Vans: Senior Director, Global Merchandising, Apparel and Accessories

Vans • Costa Mesa, CA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Director, Global Merchandising, Apparel & Accessories owns Vans’ global merchandising strategy and multi-season merchandise portfolio. The role oversees line architecture, category strategy, franchise investment, lifecycle intent, and direct-to-consumer (DTC) execution, ensuring a globally aligned line that reflects the brand vision, consumer needs, cultural relevance, and commercial goals while enabling consistent execution across regions and channels.

Working closely with Design, Product Development, Global Planning, DTC, Regional Merchandising, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, and VF partners, the Senior Director translates consumer and marketplace insights into scalable assortments, business tradeoffs, and enterprise merchandising decisions. The work supports profitable growth, inventory productivity, brand heat, and long-term portfolio health. This position reports to the Global Chief Merchant and follows a hybrid schedule in the Costa Mesa, California office.

Requirements

• 12+ years of progressive merchandising, product, or retail leadership experience, including experience leading global or multi-channel merchandising strategies at scale.
• Bachelor’s degree in Merchandising, Product Management, Business, Fashion, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of experience and education.
• Deep apparel and/or accessories merchandising experience with proven ownership of global or multi-season product portfolios, including product creation, consumer trends, assortment strategy, pricing architecture, margin, lifecycle management, and marketplace segmentation.
• Proven ability to build and execute long-range merchandising strategies balancing brand heat, commercial growth, consumer relevance, regional needs, franchise/category investment, and long-term product vision.
• Enterprise-level cross-functional leadership skills, including experience influencing senior leaders across Design, Product Development, Planning, Finance, Wholesale, Retail, DTC, Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain, and regional teams.
• Experience leading and developing high-performing teams through managers or category leaders, setting priorities, coaching talent, strengthening operating rhythms, and creating an inclusive environment.
• Strong business and financial acumen, including interpreting selling results, LRP/MFP inputs, revenue, margin, SKU productivity, option efficiency, inventory health, and marketplace performance to make enterprise-level tradeoff recommendations.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced business, merchandising, or retail leadership experience.
• Experience working within a global brand, matrixed organization, multi-region product creation model, or enterprise operating model transformation.

Responsibilities

• Own the global merchandising strategy and multi-season portfolio architecture for Apparel & Accessories across categories, price tiers, consumer segments, franchises, and channels.
• Define seasonal and long-range assortment strategy, including category priorities, option counts, pricing architecture, lifecycle intent, product segmentation, and franchise investment choices.
• Embed DTC as a core execution channel by aligning assortment depth, flow, pricing, launch sequencing, and marketplace priorities.
• Translate consumer insights, brand strategy, cultural relevance, regional feedback, and selling performance into scalable global assortments.
• Partner with Global Planning and Finance to align assortments with LRP, MFP, revenue, margin, option productivity, SKU efficiency, inventory guardrails, and profitable growth goals.
• Lead and develop high-performing teams through managers or category leaders, setting priorities, coaching talent, strengthening operating rhythms, and fostering an inclusive environment.
• Influence senior cross-functional leaders and make enterprise-level merchandising and business tradeoff recommendations.

Benefits

• Eligible for additional compensation awards that may include an annual incentive plan, sales incentive, or commission potential.
• Eligible to participate in a Long-Term Incentive Plan.
• VF Corporation benefit programs are offered; details are provided during the hiring process.

What This Job Offers

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