Manager, Inventory Control & Process Improvement

Blue Nile•New York, NY

23d•$85,000 - $120,000

About The Position

The Manager, Inventory Control & Process Improvement is a newly created, highly visible role responsible for the accuracy, control, and health of Blue Nile's inventory. This role owns inventory process improvement and control end to end, including inventory counts across all departments, the Fantasy inventory system as Super User, inventory movements for repairs and returns, and reduction of aged and inactive inventory. The Manager leads a team of Inventory Coordinators and partners with Merchandising, Operations, Planning, Quality Control, Finance, and Technology to ensure inventory decisions are executed precisely and align with business strategy. The role addresses complex inventory challenges involving legacy inventory, returns and repairs, quality decisions, financial implications, systems, and operational processes. It resolves existing issues, identifies root causes, and builds scalable processes and controls to prevent recurrence. Direct jewelry-industry experience is highly valued, including knowledge of product lifecycle, manufacturing processes, assortment structures, and high-value serialized inventory.

Requirements

6–8 years of experience in inventory management, inventory control, supply chain, or operations, ideally within the jewelry or luxury industry.
3+ years of people leadership experience, managing a team and leading cross-functional projects.
Proven experience leading cycle counts and physical inventories, reconciling variances, and implementing inventory controls for high-value inventory.
Hands-on Super User or business-owner experience with an ERP or inventory system such as Fantasy or SAP, including user administration, training, requirements gathering, and user acceptance testing.
Experience managing returns, repairs, and quality-related inventory flows and reducing aged or inactive inventory.
Strong process orientation and a proven ability to design workflows, implement structure, and build scalability.
Advanced Excel skills, including analyzing large datasets, building models, and translating data into actionable insights.
Excellent communication and training skills, with the ability to present to and influence senior leadership.
High attention to detail and accuracy.
Operational rigor, systems thinking, continuous improvement, and root-cause problem-solving ability.
Strong leadership, coaching, and team-development skills.
Ability to train others and drive system adoption.
Cross-functional collaboration and influence.
Ability to manage through ambiguity, with ownership, accountability, and follow-through.
Comfort working in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.

Nice To Haves

Lean, Six Sigma, PMP, or other process-improvement certification, with demonstrated application of continuous-improvement methods to complex operational processes.
Direct experience with Fantasy.
Experience with SQL or BI tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or Looker.

Responsibilities

Plan, coordinate, and oversee cycle counts and physical inventory counts across all departments; establish schedules and procedures, investigate and reconcile variances, and drive root-cause corrective actions.
Design, document, and continuously improve inventory workflows across product intake, processing, movement, and reconciliation, with standardized SOPs and clear ownership.
Identify inventory-control gaps across the product lifecycle and design scalable controls, approval rules, and ownership models to prevent recurrence.
Serve as the point of contact for inventory movements, including transfers, adjustments, and reclassifications, ensuring they are authorized, transacted, and reconciled.
Maintain audit readiness by ensuring inventory records, adjustments, and supporting documentation meet internal-control and financial-audit requirements.
Serve as the Fantasy Super User and primary business owner for inventory functionality and first point of escalation for users.
Manage Fantasy user profiles, roles, and access permissions; maintain segregation of duties and periodically review access.
Train and onboard users; create and maintain training materials, SOPs, and job aids.
Gather and prioritize business requirements, partner with Technology on inventory-system enhancements and reporting, and own user acceptance testing, rollout, and adoption.
Troubleshoot system and transaction issues, resolve or escalate them, and track recurring issues through to permanent fixes.
Coordinate inventory movements for repairs and returns, ensuring each unit is tracked, system status is accurate, and disposition or return to sellable stock occurs without delay.
Support Quality Control inspection outcomes and disposition decisions, ensuring inventory and financial records reflect each decision.
Monitor repair and return cycle times and aging in reverse-logistics locations, and remove bottlenecks with Customer Service, Operations, and vendors.
Lead the aged and inactive inventory reduction program by identifying and quantifying slow-moving, inactive, and legacy inventory and setting disposition strategies with Merchandising, Planning, and Finance.
Remediate legacy and inactive inventory issues and establish processes to prevent new aged inventory from accumulating.
Partner with FP&A to quantify financial impacts, including reserves and write-downs, and track progress against reduction targets.
Manage, mentor, and develop Inventory Coordinators responsible for day-to-day inventory operations, counts, system transactions, and project execution.
Oversee workload planning, performance management, and cross-training to build team capability and coverage.
Lead high-priority inventory projects, including workflow redesigns, system and process improvements, audit readiness, and inventory-control models.
Partner with Merchandising, Planning, Manufacturing, Operations, Quality Control, Finance, and Technology to ensure inventory processes and policies are understood, implemented, and monitored.
Collaborate with FP&A and Planning to quantify the financial impact of inventory decisions and support inventory-related forecasting.
Work with Analytics and Technology to build dashboards, reports, and tools that improve visibility into inventory accuracy, movements, and workflow health.
Monitor and report KPIs including count accuracy, inventory adjustments, aged and inactive inventory, repair and return cycle times, stock availability, DOH, shrink, and operational throughput.