Lead APAC Footwear Merchandiser

Columbia Sportswear Company • Portland, OR

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Lead APAC Footwear Merchandiser serves as a strategic, cross-functional leader responsible for driving the regional merchandising vision, with a dedicated focus on footwear. This role develops and executes clear seasonal strategies and objectives that deliver consumer-right assortments, fuel growth, and enhance profitability. As a key partner to the sales organization, this person ensures that assortment direction is aligned with marketplace needs and commercial priorities. With Columbia’s deep-rooted presence and ambitious growth plans in China, South Korea, and Japan, experience within these markets is highly advantageous. The regional merchant plays a pivotal role in shaping the seasonal framework for global product creation, translating consumer insights and market dynamics into actionable feedback. This includes identifying new product opportunities, emerging trends, and merchandising needs to ensure the category remains relevant and competitive.

Requirements

• MBA or Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Merchandising or similarly a related field
• 8+ years experience in footwear merchandising within the sportswear, outdoor, or action sports industries.
• Strong business management capabilities with a demonstrated track record of financial acumen.
• In-depth understanding of consumer behavior, retail dynamics, and the competitive landscape across regional markets.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Skilled in developing and executing strategic plans to achieve or adjust regional revenue and gross margin goals.

Nice To Haves

• Experience within China, South Korea, and Japan is highly advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Lead seasonal assortment direction and build regional product assortments across franchises and categories, leveraging consumer insights and analytics.
• Collaborate with product teams to identify assortment gaps and emerging opportunities, ensuring the line meets regional needs.
• Partner with country merchandising leaders and commercial teams to align strategies across channels and key accounts.
• Balance brand energy with commercial performance, keeping long-term growth roadmaps central to assortment planning.
• Drive the seasonal Go-To-Market process, ensuring accuracy across systems, catalogs, forecasts, and pricing.
• Represent footwear in key meetings, presenting to internal stakeholders and leading the product hand-off to sales.
• Act as the regional market expert, informing global product creation with consumer, competitive, and market insights.
• Deliver business results through strong analytical capabilities, including margin analysis, SKU productivity, forecasting, bookings, and sell-through performance.

Benefits

• 401k plan plus a generous company match
• medical, dental, vision, life Insurance, disability, flexible spending accounts, health savings account
• assortment of voluntary benefit offerings (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and legal services)
• EAP + which is free and confidential 24/7/365 counseling services
• extensive wellness benefits
• employee discounts
• generous time off program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior