Executive Director

URBN•Philadelphia, PA

11d

About The Position

URBN is the parent of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, FP Movement, Nuuly, BHLDN and Terrain, operating across retail, wholesale and rental. We are rebuilding our planning technology leadership around a bold thesis: planning is becoming a product, and the next generation of merchandise and inventory decisions will be made by AI-native, agentic systems reasoning over our enterprise data — not by manually maintained spreadsheets and rigid legacy tools. We are seeking an Executive Director to lead this transformation. You will own Planning & Allocation, ERP and PLM technology; carry our enterprise planning platform (o9) to completion; and stand up a product-oriented, agentic planning organization that becomes a durable competitive advantage across all brands and channels. This is a builder's mandate for a leader who thinks like a product executive, is fluent in modern AI, and can partner credibly with brand CEOs, merchants and finance.

Requirements

Product-First Approach: Owns the planning vision with a clear roadmap, targeted user outcomes, and measurable business impact—not just a queue of IT tickets.
AI-Native Instincts: Reaches first for agentic, data-driven solutions to fundamentally reinvent how planning decisions are made.
Pragmatic Build-vs-Buy Judgment: Evaluates vendor platforms rigorously, spending capital accountability, and knows when to pivot, halt, or renegotiate.
Deep Brand & Merchant Partnership: Builds trust across brand leaders and seamlessly translates complex business needs into actionable technology.
Bias for Speed & Action: Pushes past endless design cycles to deliver rapid, scalable success across all brands and channels.
Intellectually Honest & Team-Focused: Leads with evidence, recruits top talent, and fiercely protects team focus so critical priorities actually ship.
Outcome-Obsessed: Measures success through core retail metrics (inventory productivity, margin, forecast accuracy, turn, GMROI)—not velocity or story points.
12–15+ years in merchandise/supply-chain planning and/or planning technology leadership, with senior leadership experience in a multi-brand, multi-channel retail environment (retail + e-commerce + wholesale strongly preferred).
Demonstrated ownership of enterprise planning platforms — hands-on experience with a Tier-1 tool such as o9, Blue Yonder/JDA, SAP IBP, Anaplan or Kinaxis, including implementation and adoption.
Deep command of the planning capability set: MFP, OTB, assortment, demand forecasting, allocation and replenishment, and inventory health.
Strong financial acumen — able to connect planning technology to inventory productivity, margin and working-capital outcomes.
Proven people leadership — building, developing and retaining teams, including distributed and vendor resources.
Track record of vendor and commercial management — negotiating scope, controlling cost, and driving delivery accountability.
Strong AI/ML and data fluency; credible conversation partner on modern architecture (URBN's stack favors Python microservices, MongoDB and Node/Vue3), data pipelines, APIs and agentic tooling.
Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Engineering, Computer Science or related field required; MBA preferred.
Executive presence and the ability to influence brand CEOs, merchants and finance leaders.

Nice To Haves

Potential future expansion: Warehouse Management (WM) may be brought into this portfolio over time; the ideal candidate can grow into supply-chain-adjacent scope

Responsibilities

Set the multi-year strategy and roadmap for Planning & Allocation, ERP and PLM technology, aligned to brand, merchandising and financial goals.
Deliver the o9 planning platform to full production across all brands and channels, and keep the live footprint stable.
Define and drive URBN's AI-native / agentic planning strategy for allocation, replenishment and demand.
Drive the inventory and financial outcomes of planning — partner with shared teams and brand leads on key metrics and delivery.
Build, lead and develop a high-performing product oriented planning technology team; set the operating model, talent bar and succession plan.
Lead relationships with strategic partners, holding them to commercial terms, measurable value and driving innovation.
Partner with brand merchandising, planning, Finance, Supply Chain and Data Science leaders across the company.
Lead change management so new AI driven capabilities change how planning, inventory and financial decisions actually get made.
Represent planning technology to executive leadership and keep URBN ahead of emerging AI and planning technology.