
Ensure hero products and key assortment stories receive appropriate visibility, balancing proven core products with newness and growth opportunities.
Translate product differences into clear merchandising stories and provide Retail partners with product priorities and category stories for Client Advisors.
Lead assortment development, balancing core business, newness, innovation and distinctive products.
Determine assortment breadth, depth, mix, price architecture and SKU productivity to achieve category objectives.
Analyze performance by category, collection, style, price point, metal, stone and SKU to identify products to expand, maintain, reposition or exit.
Edit and evolve the assortment so each product has a clear role and the portfolio reflects a distinct Blue Nile point of view.
Manage product lifecycle from introduction through growth, maturity and exit.
Balance data-driven decisions with merchant judgment and understanding of customer emotional connection.
Partner with Product Development, Design, Sourcing and other teams to translate category opportunities into product strategies and development briefs.
Define opportunities for new collections, extensions of successful concepts and evolution of the core assortment.
Create assortment frameworks and commercial guardrails for product development, including price architecture and product positioning.
Lead merchandising strategy for product and collection launches, including assortment, depth, positioning, storytelling and customer experience.
Establish launch success criteria and use post-launch performance to inform future development.
Conduct regular competitive assortment, pricing, product and positioning reviews; translate marketplace insights into recommendations for Blue Nile.
Balance external trends with what is distinctive and appropriate for the Blue Nile brand.
Own category performance against revenue, margin, inventory productivity and other business targets.
Partner with Planning and Finance on category forecasts and investment strategies.
Assess category performance, diagnose drivers and establish action plans for opportunities and risks.
Evaluate the relationships among assortment, price, demand, inventory, margin and customer behavior.
Partner with Demand Planning to align inventory investments with category priorities and demand opportunities.
Translate business performance into clear recommendations and decisive actions for senior leadership.
Lead across Merchandising, Planning, Product Development, Design, Sourcing, Marketing, Creative, Finance, Operations, Technology and Retail.
Establish category priorities and ensure partners understand the strategy, commercial opportunity and desired customer outcome.
Influence senior stakeholders through product vision, analysis and clear recommendations.
Lead, coach and develop a high-performing Category Management team.
Establish objectives, expectations and accountability across the organization.
Develop team members’ capabilities in product judgment, analytics, assortment building, financial acumen and executive communication.
Build organizational capabilities and processes for increasingly sophisticated category management.