Tech Principal Product Manager - Inventory Managment

Williams-Sonoma•San Francisco, CA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is seeking a Principal Product Manager to drive product strategy and execution for core inventory management and planning capabilities. This role will focus on areas such as Merch Financial Planning, Demand Forecasting, Assortment Planning, Allocation, Replenishment, and Inventory Optimization. The ideal candidate will translate complex business processes into scalable technology-enabled products, working across strategy and execution to define opportunities, shape roadmaps, align stakeholders, and ensure delivered capabilities create measurable business value. The position requires a deep understanding of retail planning and inventory management, strong product management discipline, and the ability to leverage data and analytics to drive product decisions.

Requirements

10+ years of related experience in Product Management, Inventory Management, Merch Financial Planning, Demand Forecasting, Assortment Planning, Allocation, Replenishment, Supply Chain, retail technology, or a related techno-functional discipline, with demonstrated experience delivering enterprise-scale planning, inventory, merchandising, or supply chain capabilities.
Deep understanding of retail planning and inventory management, including financial planning, demand forecasting, assortment planning, allocation, replenishment, inventory optimization, and exception management.
Strong product management discipline, with demonstrated ability to translate complex business processes and customer needs into product strategy, roadmaps, requirements, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and measurable outcomes; experience using Jira, Confluence, or similar product management tools.
Strong analytical and business orientation, with the ability to use data, business metrics, financial impact, and operational performance to shape product decisions, prioritize investments, and measure value realization.
Experience applying AI, machine learning, automation, optimization, or advanced analytics to improve planning, product management, operational efficiency, or customer outcomes, with the ability to identify and prioritize high-value AI-enabled capabilities.
Demonstrated experience modernizing fragmented or manual planning processes into scalable, governed, system-enabled capabilities, including the ability to evaluate build, buy, extend, partner, and retirement options based on business value, architecture, risk, cost, and speed to value.
Strong cross-functional leadership and influence, with the ability to partner effectively with senior business, Analytics, Engineering, Architecture, and Program Management stakeholders, lead through ambiguity, manage tradeoffs and dependencies, and drive alignment across a matrixed organization.
Strong communication and delivery discipline, with experience across Agile, Scrum, Lean, and/or waterfall delivery models and the ability to clearly communicate product strategy, priorities, risks, tradeoffs, and business outcomes to stakeholders at all levels.
Bachelor’s degree or more in Supply Chain, Business, Finance, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Analytics, or a related field or equivalent work experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience in large-scale, multi-channel or omnichannel retail environments strongly preferred, including experience with internally developed products, commercial Inventory Management packaged solutions, or hybrid technology approaches.
Relevant retail planning consulting experience is also desirable.

Responsibilities

Own the product lifecycle for inventory management from ideation through adoption, continuously measuring business outcomes, incorporating customer and stakeholder feedback, and evolving the product roadmap to maximize business value.
Drive the adoption of AI, machine learning, automation, and decision-support capabilities to improve planning quality, accelerate product delivery, reduce manual effort, and enable smarter business decision making.
Partner with Analytics and Engineering teams to identify, prioritize, and deliver high-value AI use cases across the Inventory Management domain.
Leverage generative AI and modern product management tools to improve product discovery, requirements development, backlog quality, documentation, and team productivity while championing responsible AI adoption across the product domain.
Lead end-to-end product discovery by partnering with business stakeholders to define strategy, prioritize opportunities, and translate business needs into product roadmaps, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and measurable outcomes.
Partner with Engineering, Architecture, Analytics, and Program Management to execute product roadmaps, manage tradeoffs and dependencies, and deliver high-quality capabilities through Agile delivery.
Lead product strategy across demand forecasting, assortment planning, merch financial planning, allocation, replenishment, and inventory optimization to improve forecast accuracy, inventory productivity, service levels, and financial performance.
Advance merch financial planning capabilities that improve visibility into inventory investments, sales, margin, receipts, turn, open-to-buy, and related financial planning metrics.
Drive allocation and replenishment capabilities that improve product placement, inventory availability, inventory productivity, sell-through, and customer fulfillment outcomes.
Identify and prioritize opportunities to reduce manual work, spreadsheet dependency, process fragmentation, and operational friction across planning and inventory workflows.
Partner with Analytics and Technology teams to deliver advanced forecasting, optimization, decision-support, and automation capabilities through the most appropriate combination of internally developed products, commercial Inventory Management packaged solutions, platform extensions, data products, and other technology approaches.
Define product success metrics and measurement plans tied to forecast accuracy, in-stock performance, inventory productivity, sell-through, margin, planning cycle time, adoption, exception reduction, and operational efficiency.
Provide clear recommendations on roadmap priorities, sequencing, tradeoffs, dependencies, risks, solution alternatives, and value realization to business partners and senior Technology leadership.
Support organizational change management for new planning and inventory capabilities, including stakeholder alignment, process documentation, training, UAT, readiness, hyper-care, and adoption tracking.
Establish and maintain strong product management practices and documentation across Jira, Confluence, and related product management tools to improve backlog quality, transparency, knowledge sharing, and team productivity.
Ensure product capabilities are designed with appropriate controls, data quality, role-based access, audit considerations, and operational governance.
Remain current with retail, supply chain, planning, forecasting, allocation, replenishment, AI, and inventory optimization trends, and apply relevant external practices to WSI’s product strategy.

Benefits

A generous discount on all WSI brands
A 401(k) plan and other investment opportunities
Paid vacations, holidays, and time off to volunteer
Health benefits, dental and vision insurance, including same-sex domestic partner benefits
Tax-free commuter benefits
A wellness program that supports your physical, financial and emotional health
In-person and online learning opportunities through WSI University
Cross-brand and cross-function career opportunities
Resources for self-development
Advisor (Mentor) program
Career development workshops, learning programs, and speaker series