Merchandising Manager - Category Management, Diamond Basics
About The Position
Blue Nile is seeking a Manager of Category Management, Diamond Basics, to drive the day-to-day strategy, performance, and evolution of its Diamond Basics assortment. The role combines merchant instincts, diamond and product knowledge, customer understanding, and analytical rigor to optimize category-level assortment, pricing, natural and lab-grown mix, product lifecycle, inventory, and new product development. The manager oversees the Diamond Basics businesses in partnership with the Director of Category Management, translating broader strategies into actionable plans. The role develops category expertise, identifies customer and assortment opportunities, and partners with teams across Site Merchandising, Creative, Marketing, Technology, Retail, Demand Planning, Pricing, Finance, Planning, Product Development, Design, and Sourcing. The position manages assortment and commercial performance across earrings, pendants, necklaces, and bracelets, including natural and lab-grown diamonds. It also supports product innovation from concept through launch and post-launch analysis, with recommendations to scale, adjust, or exit products.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in business, Economics, Analytics, Marketing, or a related field.
- 3–5+ years’ 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.
- Strong analytical and quantitative skills.
- Proficiency in tools such as Excel, SQL, Tableau, or similar platforms.
- Strong leadership skills.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across departments.
Nice To Haves
- Diamond expertise.
Responsibilities
- Manage day-to-day performance and execution of the Diamond Basics businesses in partnership with the Director of Category Management.
- Translate broader category strategies into actionable assortment, pricing, product, inventory, and merchandising plans.
- Develop expertise in category-specific customer missions, shopping behaviors, and competitive dynamics.
- Maintain clear roles for natural and lab-grown diamonds and identify opportunities to evolve the mix based on customer demand and business performance.
- Identify assortment white space across product type, diamond shape, carat weight, setting, metal, price point, and customer need.
- Develop fact-based recommendations on where to invest, expand, test, maintain, reposition, or exit.
- Balance assortment breadth and customer choice with a curated Blue Nile point of view.
- 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 strategic newness and growth opportunities.
- Translate complex product differences into clear merchandising stories and provide Retail partners with product priorities and category stories for Client Advisors.
- Manage the Diamond Basics assortment across earrings, pendants, necklaces, and bracelets, including natural and lab-grown diamond offerings.
- Build assortment architecture across carat weight, diamond type, setting, metal, silhouette, and price.
- Cover core customer needs while identifying opportunities for newness and assortment expansion.
- Establish good/better/best and opening/core/premium product ladders where appropriate.
- Analyze SKU- and attribute-level productivity to identify assortment gaps, duplication, and rationalization opportunities.
- Identify and scale winning product concepts and ensure long-tail SKUs have a strategic reason to remain in the assortment.
- Partner with Demand Planning to align inventory depth and availability with product productivity and strategic importance.
- Monitor performance across revenue, units, average selling price, margin, conversion, inventory productivity, and customer engagement.
- Analyze performance differences across natural and lab-grown products, preset and customizable products, price tiers, carat weights, metals, and classifications.
- Use performance data to recommend assortment, pricing, promotion, inventory investment, and site exposure changes.
- Work with Pricing, Finance, and Planning to maintain competitive price architecture while protecting margin and profitability.
- Partner with the Director, Product Development, Design, Sourcing, and Planning to translate category opportunities into new-product briefs.
- Use business performance, competitive intelligence, customer behavior, and emerging diamond and jewelry trends to identify innovation opportunities.
- Recommend extensions of winning products across diamond type, shape, carat weight, metal, setting, and price point.
- Develop commercial guardrails for new products, including target price positioning, assortment role, and expected customer need.
- Support launches from initial concept through assortment planning, launch readiness, digital presentation, and post-launch analysis.
- Establish product success criteria and recommend whether to scale, adjust, or exit products following launch.
Benefits
- Paid time off.
- Medical, dental, vision, and prescription insurance.
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
- Flexible spending account and health savings account.
- Tuition reimbursement.
- Employee discount.
- Parental leave.
- Life insurance.
- Opportunities for career advancement.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
